Choosing the right words.

[Neville Briggs]

I knew you'd understand Bob.


Neil. It doesn't pain me that people perform humorous poetry. I am a bit of a dreamer/ idealist I suppose, I wish that somehow poetry could be performed as POETRY and people appreciated the subtlety and skill of poetic language like they used to or at least how I imagine they used to.

So I think it is a pity that in performances that I have seen , poetry seems to take second place to the presentation, the attention getting jokes and antics, like dressing up.
But I think you and I are in agreement, that.... that is the reality.
In to-days world the performance poet is competing for the audience with TV and club acts and musical spectacles etc, so if we want an audience we are stuck with "poetry plus", if you like. It just pains me to admit that it has to be like that, but I admit it.
I suppose it pains me because I can't do it and I'm left out I know because of experience. I just can't do the act and I feel the audience is lost to me.

I don't think that well crafted language is an intellectual ego trip.
Obscurantism in verse is probably more likely to be judged that way I think. I would argue that it's not the size of the words that necessarily makes verse obscure but a lot of things contribute to that problem.

I don't despise poetry humorists, I just wish we could have the comic acts and the poetry
for poetry's sake side by side, both equally accepted for a broad audience, but I don't think that can happen.
The reason why I don't think it can happen is because I see the success of people like yourself, Greg North, Graeme Johnson, Carol Heuchan and others but I don't see the highly regarded bush poetry written winning entries being performed to acclaim in various bush poetry breakfasts or festival events. et al. ( I could be wrong on that, correct if I am wrong there )

What's the answer? I don't know .

Don't get perturbed about my opinions. Just the musing of a dreamer.



p.s. it certainly pains me to hear humorous verse that isn't humorous.

[Neville Briggs]

Fair enough Marty. That's sounds encouraging. Neil has said some time ago that we owe the performance mob a great debt for reviving bush poetry, I couldn't agree more.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Neville, as Monty Python has reminded us, it's not just as simple as choosing the right words. You also have to get them in the right order!

[Neville Briggs]

Thanks Stephen, quite right and as Spike Milligan reminds us...it's the way you say it folks

[Irene]

I don't despise poetry humorists, I just wish we could have the comic acts and the poetry
for poetry's sake side by side, both equally accepted for a broad audience, but I don't think that can happen.
The reason why I don't think it can happen is because I see the success of people like yourself, Greg North, Graeme Johnson, Carol Heuchan and others but I don't see the highly regarded bush poetry written winning entries being performed to acclaim in various bush poetry breakfasts or festival events. et al. ( I could be wrong on that, correct if I am wrong there )

Neville,
I think you are wrong in what you are saying - I agree with Marty. I have always found that serious poems are every bit as well accepted at the events I attend as the humorous. Certainly, the humorous ones give a response that is much more noticeable but, have you ever listened to someone recite a sad poem, and heard that brief silence at the end of the poem? The silence that signals an audience absorbing the emotion? Or seen the audience sit quietly without fidgeting, trying to listen, but now show their emotions?

I am by no means a performance poet, though I give it a go, (and certainly only in a mediocre fashion!) and I do not have a string of recent written awards to my name. I do not do humour and the majority of my work is serious. However, on most occasions where I have got up and recited such work, I have had comments from people on how they have shed a tear, or related very much to the poem/s. When a poem touches people, particularly enough to shed a tear - you do not 'hear' a reaction - you look for the more subtle signs - such as those little silences - which can be easily missed.
When you have the truly wonderful performers do a serious poem,(which I have been lucky enough to listen to - have you ever heard Melanie Hall recite her serious poems? And many others!!) you cannot miss the audience reaction!! They hold the audience every bit as well as they do when they do humorous work.
The trick lies in ensuring that the mixture of humour and serious is balanced. A good MC knows his poets, and what type of work they do - except for walk ups - and has them perform in a balanced manner, and a good performer does the same thing with their work.

Catchya
IRene

[Neville Briggs]

Thanks Irene. I know what you mean.

I didn't actually mean a contrast between humorous and serious poetry. I meant a contrast between verse presented as in-your-face entertainment, and verse presented as reflective and artistically modulated language.

People love a rollicking act, nothing wrong with that !, in most of the experiences I've had, they ( the audience ) just don't seem to have the focus to engage with wordcraft; poetry for poetry's sake.
It depends on the venue as well I think. If you doing a bit of verse into a mike at the local showground , a humorous narrative will relate to the audience, but a reflective verse relying on shades of meaning and subtle assonance will probably fail to connect, so I think there is only room for one kind of presentation in that area.

I was really excited to hear how Zondrae had done an off the cuff recital for a group of people sitting around at the ukele club meeting.

I'm not much of a reciter and woeful as a performer, so I prefer to try and present something in the little back room of the pub or library than try and strut the stage at the local country festival. I think a microphone is one of the worst things to interpose between a poet and their speech. That's just my nerdish view

I'm not exactly sure what I am trying to say I wish Glenny was here, she would know what I meant.

[Irene]

That's ok Neville - I can relate to some of those issues too. I'm not a performer at all, and very, very mediocre as a reciter!!! And I hate the microphone - the only good thing about them is the cord - that you can play with while you are trying to get through a recital!!!! (I have a bad habit of doing that - it focuses my nerves!!! )

For myself, I'm not inclined to enjoy a performance/show that has only rollicking humour as much as I do a show that has a mixture. After all, it gets a bit tedious laughing for a prolonged time!!!

I'm probably spoilt for experience because I have found at the shows I have been at in WA, the audiences seem to enjoy the combination of serious and humorous. We don't seem to have too many shows (well, we don't have too many of any shows really!!! ) that are just 'in your face' entertainment - at least, not in the bush poetry arena!!

Catchya
Irene

[Neville Briggs]

Goodonya Irene.