Poetry, Style and Verse

Mixing readings, performance and discussion, Poetry, Style and Verse (4 September 2007) was the Guild's first poetry event at the Writers' Centre in King's Cross.

Chaired by Alan Brownjohn, who began with readings of his own work, the first stage of the evening progressed with poems in a wide variety of styles from OneNess, David Morgan, Jonzi D, Leo Aylen and Peter Sansom.

The discussion centred on the significance of different ways of performing poetry.

David Morgan argued that poetry written primarily for performance is discriminated against by the poetry establishment because they often don't know how to read it. Furthermore, he said, there tend to be stylistic differences that lead to those who prefer printed poems to look down on performance work - including the importance of rhythm, rhyme and narrative.

Jonzi D said that, in his view, if you're going to perform poems then you need to invest some time and effort in performing skills. If you don't want to do that, then just write. "I come from a tradition of emceeing," he explained. "I wasn't influenced by English teachers. My inspirations were people like Ice Cube and Chuck D." The idea that rhyme should be frowned upon was ludicrous, he said. "Rhyming is the musicality of poetry."

Continuing the discussion, Leo Aylen said that while he  put a lot of  consideration into performance, many poets didn't agree with doing  that. For them, the poem should just be read. "Still," Leo pointed out, "even if you do a non-performance it is still an interpretation." The important thing, he continued, was for poets to be able to do whatever they wanted - some of the best poetry evenings come from contrasting approaches.

OneNess agreed that it wasn't negative for there to be different performance styles depending on poets' differing strengths. "The issue I do have," she said, "is performance-style poetry being less respected. There's a lack of understanding of its lineage through rap and beyond."

Peter Sansom said that for him poetry was writing "to find out what I think and feel about things. That's more important to me than performing poems. Although I like performing because I'm a show-off."

After some discussion from the floor and a a brief interval, the event concluded with an Open Mic session. Again the performances were diverse and compelling, featuring Linda James, Verse, Brendan O'Neill, Phillip Brown and Soneni Nkomo.

Article published 05.09.07