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Editorial: August 2006
July 31, 2006
As generally believed and as these poems testify, the genre is lively and direct, it can give minorities a voice, and these poets often have a message, but do we really need to make a value judgement about language and voice, about performance poetry and printed poetry? Read Khan’s sardonic poem about the way an art concept is colonised and misinterpreted, and it works just as well on the page:
“could you say a little about –
how you see the pinstripe ‘shall waar’ as a symbolic representation of
post–colonial South Asia. a floating signifier rupturing cross cultural re-appropriation
of your cultural heritage”
(‘I’ve been waiting for funding for so long’)
The performance theme is continued in Israel’s pages which contain the second part of their coverage of the Mishkenot Sha'ananim Festival. Short pieces on Hedva Harechavi, Ramy Ditzanny, Tamir Greenberg, Yonadav Kaploun and our very own Rami Saari are accompanied by some interesting interviews on the subject of festivals which implicitly acknowledge the role of live performance in promoting and propagating contemporary poetry, although the nonchalant views of the poets would no doubt differ from those of their publishers on this.
The three poets from Belgium are more classical in style: Erik Spinoy, Luuk Gruwez and Maurice Gilliams make up a trio of very talented and exportable poets. Gilliams’ work features nightmares and wolves, Spinoy’s carnivore poems (more wolves) are intensely visceral and Gruwez’s wonderful poem, ‘Fat People’ shares a similar awareness of life in all its corporeality.
Nobody is more sincerely sad,
so cheerfully mournful in those distant guts,
those far toes and bulbous buttocks.
As if they just consist of remnants:
less than a hundred kilos nothing
that nobody will ever want.
Finally, Australia brings us the world-class David Malouf, including some previously unpublished new poems which we are very honoured to have on the site. Malouf’s poems speak for themselves, praise is redundant but reading requisite. My personal favourite is ‘Elegy : The Absences’ in all its complicated beauty: “Tree crickets tap tap tap. They are tunnelling/ their way out of the dark; when they break through, / their dry husks will be planets.”
August’s issue is particularly good, I hope you’ll have time this month to explore. Links:
National Festival Hall Event
http://www.rfh.org.uk/main/events/136273.html
Discussions on Performance Poetry:
http://www.creativewomensnetwork.co.uk/CWNvoicesHelenTperformarticle.htm
Performance poetry – you don’t know until you’ve tried it, by Helen Thomas
Creative Women’s Network
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/performing.html
Poetry Reading and Slam Poetry
Poetry Magic
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CADA9.htm
A Howl against Performance Poetry
Spiked
There's an event advertised at London Festival Hall - on 28th October, master of the genre, Lemn Sissay, will discuss “Is Performance Poetry Dead?” As far as PIW is concerned, it is alive and kicking. Last issue’s Albert Nyathi was a case in point (do check out the new poems just added), and in this issue you’ll find four excellent performance poets from the UK. It is an indisputable fact that the oral tradition in poetry predates written verse but whether oral poetry is equally good is still a subject of heightened debate.
It is sometimes argued that performance poetry is transitory, mere theatrics, dependent on voice and personality, on energy and passion more than content and linguistic skill. UK editor, Andrew Bailey, points out the Wikipedia entry which suggests that it doesn’t work in print. So why publish it? Well, as you’ll see from Shamshad Khan, Michelle Green, Anthony Joseph and John Siddique’s writing, some performance poetry does deserve to be preserved. As generally believed and as these poems testify, the genre is lively and direct, it can give minorities a voice, and these poets often have a message, but do we really need to make a value judgement about language and voice, about performance poetry and printed poetry? Read Khan’s sardonic poem about the way an art concept is colonised and misinterpreted, and it works just as well on the page:
“could you say a little about –
how you see the pinstripe ‘shall waar’ as a symbolic representation of
post–colonial South Asia. a floating signifier rupturing cross cultural re-appropriation
of your cultural heritage”
(‘I’ve been waiting for funding for so long’)
The performance theme is continued in Israel’s pages which contain the second part of their coverage of the Mishkenot Sha'ananim Festival. Short pieces on Hedva Harechavi, Ramy Ditzanny, Tamir Greenberg, Yonadav Kaploun and our very own Rami Saari are accompanied by some interesting interviews on the subject of festivals which implicitly acknowledge the role of live performance in promoting and propagating contemporary poetry, although the nonchalant views of the poets would no doubt differ from those of their publishers on this.
The three poets from Belgium are more classical in style: Erik Spinoy, Luuk Gruwez and Maurice Gilliams make up a trio of very talented and exportable poets. Gilliams’ work features nightmares and wolves, Spinoy’s carnivore poems (more wolves) are intensely visceral and Gruwez’s wonderful poem, ‘Fat People’ shares a similar awareness of life in all its corporeality.
Nobody is more sincerely sad,
so cheerfully mournful in those distant guts,
those far toes and bulbous buttocks.
As if they just consist of remnants:
less than a hundred kilos nothing
that nobody will ever want.
Finally, Australia brings us the world-class David Malouf, including some previously unpublished new poems which we are very honoured to have on the site. Malouf’s poems speak for themselves, praise is redundant but reading requisite. My personal favourite is ‘Elegy : The Absences’ in all its complicated beauty: “Tree crickets tap tap tap. They are tunnelling/ their way out of the dark; when they break through, / their dry husks will be planets.”
August’s issue is particularly good, I hope you’ll have time this month to explore. Links:
National Festival Hall Event
http://www.rfh.org.uk/main/events/136273.html
Discussions on Performance Poetry:
http://www.creativewomensnetwork.co.uk/CWNvoicesHelenTperformarticle.htm
Performance poetry – you don’t know until you’ve tried it, by Helen Thomas
Creative Women’s Network
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/performing.html
Poetry Reading and Slam Poetry
Poetry Magic
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CADA9.htm
A Howl against Performance Poetry
Spiked
© Michele Hutchison
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