Be under no illusions, anyone with a basic abilty for language (at least 50% of all humanity) has the potential to become as competent as Saul, as you will discover if you take the plunge and verbal your work in front of a live audience.
There are no existential placebos or intellectual alternatives which lead one to the realisation that poetry does not exist in print alone. It needs to be verballed out - ideally in front of an audience – as this creates the intangibly live - and essentially physical – dynamic, which delivers a fundamental lesson to us that cannot be communicated or cognised in any way other than letting go, jumping in and physically externalising - by speaking - what our inner voice silently creates.
There’s no other way to discover if and how poetry works as an entity in sound, which – one can argue – is the ultimate test of a poem as verbal-product.
Whether it swims, sinks, struggles to float or is greeted as a work of genius - reading from page or memory feeds into and affects the whole written process. In the long run, we can never fail when reading live as, even when we die on our arse - as we all do now and again - we can take and learn something each time we open our gobs as a poet in public utterance. The role of instinct is crucial in poetry and putting ourself in front of an audience puts our instinct to work, so any snags or flaws in the poem we're reading become immediately apparent as we are verbally test driving a linquistic vehicle our silent voice can't. Turning theory into a "practice."
Saul Williams - like most competent poets - started with a basic linguistic talent and does nothing more than play with language. When the Beatles first started making art they concentrated on acquiring live skill, playing 8 hours a night six days a week for 18 months and had not a clue that their early simplicity would lead to the sophistication of Sgt Peppers. That a "Yeah Yeah Yeah" is the first step to Abbey Road and a whole different level in language and musicality.
When you saw Saul you were witnessing someone ten or 15 years past there Hamburg phase where the first real learning occured and he blew you away because the skill he's been honing non stop for many moons makes it seem so easy; but do not fall into the trap of believing he just “pulls it out of his arse” as my colleague Sweeney puts it and who also stuns when in the spotlight, as he - like Williams - is a long dedicated practitioner of memorised delivery.
There is a poet here called Raven, who pitched up in Dublin from San Francisco two years ago and who first met Williams when he himself came to gig in Dublin.
When Sweeney and I first witnessed Raven do his magic at our weekly open mic we got on a bit of a downer as he has the same flawless style as Saul and we thought we’d never be able to touch him. However after a few weeks we began to see the technician operating the machinary behind the poet’s mask and took heart, as we recognised that he is exactly the same as us - with a bag of technical and not magical tricks .
If we only witnessed him once we would have got the wrong idea, that his gift was far beyond ours, but because we didn't we are all learning from each other and see past the fallacy our paranioa creates - of someone somehow being innately destined to be better than us. Raven has picked up tips from studying us perform and we him. Raven also supports Saul now whenever he plays Ireland.
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The four letter word of “poet” causes all sorts of mental confusion and the most difficult hurdle to get over is the first one, which is less a hurdle than the initial physical step that sets our mind off the page and carries us to the other side, thus allowing us to test the veracity of our printed voice by using our spoken one, with the idea being that this is how we balance the two in an effort to create one voice which speaks to the audience from page and stage with equal force.
The reason why the word “poet” may prick our ear is because there is a misunderstood historical connotation that we are pretentious wierdos and a caste of holy-folk practicing an ancient and mystic trade, but this is the power of one's poetical mask, as the real craft of making the "I" behind it is essentially a simple and logical process.
Unfortunately, as so few of us stumble into the still pool of real poetic knowledge, there is an abundance of talented jerks on ego trips who actively seek to put you on a false path due to their Herod complex of wanting to kill all competition no matter how unthreatening. Give out the big "I am" vibe of a fully Bloomsburyfied bully who mistake the business of being a top echelon wit with that of being a senior poet, which is essentially all about praising creation for being so. An affirmational activity where all are welcome and so if you seek advice from a poet whose vibe is stand offish or dismissive of you, don't mistake this lack of social grace with the essential pre-requiste of a good poet. If anyone makes you want to enage with poetry less rather than enthuse you to do more, it probably means they have a problem with you through jealousy or ego - as the genuine ones are like Michael Longley, real, warm, humble and human to all from nobel laureates to plumbers in pie shops.
I would urge you to just do "it" and find for yourself the joy to be had going live. Just like you learn and progress through the act of writing, so to with reading aloud to a live audience, which technically needs only you and one other person present. After a certain amount of times doing it we come to understand that every reading or performance is - in a very real sense - a rehearsal for next time we do it. At this point we are not "performing" to an audience but doing what we do with onlookers present and our rehearsal holding their attention because we are a "practicing" poet engaged in the genuine activity.
Then the craft becomes ever more simpler until our bag of poetic experience fills and we see it for what it is. Talking out loud, no more or less than that. We grasp the fact that what distorts the whole business is only our own imagination when starting out. We don’t perceptibly note our progress as it happens, but can measure it over time and it only happens one small step after another. Our first clumsy stumbles eventually lead to an adroit mastering of the dance through continual practice. What we strive to obtain when chasing the dream of becoming a poet with a "practice."
The experience of writing poems - in tandem with verballing them out on a live audience - leads one to discern what’s irrelevant – the commerce, prizes or where one has been published – and get to grips on the craft itself. Strip the misplaced relevance we place on these things at the starting gate and find the power in genuine simplicity.
Come on Uncle Z, it's nowhere near as stressful as what a defendant gripping the rails of the dock goes through on cross examination.
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If you want to hear a real treat listen to this. Brendan Kennelly's tribute at the National Concert Hall in Dublin from Jan 2006. There is a star studded cast and all three poets can teach you a thing or two about live delivery just by listening to them. Paul Durcan - the current Ireland Poetry Professor is on amazing form and Brendan himself and Paula do not dissapoint.
Brendan Kennelly Tribute