I am having a little wonder/ponder about things like familiarity and contempt in term of writing and performance. We headed off on Friday evening to Pascalle Burton's book launch and it was quite interesting for a few reasons. One thing I noticed is that I have heard her perform quite a few times now, perhaps half a dozen - and so her poems are becoming 'old friends'. This is to say, I am now familiar with the words and the way Pascalle performs them. I don't feel 'bored' when I hear the individual poems - but I find myself listening less carefully, picking up on other things. Other aspects of the performance have picked up greater significance as I am no longer trying to simply 'hear the poem'. I think at this point in my listening, I am actually in a position to critique - and likely would not have been able to do so earlier -- I would have just been saying, "wow this is great!" Last night was also the first time I have seen Pascalle's poetry on the page as all the people who attended her book launch were given a copy of her book,  A Vast Laugh'. Does seeing the words on the page change things as well? Probably a little.

I notice things about using voice recording/reading/performing and poetry. For some people, the poem doesn't seem to 'click' until they hear it read. At the point voice in integrated, it is like the poem makes 'sense' and I listen to people talk about ah ha! moments.

This is an interesting thing for me as I enjoy reading a poem off the page a great deal ... and it may well be for me, the poem doesn't feel 'complete' until I see it on a page.

Once people get into performance poetry - I wonder how their appreciation for 'just poetry' on a page changes? Do people get into a sort of jazzed poetry experience, and anything less, seems flat, or bland by comparison?

Is this simply down to the different way people enjoy poetry ... hell ... enjoy words in general ...  and does it have something to do with our limited range of opportunities to appreciate poetry in different ways? Does integrating new experience with 'poetic means' forever alter the way we approach poetry. [Consider as well, the recent information I posted in respect to experimental and sound poetry].

At the point where we start to meet people at their needs for our work to be presented in a different way(s) at which point does this 'presentation process' start to actually drive the work, the writing, the poetry? Is it a 'good thing' that it does? If we start to use things like voice recording, an/or other media ie/ visual imagery, film, music, sounds ... does the majority of our creative focus move from writing a great poem, to actually keeping people interested in the presentation of it?

Ponderings ...