Haven’t gone to a poetry reading for a long time. They were interesting years ago when the Beats gave them. I’ve seen the films. Then in the 60s they turned into “happenings”. I’ve seen those films too. The late 70s gave sort of punk poetry readings which usually turned into all night booze fests and a lot of noise with guitars. No wait that was the concerts. I know as I was there. But the 80s and 90s gave precious little by way of exciting poetry.
These days the poetry readings are like military parades. The words are marched out in stiff little lines–emotionless, faceless, passionless. Even poetry slams have this aspect which I hope they shirk off.
There was some hope with Rap music but its subject matter has narrowed considerably and how much can you write about bling and gangsta and driving around in an Escalade. Boring. Oh Tupac where are you? At least you had an original point of view.
