Fake Confidence if you Don’t Have it! They’ll never know. It is why you see a lot of RAGE at open mics and especially poetry Slams. Not just because people are angry. (Who isn’t in our culture and America drowns itself in machinery and weeping) Because they are scared. My Grandma liked the sign I brought back from Knott’s Berry Farm: If you can’t dazzle them w/ brilliance, baffle them w/ bullshit.

Speak American, although we encourage mixed words and phrases from other languages that can express more then English words. (Just axe the antepasados.) Your own speaking voice is in the American vernacular (unless you are a foreigner, and in that case use the vernacular from THAT culture.) Noble has become no bull as WCW said. It is one of the major revolutions of 20th Century poetry and set the table for what we have now.

Close Your Eyes and take advantage of space and imagine yourself speaking at an open mic w/ words as clouds being released by your mouth and tongue, released by Gods and Goddesses, floating in the air of the room, while you use a very effective device to create tension…silence
especially at the end of a poem to let the word clouds linger
in the air.

Use Humor to open your audience up. 2.08.02 – Next to condom dispenser is written: This is the worst gum ever.

Never Go First. It is better to get a read of the room. You may not want to slam the breaks on a vibe that has been established in the room on a particular night. Better to go with the flow sometimes. Bring a lot to read including the work of other poets.

No Long-Winded Intros. The clock (the invisible clock inside peoples heads) starts when you hear your name, so go right to the mic and don’t EXPLAIN what your poem is about. There is power in mystery. Let the unsuspecting humans who hear your work use their own imagination to figure it out. Isn’t that what poetry is supposed to be about??? (There are exceptions, for foreign words they may not know, or a detail here or there. Did you know Auburn was originally known as Slaughter?!? Keep it short.)

Always Leave Them Wanting More    Always Leave Them Wanting More    Always Leave Them Wanting More

Use repetition, repetition, use repetition, repetition, use repetition to stress a point to emphasize a point use repetition, repetition use it.

Always Leave Them Wanting More    Always Leave Them Wanting More    Always Leave Them Wanting More

Rhythm, Wordmusic, sing sing sing your words. The most perfect instrument for your own words is your own voice, no matter how nice another voice may sound. So sing, be proud. STRESS EV-ER-Y    STINK-ING    SYL-LA-BLE capisca?

READ YOUR OWN WORK OUT LOUD way before you read in public. Practice it out loud, to yourself, your dog, your friends. I read every poem aloud after writing it and it often serves as my first editing test, but DO read it aloud before you read it in public.

Use The Page as a Field for reading aloud. Charles Olson’s Projective Verse, suggesting the poem be composed as a field, the work of WCW before him and also Mallarme take advantage of space in such a way that predicted the capabilities of the pc age. (See attached poems.) I used this method BEFORE I knew of Olson’s work when I was a radio newscaster.

Don’t talk when others read. Have respect. Tap into the collective vibe or if it doesn’t fit, leave. Leave after a poem. Wait til between readers to get up. Don’t ruffle plastic bags. Use courtesy. (This should be common sense, but apparently isn’t.)

Move Your Body. Don’t be a stiff. Make eye contact.

Memorize for best effect.

Exquisite Corpse Exercise I

On a (preferably) lined sheet of paper, skipping one line as you go, at the left margin write:

Article/Adjective

Noun

Verb

Article/Adjective

Noun

Once you finish,

1. Write an article: (A AN The) and a descriptive word: (bluish gnarled sopping.) Then you fold over the piece of paper and pass it to your left.
2. Without looking on the page the person on your right gave you, write: a Noun (person, place or thing. Ideas don’t often work well here, but HEY, you can try.) Fold it and pass it to your left again.
3. Without looking on the page the person on your right gave you, write: a verb. (When you get good at this you can write a phrase, like: at the lunch of… or stoked the warm thighs of… but a single, past-tense verb will do. Past tense seems to work better. Fold it and pass it to your left again.
4. Without looking on the page the person on your right gave you, write: another article and adjective. Fold it and pass it to your left again.
5. Without looking on the page the person on your right gave you, write: a final noun. Make it good, it’s the kicker. Then you may open it up and read it.

Exquisite Corpse Exercise II

Write a line of poetry. Perhaps you get the line from a recent poem. Perhaps you write the first thing on your mind. Wherever you get it from, what is important is to get a solid line and write it on the top line of the page. Continue on the next page, but leave it hanging so the next person can continue from that point. Fold the page over so that the person you pass it to can only see the word (or two) of the last line you started. For example:
In the morning when four planets are visible you can
also see

When you get down to the last line, or to the page that has your initials on it, you finish the last line, without looking and read it to yourself trying to decipher the handwriting. Try to clarify with the person who wrote it. Sometimes your interpretation of what was written will be better than what they had intended. Stay with what feels better. This is a good exercise with two people, each starting a poem.