To be even a teeny bit serious here
I would be interested too in hearing about slams, & certainly the question
of 'improvisation' (as in how much? are we speaking along the line of oral
epic 'improvisation' where so many part lines wait in the singer's memory
to be used, or something else? etc.) is interesting.
I have always wondered at how anythng like what I in my old-fashioned way
(a writer, I guess) have thought of as poetry could occur in a contestatory
setting. Does art emerge from a situation in which a single 'winner' is
declared?
Well, I dunno, so I do ask.
We had a neat little Poetry twist here in Edmonton last night, to which, in
the midst of a couple of festivals, including Jazz City, a full houe turned
out. I decided to improvise, on the spot, a sound poem, but that's not the
same thing. I will say, though, that such amazing sound poets as Steven
Smith & Paul Dutton in Canada, or the great Bob Cobbing in England (to name
just a few) practice a hghly disciplined form of improvisation in their
work, always amazing, always terrific fun...
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
He saw the dark as a ragged garment
spread out to air.
Through its rents and moth-holes
the silver light came pouring.
Denise Levertov
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