slam poetry Gilbert Gottfried and the death of superman

I tell people about Port Veritas wherever I go I tell them to buy our Safe Harbor anthology I talk about Wil, Sean, Nate, Olivia until I either pump them like a football team before the superbowl or they are sick of my conversation. Not everyone is comfortable with the form, sometimes it seems too close to hip hop and a lot of people don't like how brash hip hop is and definitely don't want to see that translate over into poetry. But to be clear about things everything done in the arts is viewed as an afront to what was before it, it's something to be expected. I'm never surprised to hear someone make the case that every tuesday night we hock a hot spitwad into the face of those beautiful classical poets, the form itself, the nobility in art. Believe me i've heard it before.

I'll tell you that the best comparison to this stance is the death of superman, DC comics decided that as a ploy for publicity they would kill superman. This was a long long time ago 1992 1993 timeframe far as I can remember and at the time there was an absolute uproar about it. The papers were covering superman and talking to comic nerds for reaction, it was an outrage to those who remembered superman from childhood as the great symbol of american strength. The problem is that pure unabashed one dimensional strength does not draw an audience or create empathy for a character. In short, no one was buying Superman comics so they had to do something to drum up interest anyone who knew comics knew what was going on but those who only know Superman as a symbol in their mind wanted him the same. Of course Superman died and came back the way Spider-man, Green Lantern, and hosts of others have in todays Superman comics he is presented more often with morally challenging situations people want to see him stifled by his powers not flaunting them and that is what DC does now-a-days.

Poetry has to change from something your comfortable with to something that grabs you in a serious way thats the only way it can sustain itself against other forms of novelty media art. The people who do go up on that stage every tuesday and let it all hang out whether they look stupid or whether they hit it perfectly on the nose and give someone a deeply rooted experiance. Either way none of them need anyone's permission, no one in the world of literature asks nicely to change things they just do it and people second guess later. I spoke to a very nice lady this weekend who used to teach English at Yale and she backed me on this it felt pretty good for a second that she could put it in a historical sense and understand how that brash loud performance aspect is a missing link from a lot of the old stuff. Who is to say the poetic minds of the 1900's are to be forever unmatched? Or the 1800's? Anyone could be the greatest to do it at any time. I just want to be the Gilbert Gottfried of poetry. I love that guy.