The Spoken Word & Me: Spoken Word London

First published at: http://www.spokenwordldn.com/2012/02/01/the-spoken-word-me-faye-lipson/

London-based poet Faye Lipson won the Foyles Young Poet commendation in 2007. She works as a poet with the National Trust, and is about to take over the reigns of the poetry section at Sheffield’s Route 57 zine. Currently a member of the Barbican Young Poets collective, Faye has performed with Daljit Nagra, and has been showcased in various publications including Rising and The Morning Star.

She writes for us about her work and what exactly draws her to the spoken word.

I’ve been performing spoken word poetry almost as long as I’ve been writing it. After a winning the Foyle Young Poet commendation, I was introduced to London’s dizzying poetry and performance scene. The exhilaration of performing a well-received spoken word set is unlike anything, and it’s that buzz which has seen me through readings and slams in London and Sheffield for the past three years. I view the growing popularity of spoken word poetry as an acknowledgement that the separation of poetry into the categories ‘page’ and ‘performance’ is clumsy and somewhat artificial. Of course noone denies that some poems might suit performance more than the page, and vice versa, but often a single poet will write some poems more suited to ‘stage’, some to the page, and some which bridge both categories.The best poems (and poets) have something to offer their audience through both modes of presentation, and this is something I strive for in my own work.

Spoken word poetry is unaccountably still looked down on by some within the poetry world. This is unfortunate, because anyone who has experienced a range of spoken word poetry events knows that it is just as capable of subtlety and intelligence as its page-bound relative. It seems to be a fact overlooked that in many cultural groups, poetry has been conveyed orally for the majority of its history. You don’t hear of anyone denigrating song-like ballads such as The Twa Corbies, or the entire bardic tradition, for being unsubtle. Poems from oral traditions often have a rhythmic intensity which sustains narratives or social commentary. Spoken word today is a powerful method of social comment, and many of my politically-motivated poems tend naturally towards a spoken word format.

One danger I try to avoid when writing spoken word poems is overdoing the strength of the rhyme. If a rhyme is too obvious, as a listener you might focus on anticipating the next rhyme sound rather than on the meaning of the things being said. To avoid smacking my audience round the head with an obvious rhyme, I try to use internal rhymes, half rhymes and enjambment to limit the impact. That’s not to say that poetry which is written with the page in mind doesn’t have its own pitfalls to steer clear of. It doesn’t matter how deep and meaningful your ideas are if they are fogged in a really dense, stultifying prose. Something which manages to express compelling ideas in an aurally pleasing way is, for me, the epitome of great poetry, and will shine out in any setting.