DUP FINGER JAM - Spoken Word Poetry

Ant1-Her0-Project said:I read the rules, it just translated to me as "if it's above average and entertaining--make it boring, or be disqualified."

I don't really dial-down anything I do. I wasn't interested in winning, there just isn't any other recorded poetry competitions. I wanted to show what I was capable of, and see what others can do. Poets should be encouraged to learn how to take control of a room if they want to really be heard. That's just my opinion, and the opinion of most audiences at open mics...I do find it interesting that a lot of really soft-spoken poets who read off paper tend to criticize "slam poets" as not being real poets--or rappers, even. The only difference between us is we understand our obligation to engage an audience in order to be really heard. We outshine the rest of you, because we understand the audience's simple demand to be entertained. If you're not moving, they're looking at their watches, ordering drinks or edging toward the door.

There is something to be said for respecting comp rules, not just finding a convenient thread to post your stuff. Slam is well and good, but this is not a live venue, we don't need to be entertained, and reading poetry with the right expression, tone and delivery is an artform of its own.

Ditch the attitude, guy. DU members gave you great responses and feedback when you posted stuff on your own threads. I was one of them, too.

The comp hosts are not obliged to give you a second chance, so if you can't piss a little humility or you really not interested in winning, then zip it.

That's totally valid. Though I was interested in making a point, being antagonistic wasn't it--I can see this probably wasn't the place to do it.

Impending



I am the moon and the tides.
I am the storm, the battered sea,
raging, raging, until the waters whirl,
deliquesce to droplets, dried in torrid heat…


I am creatures reposed to salty bones,
and I am the undulating desert gorging on them.
I am the Aeolian winds grinding mountains to sand,
blowing away my own dust to bare rock.


I am the tremors, unrelenting shockwaves, collapsing cliffs.
I am the molten lava flows, undermining tectonics.
Beyond the caldera, the release withheld…
The intensity is high, I bleed diamonds…  


Shear and tensile cracks throughout,
upwards and downwards;
unpeeling the mantle, liquid substrata, shaken core.
This world is crumbling... I am crumbling.


I am the imploding planet, spinning off axis,
out of orbit planetary collisions, the space flak.
I am the unfathomable supernova, cluster detonation
white nuclear, radioactive fusion.


I am the fading neutron stars, the star dust...


the black hole...


v   o   i   d









Poem: http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/152663-impending/

Reading: http://youtu.be/jIvty4hOrMg

Pitch: I envisage tying the poem’s images of Earth (sea, desert, mountain, wind, volcano) and cosmos (planets, stars, supernova, black hole) to the personal voyage of powerful forces, inner destruction, and rebirth; the idea of a human figure at the mercy of these forces, but also as their source.

Next time you read your poem out aloud before you post it on DU, press record on your digital recording device and post that reading on FINGER JAM!!!!!

You can't blame the coming of christ on everything... you've got an extension of time. Jam your bad finger here before you get licked!!! [I have no idea what that's supposed to mean... perhaps just listen to the band and dream of bad hair]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk57K4OGrAg&list=RDC53QAuOoSgc

BUMP.

C'mon, poets, let's see your sticky fingers! This comp needs more entries.

@Case - yeah, no bother, it was fun to do a reading...

Again - willing to help any poets who might be teetering on the edge of audio poetry and are not quite sure what to do, I'm only a PM away. The way I see it is, there's no need to be embarrassed. There's a high chance you'll never meet anybody off the DU to be embarrassed about anyway! Give it a go, there's nothing to lose.

Try this if you're worried about YouTube: http://vocaroo.com

Completely anonymous voice recording, it gives you a link to share your recording at the end, and it deletes itself after a few months. Win/win

I will have to pull my entry, technical difficulties.

Atakti, thanks for the BUMP [nobody does it quite like you] and thanks for your support.


Missy, thanks for your words of encouragement, support and for flying the Finger Jam flag, this is exactly what this comp is about.


Tacete, you're a legend and I'd be stoked to have you enter the comp and bolster the male contingent.


THERE'S ONLY 3 DAYS TO GO!!!!


If poets are worried about privacy, there are privacy settings on youtube, which you can set so your recording isn't seen publicly and can only be seen if you post or send someone the link. If you need help with this PM me or Missy. If you're worried about having to share your email address with Alexander Case after you blow everyone away with your spoken word and steal victory from the maidens of spoken word, then have no fear. Case doesn't need your email address to make you a video poem, with today's technology there are ways of taking your audio poem directly from youtube.


For those poets who've never tried spoken word, I say, give it a shot. You'd be surprised how much fun it is and how it makes you rethink the way you write. If you're not reading your poetry out aloud, how else do you feel the flow? So why not record your poem, post it on youtube and give this comp a crack. There is a runners up prize, see comp details on page 1.


To the poets out there that I know who do spoken word and do it well, LSP, DystopianMelody, Craic, shadoe, 7th_son, HadesRising [Hades, you can't tell me you don't have the voice for spoken word and the ladies know it too], It's time you poets step up to the plate to show DU what you've got. If you don't want to take part or not interested in the prize that's cool you can decline [either or both], but this comp is all about promoting spoken word in DU and you all do it very well. If you don't submit an entry I may approach you to help judge the comp.

I don't mind helping anyone either.  If some can manage an audio but not do the youtube part, I don't mind putting it on my YT account for them and sending them the link if they send me their audio.

I hated the sound of my voice, but after a few audios I became hooked and evolved in my knowledge of creating them. I'm so pleased I didn't keep shying away from spoken word.

Sorry I missed this, Case, will be back soon with an entry if I don't decide I hate everything I record. And just for all the other people like me who can't figure out all the techno geekery it takes to put an image with audio on YouTube, just do what I do. Use your phone to make a video, and hold your finger over the camera. Ta-Da! Black screen with audio!

Reading
http://youtu.be/8__7qIjDZ-k

Forever young, in glory

Why drink when drowning is an option
glory is all
and was more still
when the gods were crueller
the shimmer casts a strange light
that sets the walls to writhing

sip
whet the blade
until the lick of its tongue
can wipe the memories from mortar
if a man died from a dunk
in the fountain of eternal youth
and pissed himself as he went
I would call it poetic

and smile in honour of fates humour
but every mans destiny
can't be so fine a tale
so sip
whet the blade
and I will make do
with the taste of war


Link
http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/157243-forever-young-in-glory/


The pitch

Since the poem is about a battle with binge drinking, I thought it might be a good might be a good idea to start with a full bottle of whiskey sitting in an almost empty bathtub with the shimmer of the water on the wall behind. Then have the bottle progressively empty, and the bathtub simultaneously fill. And maybe have the colour of the light change near the end of the video and have the shimmer a different colour, keep it real hypnotic and have the word 'sip' the only word on screen, appearing when it's spoken inside the bottle,

I can barely upload a YouTube video so... How achievable is that?

Sorry if that's longer than it should be. Quick question. Wtf is the magic finger prize and where will be inserted if we win it? I'm not sure I'm ok with that or not...

Missy said 'please love me' in a squeaky voice... Lol if I had heard that before I entered, I probably wouldn't have bothered. That's gotta win hands down!

DystopianMelody said:Missy said 'please love me' in a squeaky voice... Lol if I had heard that before I entered, I probably wouldn't have bothered. That's gotta win hands down!

Alexander,

Please disallow my first attempt. I think I got it figured out now so I would like to submit the following audio poem. Thanks !


THE LINK TO THE POEM ON YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mBrm-SEWjL0


THE LINK TO THE POEM ON DUP

http://deepundergroundpoetry.com/poems/80506-a-dance-before-new-york/


THE PITCH
Poetry isn't always pretty but it should always be passionate. Love it or hate it you should always feel IT. Like Glenn Close says in Fatal Attraction, " I will not be ignored."




THE POEM

A dance before New York

Whores hailing wide eyes on Twenty Seventh
With lepers and lovelies brawling under skin.
Stray dogs running through my veins
Crying for porterhouse bones and a bitch.
Seconds wrapped in electric morphine
Slipping away like a stolen cigarette burning
Off into the darkness of a jail cell.
Like Thunderbird and phlegm
Draining down a beggar's throat.
Tarantella rhythms stripped from a gypsy's soul.
Clandestine whispers dangling in our beery breath
Like a dead man hanging on a bough.
The corpse screams, though, I swear.
Stardust sprinkling on the window like some jazz
Drummer's brush on snare with Van Morrison
Scatting with angels of blue on the wireless.
The sweet and bitter twisting in my groin
Till the white core of the night burns through,
The fever fusing the vitalities within.
All that midnight staggering from street lamp
To street lamp just burnt out memories
Of pedestrian loving under a jinxed moon.
Tonight your eyes are all, a rebel shine,
The ballroom where I dance, loins throbbing
Sweaty and red with jackal blood.
Manhattan unbridled. A mean jack on the docks
Tearing ropes off a dream. My lips moist
With brandy and beckoning your body
For one last ride down the scar on your belly.
Your wet thighs against mine grinding
All the sadness out of the city.
Those moments inside when I am the kill
Bound for the bright lights of St. Elmo's fire.