Shakesperian Asides: Remain Focused

By Brother Said

From the moment you arrive at the slam venue, you are in competition, so take everything you hear with a grain of salt, and be careful about what you say. There are fellow poets sincerely in need of advice. But be careful. You don't want to be drained by someone who wants to recite their whole poem to you just before the competition to see what you think. Such people drain you of your energy, and mess up your focus. Tell them politely you will be all too willing to help them after the slam. By the same token be careful who you listen to when advice is offered unsolicited. Some experienced poets sincerely want to help others, and when they do they will give you good tips. But some poets are ultra competitive and will give you bad advice on purpose. Some may not know what they are talking about and may want to appear knowledgeable. The bottom line: slam competition requires your focus. Be careful who you allow to interrupt that focus.

Then there are the slam myths. If you are a novice slammer, you may hear various commentary before, during, and after the slam competition: rhetoric that threatens to cloud your sense of purpose and ruin your confidence in applying strategy. One such myth is the “you need slam poems to win ” myth. Don't listen to that foolishness. There is no such thing as a “slam poem”, though you will hear that term a lot in your slam career. We play the poetry slam game with poetry period, ideally, performance poetry – though you will see all types of poetic styles. Another myth is the “there is no formula to winning” myth, which implies that there is no strategy that works at all. Don't listen to that foolishness, either. There are reasons why you win a poetry slam. There are reasons why some poets win consistently – and it can't be that their poetry is just better than every body else's in every slam. What ever those reasons are, that's a strategy. Poetry slam is a positional game and there are ways to play your poems in the various positions and ways not to play your poems.

by Brother Said

The most harmful myth though, usually propagated by an over zealous host or emcee, is that poetry slam is not about the competition or points. Most of the time just smile when you hear that and clap like everybody else, but absolutely ignore that foolishness. Sometimes that type of commentary is just filler, stuff for the host to say while he waits for the score. Other times it's an over zealous emcee polarizing the judges with ill advised, vociferous commentary. During crucial contests, if you feel it's prejudiced the judges against you, file a protest. The official definition of poetry slam is “competitive performance poetry”, and the emcee's personal opinion that they think poetry slam should not be about the competition may wrongly influence the judges. The judges should only be influenced by the poets presenting their poetry.