Poetry as performance

How is performance of poetry different to publishing (spoken vs written)? It's a question I have considered for years. Back in the 80s and 90s I was a performance poet (and I still occasionally perform my poems these days, usually online, but sometimes in person!) I would rock up to events such as festivals, stand at a microphone, and perform my poetry for anyone who would listen. Sometimes my audience was a few dozen people milling around at a 'poet's corner', at other times it was an audience thousands, from a main stage. I think my largest ever audience for a poetry performance was 24,000 at a festival held at Knebworth. I wasn't merely 'reading out' my poetry. I had learnt to project it, emotionally and spiritually. That may need a littler further explanation...

The words on a page can convey one kind of meaning. They can operate at a different level to the spoken word. Written poetry allows the poet to present their words in any configuration on the page. Look at the work of concrete poets such as Edwin Morgan, or the anarchic chaos created by e.e.cummings as examples. Wordplay is also easier to convey in the printed page format of poetry. The use of homophones can be maximised. It's not so easy in the spoken or performed poetry mode. One of the lines in my audio recording of Disco Floor says: 'forget your sighs... on the disco floor'. Some people assumed I meant I was referring to height or weight. (Listen to the recording here).

But the spoken word, performed poetry - has a set of nuances and inflections that the written word can never have. A comic pause, a sardonic glance at the audience - a shifting of posture or a change in vocal quality - all can add to the emotional and spiritual delivery of a piece. Sometimes I would leave out the last line of a poem, and hope for the audience to complete it. And if the audience responds to all this, it becomes a communal event. It's wonderful to see people listening to, and enjoying poetry together as a shared experience. 

Now that's what I call poetry.