New Poem: WENT TO SEE THE POETRY BULLY

 went to see the poetry bully at the anthology reading

 not necessarily to see him but a few others on the bill

 as have we all, he has aged a bit

 now he looks like a backup musician for The Black Keys

 instead of the vibrant slam artist/tastemaker of yore

 I still remember him cybercalling me witless friendless talentless turd

 because I took issue with his basement literary circle jerk

 intended only for him and his coterie of special friends

 >

 so he read his contribution to the poetry anthology

 some write bloody nonsense about him with a woman

 I looked in vain for the bookstore cat

 figured out he might be in the upstairs office

 so his feline responses wouldn’t throw the poetry bully off-stride

>

 listened to the poets after bullyman—most were better

 but I recall the rifle butt to my self esteem

 oh I tore the powerful bully’s tissue paper feelings 

 and he never even met me (or, likely, bothered with my poems)

 just decided to give the stink eye 

 to fall in line with others who needed him

 but I persevere decades later

>

 don’t want him ever again being the arbiter of me

 damn sure don’t want him at my funeral 

 

 

Poetry venues and their cover/minimum charges--plus "closed" vs. "feature with open-mike" readings.

I've been following an interesting difference of opinions on L.A. poet/host Angel Perales' Facebook wall.

One thread concerns small venues such as coffeehouses and the amounts they choose to charge as either a cover or a food-and-drink-minimum.  To me, either amount should top out around $3.00; charging $5.00 for a food-and-drink-minimum, as one L.A. venue is apparently doing, is gilding the profit lily a bit too much.

[This isn't likely to happen in our current recession economy, but it would be nice if more coffeehouses/venues/hosts would spend money in weekly papers to advertise venues and poets in a manner befitting comedy and music clubs.]

The other topic: the pros and cons of the "closed" (usually meaning one or more "star" poets with no open mike allowed) Poetry Event vs. the more traditional open-mike-plus-feature(s) reading.

And, as has been stated on Angel's wall, there are some "closed" readings that feature subpar poets and open-mikes studded with genuine talent (thinking back to my early days on the scene when the Midnight Special Bookstore and Poetic License readings had a high--and artistically diverse--percentage of poets who "killed").

Unfortunately, there's the myth (which is sometimes reality) of Eminent Poets not wanting open mikes as a form of quality control/poetry eugenics.

And there's also a myth that "closed" and carefully booked readings may be necessary to attract nonpoets to come to poetry venues.

As G. Murray Thomas (a man who has played a large role in shaping/encouraging the scene we have today) stated on Angel's wall, nonpoets do come to the popular Da Poetry Lounge slam readings at the Greenaway Court Theatre on Fairfax.

But there's the question about how "nonpoets" are defined.

Do hosts/bookers prefer nonpoets (at nonslam readings) to be highly-refined "literati", with potential audience members of middle-and-lower-brow tastes and interests to be tacitly discouraged from attending?

To read the full discussion of the issues mentioned above, Angel's Facebook page can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/Angel.Uriel.Perales

[UPDATE 8/31/11: G. Murray Thomas commented on the post above--
"When I talk about creating poetry events which appeal to non-poets, I am not talking about the literati. I'm talking about the average person going out for a night's entertainment (if you want to call them middle- or low-brow that's fine with me). I'm talking about shows which present poetry that average person can not only understand, but be entertained by. I'm talking about crowds similar to what you would find in an average club listening to bands."]


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