That poetry slam in Austin last month changed my whole approach

Guy got up and read this raw, unfinished piece about his dog dying. Crowd went silent. Made me realize my polished drafts are killing my voice. Anyone else find more truth in the messy first versions?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy_king2916d ago

...and then my buddy Mike tried to polish a poem about his grandma's old house for a month straight, ran it at an open mic and it fell flat as a pancake. He told me later he found the crumpled first draft in his trash can, read it out loud to his cat, and it had ALL the emotion. That messy version had her yelling at him for leaving tools in the yard and the smell of her Lemon Pledge. He went back to that raw version and it killed at the next slam. Sometimes the rough edges ARE the truth, you know?

sean_barnes2416d ago

Did you ever try reading your raw draft into a voice memo on your phone? I did that once with a piece I was overthinking about my dad's old pickup truck and the playback had this weird crack in my voice that I could never type into the page. Sometimes our bodies know the rhythm better than our brains do, and hearing it back makes you realize where the real heartbeat is.

emma_baker6116d ago

Did you try recording your raw draft on your phone? That voice crack trick saved my best piece.