Hi David,
well you make my points even stronger. You suggest that 'most poets write
for the published page' and I'd challenge that as no longer necessarily
true. And I don't just mean so-called 'performance poets' as having shifted
that emphasis. Poets are writing for radio, for CDs, for webcasts, for
video, for installations for TV . . .
Have you never been in an audience? Put yourself in your imaginary audience
and see/hear what the work is like 'live'. Did you not try reading them out
loud before you gave that reading? Listen to yourself and try to listen
openly, without being sure that you sound just like you always sound or that
you sound cool or whatever. Listen to yourself at a distance. That can help
a lot. Feel, from your own experience of being audience and now of being
'live' reader, what might work and what might not work and ask why. If it
works for you but not for your audience, you might still be wanting to
pursue what works for you and that might turn out to very interesting.
Reading work out loud is not of necessity about giving people pleasure
(although it might be about turning them on and that might done through
awkwardness, even confrontation and direct challenge). There aren't many
pieces of interesting writing that won't also sound interesting, if
delivered well. I don't mean necessarily developing extraordinary vocal
skills-wise, other than paying close attention to the details of the work
and making your delivery appropriate to those details (which might mean
developing close listening skills).
Intimacies need to be negotiated, dynamics paid attention to, the room (or
whatever) taken into account, technology incorporated with acumen. A public
gathering can be understood as a page too, the duration of an event as a
book.
One of the encouraging aspects of new media is the degrees of intimacies
that can achieved.
But in response to your post I'd have to ask a key question, who are you
writing for? It should be considered at every moment of assemblage. Yes,
even word by word. Then the issue about composing with readers in mind using
new media will be an integral part of your writing practice. And that's how
it should be. Anything less will sell the work short.
love and love
cris
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