I read Ron Silliman’s blog. Of course I do. Everyone interested in poetry who isn’t cut off from the internet either does or should.

Today, he wrote about slam poetry.

Tangled up in what his post – a mixture of poetics and film review (a documentary about four participants in the Louder Than Bombs youth slam competition) – are admiration, doubt, and concern for the future.

I have tried in the past to express my mixed feelings about slam poetry and I’m not sure that I managed to explain my own tangled opinions better than Silliman did (who could not come up with a final conclusion – which is not intended as a negative comment, merely an indication of all the factors involved).

You look at young people participating in slams and feel amazement and joy and hope that poetry will take root in their lives.

But then…

You ask if the slam participants read the poetic canon. You then ask yourself who created the poetic canon, with all its biases, and is it valid. You ask if the original question is not a little insulting. You ask if the formal aspect of poetry is lost in the slam tradition. You ask if it is a good thing for poetry culture in America to have competition based poetics take up so much space within our poetry culture.

I am of a certain age and socio-economic class where the literary culture was based on the written word, not the spoken word.

I was read to as a child, but as a transition to teach me to read quietly on my own, like the grown ups did. I was encouraged to speak and express myself and my thoughts and opinions, but nonetheless, our home was not a place of oral culture. Wisdom was to be found in books.

My own poetry, though it can be (and often is) read aloud and (I hope) holds its own in that scenario, is still deeply tied to the written word. Ultimately, it is not meant for slams. Which means any opinion I may have about slams could be tied up in jealousy. I participated in a lot of slams in my teens and twenties, but only won a competition once. I now longer compete because my poetry is not suited. Is it sour grapes at the feeling that maybe I am being left behind?

Like Silliman (if I read him correctly), I love what slams are doing. I question what slams are doing. I doubt and respect what slams are doing.

Also, check out this piece from Harriet the Blog.