Well now, Doug
It's relevant. I was thinking to exclude it because of the _word_ word in
_spoken word_
I wrote something or other somewhere in the last few years about how most
commentators had -- many commentators -- taken the word to be the smallest
unit and then quoted Joyce’s Wake and, if I remember correctly, the
abnihilation of the etym
If I remembered correctly, am I…
Never mind
I was thinking after writing my last post that, from Deborah's response
yesterday, the term should be _remembered poetry_
I have no desire to put her down, merely to question the usefulness of the
terminology; and, of course, it is not hers especially but a widespread
usage
Calling it performance poetry because you commit it to memory and then
perform it, seems odd to me. I *perform poetry all the time. Many (most?)
of us here do, I am sure.
This usage takes me back to The Poetry Society (UK) and its verse speaking
examinations, which may be a disease unknown in some parts of the world.
It tapped into ideas of elocution and recital which have little to do with
lively reading.
I don’t see that allocating an unexpected meaning to _performance poetry_
or _spoken word_ is useful
I am not sure that I would agree sound poetry is a break away from
language as discourse; but I have trouble with the term sound poetry. It’s
certainly to do with performance. My worry was the seizure, intentional or
otherwise, of terminology by a limited view of what poetry might be
It is my impression that a lot of spoken word is flaccid, those being my
words, but I am responding – in my fashion – to yours; but I don’t like
such a big generalisation
I remember finding myself as tutor to a young man some years back who
listened to my comments on his lack of metrical awareness (I can’t
remember the words I used; I was as gentle as I could be)
He: I don’t do that
Me: What?
He: Metre. We did that at school. I didn’t understand it and I don’t use it.
I reasoned with him, I thought, and the young man went sadly away
I also remember writing some lyrics for a moderately successful band – as
well as I could with all the instructions; they should have written their
own. Nothing came of it because apparently their label said they’d be
dropped if they used the lyrics
But before that I was told that it was a funny thing but my lyrics seemed
to fit all kinds of arrangement. I said it might be that they were more or
less organised metrically.
And again: Oh, right, I never understood that
L
On Wed, October 19, 2011 16:27, Douglas Barbour wrote:
> Ah, & Lawrence
>
>
> where does Sound Poetry fit into all this (which I know you practice, &
> Bob C did, & the Four Horsemen, etc)? If one writes a poem & then reads
> it to an audience, one is in fact 'performing' on some level. Some do
> this well (I once argued that the great Phyllis Webb, reading her
> astonishing Naked Poems, gave one of the greatest 'performances' I ever
> had the pleasure to hear: the audience was transfixed); some do not.
>
> My problem, quite often with whatever it's called is that the language
> simply isnt stark, packed, concise & playful enough. You know, what makes
> a 'poem' interesting.
>
> Sound Poetry is something else, certainly a performance, but also a
> breakaway from language as discourse; it's after something other than
> that.
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> On 2011-10-19, at 6:44 AM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
>
>
>> I have been worrying about this
>>
>>
>> The term performance poetry was somewhat current to indicate an
>> emphasis; and then others began saying that they did performance poetry;
>> and it seemed that this entailed exclusions which were never much
>> specified
>>
>> Ditto spoken word
>>
>>
>> I have sometimes wondered if spoken word is using too many words. In
>> normal parlance, to speak is to speak words. Personally I reach for
>> other words such as utterance if I want to speak of poetry which
>> involves... er... utterance
>>
>> But if you say _spoken poetry_, what are you saying? Unless spoken word
>> poetry is understood as a kind of handshake... not that there is
>> anything sinister; but I sometimes wonder if this -- to me -- avoidance
>> of saying with any precision what one is doing is just lazy
>>
>> When I hear spoken word on the radio, it is often described as _the
>> best of spoken word_ which begs a few questions as well as making it
>> sound like breakfast cereal
>>
>> Not the best of poetry but the best of spoken word poetry, with the
>> built in redundancy I have noted
>>
>> It seems to me that there is more to this than writing with the
>> intention of performance.
>>
>> L
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, October 19, 2011 13:23, Tim Allen wrote:
>>
>>> That's what we used to call 'performance poetry'. If 'spoken poetry'
>>> is what we now call performance poetry then what does 'performance
>>> poetry' mean now? Or is 'spoken poetry' different because it doesn't
>>> have the same ethos as 'performance poetry' - to entertain and appease
>>> and ingratiate yourself to the listener with every trick in the BOOK.
>>> Is 'spoken poetry'
>>> more arty?
>>>
>>> Tim A.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 18 Oct 2011, at 17:11, Deborah Stevenson wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Patrick,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am talking about 'spoken word' as in a writer/poet that writes
>>>> their own material and then memorises and performs it. Usually
>>>> writing with the intent to do so from the onset of writing. Does
>>>> that make sense?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Deborah
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>> UNFRAMED GRAPHICS by Lawrence Upton
>> 42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
>> Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
>> wfuk.org.uk/blog ----
>> Lawrence Upton
>> Dept of Music
>> Goldsmiths, University of London
>>
>>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
>
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10
> .html
>
>
> Why poetry? And why not, I asked,
> my right brain humming sedition.
>
> Phyllis Webb
>
>
>
>
>
-----
UNFRAMED GRAPHICS by Lawrence Upton
42 pages; A5 paperback; colour cover
Writers Forum 978 1 84254 277 4
wfuk.org.uk/blog
----
Lawrence Upton
Dept of Music
Goldsmiths, University of London
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