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A Manifesto of Sorts
by Beowulf Mayfield
I started writing poetry for peformance in 1986 thanks to a proverbial nudge in the ribs from Belfast playwright Martin Lynch. However, I didn't start performing regularly until 1994 after moving to London. Since March 1994, I performed at poetry clubs, alternative cabaret events and festivals in London, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Manchester and Watford.
I began writing poetry for performance because I was interested in more than plain poetry on the page. I enjoyed live music, theatre and stand-up comedy as much as poetry and tried to combine these interests into something which entertains people.
I began including saxophone playing in my set during a period of intense musical activity. In order to bring something new to a live performance which came up during this time, I tried playing some of the music I had been working on and found it worked well both for the audience and for me as a performer. When I found myself in a venue with a piano I would use that as well.
Some performers use stage props, costumes, play the guitar, use pre-recorded backing tapes or slide projections. My personal favourite memory is of a poet who dressed himself as a werewolf during the course of the poem.
Although the possibilities for creativity are endless, there are limitations to this style of poetry. The words and ideas have to be immediately accessible to the audience. The crucial difference between reading poetry in print and hearing poetry in performance is this: the reader has the freedom to read a line, stanza or entire poem as often as they need to in order to understand it. A poem in performance is only heard once during that event, there are no repeats and if you want to hear a poem again you've got to wait for the next performance.
This does not mean performance poetry has to confine itself to simplistic language or that it cannot tackle 'difficult' subjects. It can, but the writer has to bear the audience in mind at every stage. A live audience enjoys material which is entertaining or at least engaging. I like to make people laugh, although it's also nice to hear people say ahhh if they find an idea touching. If people are feeling something then the poem has given them something special and gone some way to reward the effort of going out to see the poetry performance instead of watching television, going to the cinema, surfing the Internet or whatever else they could have done instead.
© Beowulf Mayfield 2008
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