A Tiny Little Rant

So....poetry slams. Yeah today we are going there. Here's the issues I have with poetry slams:

1. nobody is cool enough - Everyone goes in thinking "wow I am just so amazingly cool because I am going to get up on that stage and read this poem to a whole bunch of other people waiting to do the same thing!" Then you get up there and you always follow some amazing person who wrote some epic piece that addresses all these important issues in a witty, darkly ironic way and your piece is about lollipops and running seems like a grand idea so no...no matter how awesome it seems, no one is cool enough for poetry slams.

2. the "slam" part - This is a competition ladies and gent's, sometimes with judges and little tiny timers and such, sometimes only with an audience willing to "boo!" but it is a competition and so the goal is to read something everyone will like instead of something you like. There's a qualitative sacrifice implied and that's why all the poetry at these things starts sounding the same. Nothing is really original, it's all geared towards appealing to as many people in the room as possible. Like the Harry Potter books, the work may boil the pot but does it really have any substance?

3. The stereotypes - These little buggers do more towards building a false image of poetry and poets then anything else. We are more than black turtleneck-wearing, beret twirling, cirgarette smoking, tight pants strutting, emotional hairdo sporting, trainwrecks of people who look like kicked puppies or heroin addicts. (I think I got them all but in case I missed one feel free to point it out). Lots of people think that you have to be this kind of person to write poetry and so feel excluded by their apparent "normalcy" and don't try. THIS IS NOT TRUE! There is no particularly correct way to look and act as a poet and anyone can write poetry, especially now when it doesn't even have to rhyme :)

I think that's about all I have by way of a poetry slam rant. For the record, I am glad that there are places for people who want to share poetry to go. However, I think those places should come out of the dingy, red velvet basement, houka bars and into the 21st century.

If you want to check out one of these events (and you live in columbus or are willing to drive a long way...) there is a calendar posted at this address http://www.puddinghouse.com/calendar.htm