Comments on: GDS 27 Spoken Word Feature!

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:45:43 +0000

Bless the WordPress Audio Player plugin for actually working! Hope everyone is now able to access the trax …

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:53:13 +0000

Oh! And I forgot to add – that I agree with Klare, who puts it really beautifully when she says “the reading of a poem is a performance in itself” – she reminds us that we're participants in any artistic act, which further reminds us that we're participants in life generally – no one's a voyeur, really. Is there any such thing in fact?

Bless Cordite for encouraging participation beyond the act of performance also – the post-gig robust dialogue! That I want to see more of.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:36:17 +0000

For me, Paul, poetry has always been about both – rhythm and sound, lyricism and content, and also, of course, demonstrating cleverness. Otherwise, wouldn't you be writing prose?

Art is as much about demonstrating cleverness as about expressing beauty (or pain). Salvador Dali – Picasso – show-offs! If artists didn't show off, wouldn't life get a bit boring?

The term spoken word when we started seriously coining it in the early 90s in this country – was a very deliberate appropriation of the term – we wanted to encapsulate a range of text-based audio work which included 'performance poetry' (ie, that which involves 'performance' as an intrinsic part of the poem's delivery) as well as radio work, storytelling, even reading aloud from a page. The term means that ALL forms of delivery are relevant – it's meant to be all-inclusive.

I don't think the audience for poetry these days is for poets and peers only, just as I don't believe in the “good old days”.

The spoken word is more in popular music right now than it ever has been. Listen to triple j – it's in the pop song. Slam poetry is mainstream in the US and practiced internationally. You don't have to like it – each to their own – but surely the fact that there is now multiple choice, that poetry can be received in multiple ways and accessed by everyone – is something to celebrate?

By: kl

kl — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:06:04 +0000

I totally agree Paul, and thanks for the comment. Perhaps it has something to do with the widening gap between writing for the page and writing for performance?

…although I'm a firm believer that the reading of a poem is a performance in itself. I think it almost always comes back to ideas of 'the audience'. If the audience for poetry these days is mainly for poets and peers, then this has to be a factor in terms of how language is used in the creative process, at least on a subconscious level…

By: David

David — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:20:35 +0000

Thanks Paul,

although, perhaps ironically, it seems that the media player is on the nod at the moment! We're hoping to have it fixed soon!

By: Paul Squires

Paul Squires — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:28:21 +0000

There was a time when all poetry was 'spoken word'. The good old days when rhythm and sound and the musicality of language was used to make words come alive and connect to and have an effect on the reader, how I miss them, now that the main point of poetry has become to demonstrate the 'cleverness' of the poet. I applaud your work, especially the diversity of the poetry and poets included.