Dec 22 2008
Slammin’: Another Study on the Poetry Slam
Honestly, it’s a rush of emotion to even perform. What gets me, though, are those poets who have the ability to go off on total improv, shoot out their words like bullets out of a double-barrel shotgun, raining down their havoc in wildfire; and we get lost in the red hail blaze of their vernacular, loving every minute of it.
I’ve never tried doing that. I think if I did, I’d get out of hand. Question for you: what kind of process do you go through to perform without the paper? I’m not entirely sure I could memorize any poem I’ve written–I take that back, I can, probably. But as I’d perform it, I’d get concerned over authenticity–I wouldn’t be speaking enough from the heart and too much out of memory. So what kind of ideas do you poets out there have? Do you simply work off a basic structure then and then let it flow? Or do you just memorize and keep performing until the work comes naturally? Give me some ideas–I’m curious.
That being said, here’s another clip from the film “Slam”. Take it in, babies.
