Good Read

[sirenoftitan1]

Patricia Smith on obtuseness for obtuseness's sake.

Comments

Perhaps not the intended reaction.

[fengi]

But if some poet stepped up to the mic and said "I wrote this on an odd Sunday in winter, using only three fingers of my left hand and writing with one eye taped shut. You’ll notice that the whole poem is composed of every third letter in the word 'whirligig.' Now, if you’ll excuse me, I will be shouting the poem from another room. In Swahili." that would be awesome.

Re: Perhaps not the intended reaction.

[mstegosaurus]

I used to do a thing where I'd introduce a piece by saying:

"I wrote this one night when I had a 107 degree fever-- I woke up the next morning to find it scrawled on a piece of toilet paper and a bar napkin with a mermaid on it". Good times.

Re: Perhaps not the intended reaction.

[sirenoftitan1]

Sure, once in a while. Would you pay money to go watch an entire set of that, though? I agree that these people are absolutely necessary to shake up open mics, slams, etc., but I'm not sure about making a career of it.

Re: Perhaps not the intended reaction.

[marced4life]

Having been married to a Language poet, I have to say that I think she's spot on. He would hound me for reactions to his work, and when I had none because I couldn't make heads or tails out of it, he would moan about how I was an infant, not a poet. All the while sniffing that what I did was histrionic arm-waving, not poetry.