Poetry: Chew don’t Swallow…

I attended half of an on-line multi-poet poetry reading the other day – and it was like being machine-gunned with poetry. “Here’s a poem; here’s a poem; here’s a poem; here’s a poem” … a rat-a-tat-tat of quick-fire delivery, one piece after the other. A session for the readers themselves, not really for the listeners. After fifteen minutes I was wounded, and after thirty riddled with bullet holes.

I came to have no idea whether what I was listening to had any merit; each piece blurred one into the next. It almost became noise. I have no idea how people felt they were able to make meaningful comment in the chat window… Maybe they didn’t…

Poetry doesn’t work like that. It needs to be chewed a little and not swallowed whole; the ‘consumer’ needs time and space (even just a little!) to take in what they have heard, to decipher, assess, appreciate. Otherwise, indigestion.

Given I run my own monthly event, this subject is close to my heart – especially as I fear my last session may have been in danger of at least loading the machine gun, if not firing it. So, as much as anything else, the event was a salutary reminder…

And attending half the session? I simply couldn’t take any more, so bailed out part-way through. The remaining poets may have been brilliant, but as a whole I don’t think the event did any of them any favours…