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Writing Community Week Day Three: Spoken Word Events

Added 2024-11-22 13:41:20 +0000 UTC

Spoken word poetry is one of the most hated and beloved forms of poetry today. It’s written to please an audience in a live performance, so its writers tend to be lazy about structure. These poems must keep an audience of casual readers entertained, so they don’t try to challenge anyone. They’re more interested in how a poem is received in the moment, so spoken word poems are often referred to as McPoems: Fast products that are low on nutrients and high on cheap, easy sustenance.

You might accuse me of being a literature snob, but I’ve been known to celebrate McPoems. I’ve been a legitimate follower of Button Poetry for years. I love Sarah Kay. I love Sabrina Benaim. I love Taylor Mali. In short, I love quite a few poems that poetry journals would never publish, so I’m not asking you to stop attending poetry slams.

Nope. I want you to do poetry slams. If you’re not doing them already, I want you to start.

They can teach you more about poetry in a night than The Rhetoric of Fiction will teach you in a week. They require you to write tight, fast, and compellingly. Slams are terrifying if you’re a participant, but they also put you in touch with the cycle of writing. They put you in front of an audience and teach you how people respond to your work. This information is crucial for every poet who’s ever existed.

I do, of course, have a warning: See spoken word poetry for what it is: An entertaining performance. If you eat McDonalds every day and ignore your veggies, you will become weak and tired. If you write or listen to McPoems and ignore T.S.Eliot, your writing will become weak and tired, too. There is room for ambition in poetry, but there is also room for entertainment.

If you’ve never been inspired by a poem, I point you to Button Poetry. Go listen. Go have fun.

I haven’t given you a writing prompt all week, so today’s the day. Go to Button. Find a title. Write the poem without watching the clip. Bring it to us. Let’s see what you can do.