Hot and sweaty at the keyboard. No, I haven't been working on the great American Novel. Not to worry Eileen, I'm not compiling a poetry book even larger then the brick (grin) but rather I just got off the tread mill.
This afternoon I read at the second annual Kansas City Library Poetry Slam. I ended up doing three poems: Channeling Sylvia, Coming Out, and Freedom Summer Redux.
There were a number of really good readings but I was dismayed by some of the more "rap-ish" readings. For example, the winner was very good at presentation, but I'm not sure that it was not extemporaneous. Basically his message (and I'll give him credit for having one) was that he hasn't finished yet. He's just warming up. He can't NOT do poetry, he just has to get it out. A pretty generic message, but it was there. If you want to award points on passion (and I think passion is tremendously important) he had it. As to literary content - it was void. Somewhere along the line I think there should be a vortex. The two should actually come together. But hey, no one asked me to judge.
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