I feel I need to make something clear,
for the sake of my sanity and for the sake of exposing artistic and more
specifically, poetic charlatans.
Look,
of course it’s always great to get a financial reward for doing what you’re supposed to love. Each time someone asks me to come recite
poetry and they say they’ll hook me up with some small change I smile, mainly
because I would do it for free. Thing
is, I love propagating certain ideals and ideas, I revel in knowing that after
I leave a stage people will be thinking – I hope – about what I’ve said for a
long time to come. Knowing this makes me
hard, not particularly in a fornication sort of way, but rather in a
revolutionary kind of form. It is as if
each time I write a poem, each time I recite poetry on a stage, each time I
post wordsmithery on the interweb I earn one more battle scar, for indeed we
are at war! If you want to know what war
we are fighting, read other posts from this here weblog and enlighten yourself. I digress; do not think because we live in
a capitalist, consumerist, materialistic world, that we are all that way
inclined. Not all of us are so willing
to sell our blessed gifts for a case of beer and a flight to the coast. No, no, let that sink in. Don’t let is pass you by because you’ve heard
it before and understand it intellectually.
The idea of trying to make the craft “professional” is as ludicrous as
it is greedy. The way I see it, any
young person talented or blessed enough to call themselves a poet is
intelligent enough to do anything they put their mind to. Let these be our future thinkers, our
authors, etc. Nurture the craft; there is
no need to be crowding young minds with ideas of business cards, networking,
branding, blah, blah, blah. Let the
poesy do the talking! All this
competition, slamming bullshit is just that, bovine excrement. Indeed, I have taken part in one or two –
only during the past year of my illustrious fourteen-year career – and even
then, I left with a large chunk of my inner most parts missing. Yes, #wordsmith is a purist and an idealist! There are so many gifted individuals out
there who get caught up in trying to build careers or make a living from
reciting poetry. This leads too many of
us to focus on what makes the crowd scream, shout n clap than focus on the
craft of wordsmithery. Why? Personally, I’ve never seen reciting poetry
as entertainment, for me that’s like saying speeches by politicians, sermons by
preachers, lectures by teachers or indeed a thorough tongue lashing by an elder
is entertainment. Of course, it can be
entertaining, but it is not entertainment.
That is particularly true because of our current social context – we are
not taking into account historical contexts here. Shit is just fucked up and poets have to
stand up and work towards literally fixing society. Those who have “made it” might argue that
poetry is like any other art and people should be able to make a living from
it, fair enough, but should we not get to that point by being redeemers or
saviours of our society first? Will the
reward not come then? Ja, ja, ja… I
know, I know, “…typical poet with delusions
of grandeur!” Mara se salang, what
you’ve just read makes you tingle in a place you forgot exists. Again, why?
Not sure, perhaps because you know that is exactly what our society
needs and you know there’s no better way to get that than through poetry…and
music. As long as people are stupid
enough to offer money and other cool treats for doing what we love, we will
take advantage of them fools while at the same time educating the
ignoramus. These little trinkets should
not be our goal, aim or aspiration. Eish,
I totally forgot why I began writing this in the first place! There is a point hidden in there somewhere.
Oh well, if I remember I’ll holler.
#wordsmith
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