The spat in the Poetry Society and your recent feature on it prompted me to wonder about passion in poetry.
It strikes me as surprisingly passionless. For example, you never read the headlines in your local rag "Trouble flared outside the public library after a poetry recital....".
I did attend an Open Mic in Harrogate where a member of the audience threw his pint pot at the barman, but I suspect that this was because he had been asked to leave and was pissed, rather than that he could tolerate no longer the unimaginative and restrictive use of 16th century Italian pastoral form.
Ah, but I hear you say, passion is not measured by vulgar acts but by weasel words of defence on a website.
Discuss.

But but but . . . practically every discussion thread on WOL seems to end in virtual fisticuffs! Wot you talking about? Want a fight?

its easy to be passionate with a keyboard. The majority of writers have more passion for their appearance than their writing. It seems that 'writers' especially modern writers, see it as a tool for their own selfish social representation. Its really hard to find a writer who really wants to write just for the sake of writing. Thats why I cant stand performance poetry pieces. For the most part I can just see that it was written for the performance and nothing else. But you cant have a book of performance poetry.

I did look up the poetry society (if you see what I mean!) in my early days as a person-who-suddenly-started-writing-sort-of-poetry and decided they looked a bit dry and dusty and . . expensive? Can't remember! Anyway, decided they weren't for me!

I'm going to take issue with you Kealan. What's wrong with just writing performance poetry? What's wrong with dressing to look nice? Why can't poets seek to entertain an audience in an all round kind of way? And shouldn't it be down to each individual? A good number of my performance poems wouldn't hold up on paper and I wouldn't expect anyone to want to buy a book of them. They do entertain a crowd though... so there is a niche for them somewhere.

I've lost count of the times I've been bored to tears by page poetry spouted on the stage - by people in brown sacks, with no thought for the type of audience in front of them.

Why do people have to be so bloody elitist. Can't we just accept that we are all different and many different kinds of poetry can co-exist beneath the same umbrella.

Maybe I'm overly steeped in show biz. My mum used to be a singer round the northern clubs. If you are going to get anyone other than poets to listen to you, you have to give them something to look at and you have to make them feel or make them laugh. It's easier to do that with music or comedy but it can be done with poetry.

You certainly have to be unobscure - which ties in with what Steve Black is saying LOL (rant over) :-)

Poets are often over emotional and, more often than not, ARE considered a passionate bunch. This same passion though is often confused or diluted with other emotive or psychological issues such as delusion, inferiority complexities, depressive illness(es), psychological shortcomings, imaginative oversubscription, sense of humour bypass, psychic blocks, critical identity manifestation, hydrophobic nom-de-plume – the made up list can go on and on…

Steve’s correct. SOME members of Write Out Loud ARE mad, bad and dangerous to know. Others are simply pussy cats who don’t take their poetry or that of others any more serious than a situation deserves….

I’d agree that lots of writers/poets struggle with people. People are futile. But, at the end of the day, not only does it go dark, poetry comes in all different guises and sprouted through a whole conduit of mediums. Personally, I get passionate about poetry on t’page. Occasionally, this type of poetry can work well on t’stage – but only occasionally – and not that often…. but then again, what I know about poetry you can insert into a bottle of moonshine…

Although perhaps Kealan could elaborate on another of his sweeping generalisations - his statement ‘The majority of writers have more passion for their appearance than their writing’ is based on what exactly? Opinion?

Where’s Chris Co. when you need him?

Over and out.

On the subject of passion and the keyboard as opposed to face to face. In my past I have had to deal with innumerable complaints from a multitude of different people. Their venom (passion?) in print was never equalled by their ire when met face to face.
Whilst I can understand where this thread is going and the differing references to the page/performance issues (we have recently been there I think) passion should be celebrated whatever the medium. My feeble effort posted today was just an abject and morose observation of passion that died, sadly too young.

I totally agree Graham. Passion for poetry in any form should be celebrated. Poetry is not simply words.

Isn't the fundamental challenge to be passionate about life? Then if you happen to be a words kind of person it will spill over into what you write.

The supplementary is to have some perspective and be capable of laughing at yourself and your passionate antics without losing the passion. That's a balancing act. No one I've ever run across manages it all the time.

"Why do people have to be so bloody elitist."

I thought I'd just comment on this.

One does sometimes find poets with their noses in the air, being terribly superior about the things they do, and looking down on those who don't do what they do.

But they're just as likely to be performance poets as any other kind of poet.

And it depends on what you mean by 'elitism' anyway. Do poets who write difficult poetry (ie poetry that isn't comprehensible on first reading, but demands rereading) elitist, or are they giving the reader the compliment of assuming that they're intelligent enough to work it out? And are poets who write 'merely' to entertain assuming that their readers/listeners are too stupid to understand 'difficult' ideas?

Of course, it's not as simple as that; as it depends on the context (if you're going to an evening billed as experimental, expect your head to be expanded; if you're going to a slam, expect it to shrink...(oops, my prejudices are showing...))

Oh I'd love to stop and argue that point Steven - but oh I'm going to Ibiza - and my coach has arrived...

xx Isobel xx

Well said Darren