Poetry for Performance

Part 2: Scribing

Whether scribing for oneself (as in Threatening/Non-threatening) or for a partner (as in Story From Life), the principles are the same. The switch from moving around to sitting and writing, or the switch from partner A to partner B telling the story, must be quick, without a lot of discussion. The writing needs to get underway before there is time for self-censorship to intercede. The writing should always be timed, usually in not more than five-minute increments. This lends a sense of urgency to the task.

Part 3: Editing

Research and recording will yield the raw material from which to make a poem. The ideas, the images, the language is all there. It’s like clay that can be formed into a bowl. When we edit, we make the bowl. Give the students some time to create a poem out of this raw material. Tell them they may add lines if they need to, but to try to stick with the material they “discovered” while working physically. Once the poems are “made,” give the group simple editing instructions. I start with:

“Take out anything that the poem doesn’t need.”
“Identify gaps, where you think there might be something missing, and fill them.”
“Read the poem for ‘flow’.”
“Where does it feel ‘clunky? What can you do to change that?”
“Look at your first line. Is that the first thing that you want your reader to hear?”
“Look at your last line…”

Leave time between editing instructions so the students have time to do what is being asked. I try to avoid language that implies criticism, such as “where is the poem too sentimental? Where is it boring?”

Part 4: Preparing for Performance

At this point, the writing of the poem is complete and the text has become something else: it is the script or score for a performance. Ask the students to take several deep breaths; they are changing from writers to performers. Ask them to read their poems aloud, simultaneously, and for each student to listen to the sound of his own voice as though the poem was a piece of music. Ask the students to identify pauses in the text and write them in with a different coloured pen. Encourage them to write the word “breath” or “inhale” at every period or stanza break, and any other notes they want to remember while they are reading (such as singing, whispers, character voices, moods).

Part 5: Performance

I try to say very little about personal performance styles, but I do pass on a few ‘tips’ for reading. Just as in the research phase, following specific instructions help the worker be less self-conscious, specific instructions can be helpful here. However, too much becomes interference. I usually tell students to “make eye contact with one person in the audience. Inhale. Say the title of the poem, inhale again, and begin.” This slows them down a little bit off the top. I don’t comment after someone has read her own poem. I usually ask the group to refrain from making reaction as well, so the ‘performer’ isn’t overwhelmed by peer-group comment. A competitive atmosphere can develop very quickly when readers are vying for applause, and this isn’t necessarily furthering for all students.

I try to emphasize that the arc of a poem begins somewhere within the psyche or image-life of an artist. It can bubble to the surface of the body as a pretty raw collection of words, or almost fully formed. Either way, the poem deserves to be thoroughly examined, honed and reworked until it satisfies the ear, or has a feeling of completion. Performing poetry is a whole new art form, transforming printed text into the music of language.

Hilary Peach copyright 2007