“How can I make poetry approachable without just writing approachable poetry?”
Yes indeed, I’ve been thinking about that for years. I think context is the key. Love that you’re doing these open mic readings, by the way. Coffee shop readings and chapbooks are good and I don’t want to disparage them, but they are formats and venues in which poets are largely talking to themselves. For poetry to thrive, it’s got to get out of its own echo chambers and go where non-poets hang out.
Yeah, to this Venue’s credit, at to Sparky — the aforementioned sound guy, they have been extremely welcoming. And nearly all of them have a nice stage presence. I think perhaps starting much early musicians realize that they will perform in front of people.
I remember just maybe a two years ago I was at some dinner where a signer walked around and sang very intimately in front of people and thinking oh wow, that’s… a bit uncomfortable.
But now I totally get it.
And honestly, the musicians are bit more impressive :) most of them have their songs memorized and are singing WHILE playing. I’m just reading haha
I’ve been told though there is an over abundance of the guitar singer though. So far they’ve welcomed the change of pace with me it seems.
If you think of it as “priming” your customers that’s yucky. I agree.
But this also reminds me of a big block I had to get over about design presentations.
In order to make my design presentations better, I realized two things: 1 ) that presentations are theater. 2) that you can do theater well or poorly, but trying not to do it in the first place takes away your agency as to whether it’s good or bad
In the end it was about serving the work and the reader/recipient of the work.
If the goal is to sell the work to the reader then yes, that’s marketing.
If the goal is to help the reader make space in themselves to fully experience the work…. that’s poetry. That’s fucking beautiful.
But either way it’s theater. Same with writing a headline or intro. The work may stand on its own, but in order for someone to see it in that way, we often need to help them find a good seat and get relaxed.
Making space, clearing the way, helping others experience the beautiful thing you created….
Yeah, perhaps I simplified this too much. I like the theater description better as it reminds me of storytelling. And I do think your are correct, the intention behind the headline also matters.
It's actually quite difficult all of this! Like I said, I'm quite new to this more artistic version of myself so I appreciate you taking your time and sharing your thoughts on it.
Thank you so much for fleshing out more of your thoughts about context, Josh. I am absolutely fascinated by your take(s) on this and I even started to write out some notes to hopefully offer something on this myself on my poetry Substack, A Quiet Corner, this Thursday.
It's been ages since I shared poetry online, and oh how times and platforms -- and people and the world -- have changed. You are so right to offer us this chance to sort of look from a 30,000-foot view so to speak, and see where our poetry falls within these millions of points of light, among so many creations and creators.
Thinking about it as 'warming up' the audience is much nicer than 'priming' as you say. Or perhaps we can think about it as like a runway to come in for a landing. We are so inundated with hyper activity online. And really to slide into a poem is like sliding into the DMs (lol did I really just say that?!) but seriously, it's a much more intimate, quiet space to have to allow your being to sort of come to a complete stop before taking in a poem.
The sliding into the DMs thing though :) -- to an instagram audience, they would know exactly what this means! (For the record, I'm on instagram but I find it so confusing. Am I supposed to like reels? What about stories? Can I comment on stories? I can, but should I? hahah, anyway...)
And you are correct, it is more intimate. The context switching on your substack inbox get pretty intense. Because when the person receives the poem, they might be in a very non-intimate, hostile space (like when I'm cooking and kids are running around) and I might not be able to be in right mindset right then.
Oh god, lol -- I completely deleted my Instagram, shut it down over a year ago. It got to be absolutely crippling for my mental health. Like an ouroboros it destroyed itself, IMHO. It was such a quiet artistic haven at first... I'm worried Substack will meet the same demise.
But creators like you give me hope! Because of topics like this. Not just shoving our 'stuff' in front of eyeballs, but cultivating our thinking about it, re-contextualizing it, imagining and re-imaging the possibilities for many kinds of expression.
Platforms would rather we spend all our time trying to game an algorithm, but art and creativity are about the humanity of it. What you bring up is vital - not how do we meet the algorithm, but rather how do we meet and greet the PEOPLE, where they are.
Oh my, I almost forgot to do this lofi thing for Friday. I need a reminder :)
I'm almost positive subtack will decline haha. But at the moment it is fun. And yeah, unlike most other sites, substack does have a comments sections where side conversations, almost like after a conference talk, can occur.
With too many years in tech I can confidently say, the tech often becomes too much a focus. There is too much optimization when people are naturally inefficient and irrational -- in other words, human :)
“How can I make poetry approachable without just writing approachable poetry?”
Yes indeed, I’ve been thinking about that for years. I think context is the key. Love that you’re doing these open mic readings, by the way. Coffee shop readings and chapbooks are good and I don’t want to disparage them, but they are formats and venues in which poets are largely talking to themselves. For poetry to thrive, it’s got to get out of its own echo chambers and go where non-poets hang out.
Yeah, to this Venue’s credit, at to Sparky — the aforementioned sound guy, they have been extremely welcoming. And nearly all of them have a nice stage presence. I think perhaps starting much early musicians realize that they will perform in front of people.
I remember just maybe a two years ago I was at some dinner where a signer walked around and sang very intimately in front of people and thinking oh wow, that’s… a bit uncomfortable.
But now I totally get it.
And honestly, the musicians are bit more impressive :) most of them have their songs memorized and are singing WHILE playing. I’m just reading haha
I’ve been told though there is an over abundance of the guitar singer though. So far they’ve welcomed the change of pace with me it seems.
I really swing both ways on this.
If you think of it as “priming” your customers that’s yucky. I agree.
But this also reminds me of a big block I had to get over about design presentations.
In order to make my design presentations better, I realized two things: 1 ) that presentations are theater. 2) that you can do theater well or poorly, but trying not to do it in the first place takes away your agency as to whether it’s good or bad
In the end it was about serving the work and the reader/recipient of the work.
If the goal is to sell the work to the reader then yes, that’s marketing.
If the goal is to help the reader make space in themselves to fully experience the work…. that’s poetry. That’s fucking beautiful.
But either way it’s theater. Same with writing a headline or intro. The work may stand on its own, but in order for someone to see it in that way, we often need to help them find a good seat and get relaxed.
Making space, clearing the way, helping others experience the beautiful thing you created….
That’s the work.
Yeah, perhaps I simplified this too much. I like the theater description better as it reminds me of storytelling. And I do think your are correct, the intention behind the headline also matters.
It's actually quite difficult all of this! Like I said, I'm quite new to this more artistic version of myself so I appreciate you taking your time and sharing your thoughts on it.
Thank you so much for fleshing out more of your thoughts about context, Josh. I am absolutely fascinated by your take(s) on this and I even started to write out some notes to hopefully offer something on this myself on my poetry Substack, A Quiet Corner, this Thursday.
It's been ages since I shared poetry online, and oh how times and platforms -- and people and the world -- have changed. You are so right to offer us this chance to sort of look from a 30,000-foot view so to speak, and see where our poetry falls within these millions of points of light, among so many creations and creators.
Thinking about it as 'warming up' the audience is much nicer than 'priming' as you say. Or perhaps we can think about it as like a runway to come in for a landing. We are so inundated with hyper activity online. And really to slide into a poem is like sliding into the DMs (lol did I really just say that?!) but seriously, it's a much more intimate, quiet space to have to allow your being to sort of come to a complete stop before taking in a poem.
I look forward to your Thursday post!
The sliding into the DMs thing though :) -- to an instagram audience, they would know exactly what this means! (For the record, I'm on instagram but I find it so confusing. Am I supposed to like reels? What about stories? Can I comment on stories? I can, but should I? hahah, anyway...)
And you are correct, it is more intimate. The context switching on your substack inbox get pretty intense. Because when the person receives the poem, they might be in a very non-intimate, hostile space (like when I'm cooking and kids are running around) and I might not be able to be in right mindset right then.
Cool now I just have to write it, haha! :)
Oh god, lol -- I completely deleted my Instagram, shut it down over a year ago. It got to be absolutely crippling for my mental health. Like an ouroboros it destroyed itself, IMHO. It was such a quiet artistic haven at first... I'm worried Substack will meet the same demise.
But creators like you give me hope! Because of topics like this. Not just shoving our 'stuff' in front of eyeballs, but cultivating our thinking about it, re-contextualizing it, imagining and re-imaging the possibilities for many kinds of expression.
Platforms would rather we spend all our time trying to game an algorithm, but art and creativity are about the humanity of it. What you bring up is vital - not how do we meet the algorithm, but rather how do we meet and greet the PEOPLE, where they are.
(WIth lofi coffee house vibes that's how... :)
Oh my, I almost forgot to do this lofi thing for Friday. I need a reminder :)
I'm almost positive subtack will decline haha. But at the moment it is fun. And yeah, unlike most other sites, substack does have a comments sections where side conversations, almost like after a conference talk, can occur.
With too many years in tech I can confidently say, the tech often becomes too much a focus. There is too much optimization when people are naturally inefficient and irrational -- in other words, human :)