I never met Shannon Leigh, and have only seen her work on YouTube…but I admire what she must have been to excite such passions and love in you all. I wish her well on her current journey, and love and comfort to all of you who are touched by her passing.

1.
Perform behind a screen.

2.
Perform blindfolded.

3.
Claim that all your poems are written by the ghost of a dead milkman. Hand out milk to the audience.

4.
Claim that all your poems were written by someone in the audience, give them your feature money, and make them sign your books.

5.
Claim that you can’t do the feature because all the vowels in your poems were stolen by someone before the reading. Lead an angry mob into the street screaming, “WHT D W WNT? VWLS!! WHN D W WNT THM? NW!!!” After a few minutes, go back in and do the feature, thanking the audience for their support and assistance in getting the vowels back.

6.
Apologize to the audience for writing a particular poem, but don’t tell them which one it is.

7.
Create a fictional poet, write their poems, produce a limited-run chapbook of their work, and run a memorial reading for them after their death, with various artists standing up to reminisce about the deceased poet and read from their chapbook. (Actually, I once tried to do this but I couldn’t get anyone to go along with me back then — it was early in the 80’s; think I tried it again once later, but had the same problem.)

8.
Spend six months writing a set of poems to be performed once and never again; print one set of copies and delete the poems afterward; shred the poems onstage after reading them so no copies exist of them anywhere except in the minds of the audience. (I’ve done this. Highly recommended. In fact, I might do it again sometime soon, years after swearing that I wouldn’t ever repeat the trick…)

9.
Record your feature ahead of time. Play it onstage. Heckle yourself from the audience.

10.

I’m not sure where or when, but I’m going to stage a Poetry Boxing match in Worcester.

Eight rounds, two poets. Four rounds poets’ choice, four rounds with some sort of restrictions — rhymed, improv, themed, timed, etc. Not sure yet about the actual restrictions.

Three judges, chosen ahead of time for some combination of poetic/performance experience. Ten points to be divided between the participants per judge per round. Scores not announced until the end of the bout. Cash prize or something for the winner.

One shot deal to start; if it works, I’ll do more. No league, no rankings — I choose the participants.

Let’s stir shit up.

1. The current slam scene is rife with unoriginal work.

2. Much unoriginal work is nonetheless based in authentic feeling.

3. Much of this authentic feeling leads to impassioned delivery — passion represented by rapid speech, highly articulated emphasis, and a reduction in representation of nuance as the poet attempts to exhort or convince the audience of the authenticity of his/her feelings.

4. Slam poems are primarily linear in construction, with one thought leading directly to the next with a minimum of breaks, silence, and associative leaps used in the construction and delivery of the poem.

5. Even when a poem has been constructed with attention to the above, the current preference (by both audiences and poets) for the impassioned delivery renders the performance of the poem less effective than it could be with a more nuanced reading.

6. Audiences seem as comfortable with the above as the poets do.

7. Exceptions to all of the above exist, but the existence of exceptions does not negate the larger trend.

8. Part of the reason for the prevalence of the delivery style described above may be that so many poets learn the work of their peers through the medium of video and audio recordings, which fuse and freeze the performance of the poems so that study of the texts is discarded, thus reducing the possibility that they will lend their own voice and interpretation to the work.

9. Because of the increasing dominance of this performance/writing style, and because of the predominance of the slam venue as the sole home/breeding ground for performance poets in all but the largest metropolitan areas, performance poetry that doesn’t fit the mold is being marginalized and its visibility is being reduced.

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Hypotheses require debate and testing. That’s all these are — statements, drawn from my own recent observations and research, that I need to think about more. I invite debate, discussion, and argument.

Fun time tonight at the Manchester NH slam, where truthbealiar did a fine feature and the crowd is enthusiastic and a lot of fun.

Saw a young poet named Lily who at 15 is MINDBLOWINGLY good by any standards you can name. Keep an eye out for this one. Reminds me of the impact I felt seeing people like Corinna Bain and Alixa Garcia for the first time when they were in their early teens, although her style is completely different and so “un-slammy” that it was striking. Old-soul intelligent with a maturity and an eye for the way that little sensory details can speak universal truths. Really, really amazing work.

Hearing her made me think of too many people who have huge reputations in slam, who started out strong and unique but who have succumbed to the Beast, who bring a certain sameness of style that is all the rage and gets acclaimed for its Specialness but which is anything but, at least to me. If this girl ever starts slamming, I’ll be praying for her to maintain her own voice in spite of the pressure cooker that is the Slam.

No, I’m not sharing the list.

Do what you want with George Carlin, but leave me alone!

(RIP, George. You stuck around a hell of a lot longer than any of us had any right to expect. Thanks for everything.)

• 08:07 On TV: The cops in an LA neighborhood ask bystanders to a shooting for the make and caliber of the weapon, knowing they’ll be correct. #

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This popped up earlier than I expected here…I’m working on a piece about the banality of crime and illegal behavior, and thought this was worth noting as a potential addition to the piece. No real relevance on its own…I use Twitter exclusively to make notes for future poems.

The new column, a strange one on keeping my nouth shut about poetry, is up:

http://www.gotpoetry.com/News/article/sid=11385.html

Sorry I couldn’t make the Invitational Women’s Slam tonight, folks — other duties called and I didn’t get back to Worcester till after 9:00, beat and ready to put my feet up.

Who won? Details are needed!!!