The Six of Diamonds
So, the "new shit" slam last night at Mas Poetry de ABQ at Winnings Coffee was a good time....
It was a pretty lively, even if for a small crowd of about 25 or so. As I mentioned in yesterday's post,
I still think it's funny that there is this "honor system" for bringing "new shit" to a slam:
unless the host and half the crowd have been there with you for every performance
of your slam/open mic career, how would they know? Yes, I did slam with new poems,
but even as I complied with the rule I still found humor in it. The host was, as ever, the
loquacious and affable good slam host we know him to be, and hey: good work with the
music between poets, spokenn; do you have that shit on a timer? Plus, thanks for the Dio.
Glad to know at least someone understands.
Now, if you haven't slammed in ABQ before, you should know that sometimes the draw
is decided using as many cards from a deck as there are competitors. If you draw the 3 of hearts,
you're going up third in the first rotation. If you draw a King, you're going last. I drew
the 6 of diamonds, which, in a field of nine competitors, was fine with me.
At my turn at bat in the first round I did Would It Kill You To Die? and I was pretty pleased, gotta say,
to see it do so well. Highest score of the round, and second highest scoring poem
of the whole night, behind the poem johnnylexicon did in the second round.
They do this thing at MAS Poetry where the highest scoring poet in the first round has to
go FIRST in round two; I'm not sure why. They said it was “Seattle-style” but I thought we
really should have cleared formatting and went with Baskerville Old Face.
Having to go first meant I didn't have a lot of time to tweak any kind of strategy, but something in me
really wanted to see how What About The Glaciers, a poem that takes places (absurdly) in a gentleman's club
but is all about human conversational disconnects would do in a slam. Three of the judges
(the panel of judges was 2 men and 3 women) liked me a bit less in round two, and I missed
advancing on to the final round, the "money" round, by ONE TENTH OF A POINT. The price one
pays when one takes a risk. If one of those judges had given me that extra tenth of a point, there
would have been a three-way tie for the third spot coming out of round two. That’s how tight the
judging was, and it was like that all night.
Something funny: one of the scores I got for Would It Kill You To Die? was my pet peeve of
all pet peeves, as far as slam goes. Someone gave me the 9.9. What is that? That has to be the
most confusing score I ever see posted in any slam. Would it have been a 10 if I had been taller,
or a little bit better-looking?