Note: This is my attempt to create a formal, easily referable answer to a question I get a lot. If this doesn’t answer your question, proceed. But if you haven’t stopped here first, I would ask that you do so.

If you just want to know when Writers’ Block Poetry Night slams in Columbus are, go to the link below. I don't usually assume that when ( Read more... )

After the polemic I posted the other day about paying poets I have received requests for a follow-up in some areas, specifically what costs a poet might accrue to fulfill feature requests. In the interest of retaining your interest I will keep this particular follow-up short by comparison. National Poetry Month is coming, and we all have poems to ( Read more... )

National Poetry Month is coming and poetry requests are in the air…or rather, free poetry requests are in the air. While I have written elsewhere on the mind-boggling and pioneering concept of paying for the performances and work of poets like any other artist, it remains a necessary observation to make now and then.

1 ( Read more... )

During a particularly slow week, I may only get asked once, "What poets should I read?"

Many people who are asked this question often struggle with the answer, not because they can't think of poets to recommend, but because there are too many poets to recommend in passing conversation. This is true for me as well, and by itself, not worth mentioning ( Read more... )

I don't believe in "writers block". I believe in boring people. I believe in stupid decisions. I believe in mundane existence. I believe in same shit, different day. I believe in not knowing how to capture perfectly, so why bother. But I don't believe in "have nothing to say."

The best piece of advice I ever got about being part of a poetry scene was from Milwaukee's finest, Dan Vaughn, about 4-5 years ago. He asked me some things, then gave me the following quote. (From A Tribe Called Quest's song "God Lives Through".)

"Now if my partners don't look good, Malik won't look good
If Malik don't look good, the Quest won't ( Read more... )

I opened my feature/Q&A at Frederick Community College with this prepared statement, which I wrote at 6 AM this morning.The audience was mainly college students and faculty with no Slam experience. Between this statement, 40 minutes of my poetry, and a nice Q&A we had an awesome time.

Enjoy.

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Let me begin with this:

The short ( Read more... )

(Preface: I’m not using this article in my regular “Poetry is Doomed” column space on GotPoetry.com because it’s too Slam-centric. Sure, I’ve talked about poetry slams a couple of times there in the last few years, but rarely. The audience for my column tends to have a broad appreciation for poetry, and I try to cater to that by addressing issues ( Read more... )

If I may offer a bit of unasked for advice: never feel like you have to explain to a poetry audience that your poem wil be unfathomable.

If your poetry isn't as, shall we say, accessible as the other work you've heard that night, that doesn't mean you need to warn us that your work IS in fact genuinely inaccessible.  Just read your poem and let the ( Read more... )

"If the Barack Obama of Slam may have a word ( Read more... )