New Poetry Night in Windsor...

Hey folks...
Tonight marks the dawn of a brand new poetry night in Windsor.
The Windsor Slam - it all starts TONIGHT at Phog Lounge at 9pm.
I know, it's a school night - but I'm going to make the trek down.
It's 5 bucks at the door - and it's open mic.
VERY open mic - in that you can bring your guitar, shakers, bongos - or just a couple fancy lines you have dancing around in your head - and the mic is yours.
Now - the actual night "Windsor Slam" is a slam competition. Participating poets sign up and then are given a 2 minute window to SLAM down a poem - and then the audience votes on who they like the best.
Here's where I get a bad taste in my mouth.
Or...at least a strange taste...sour...bitter...whatever.
See, I've never been very big on "art in competition".
I think certain pieces speak to certain people in certain ways - some in more compelling ways than others - and this goes for any medium, genre, type of art.
A painting. A novel. A song. A monologue.
A poem.
I hate putting my stuff up against other people. And it's not because I am afraid of losing. I could care less. I've won tons of slam competitions, and I always get that same uneasy feeling in my gut.
What makes hers better than his better than mine better than theirs?
It's a poem. It is something someone created.
Something they wrote or thought - something they stand behind enough that they are willing to take to the mic and perform it for us, strangers, who sit with big starry eyes waiting to soak it all up.
For me - there is no "better than" with regard to poetry - and there should be no rules. Rules go against everything I think poetry stands for.
A poem can be a work of fiction.
It can be vulgar and ugly.
It can be knee slappingly funny.
It can be a politcal rant - or it can be about a fart in a bath tub.
The important thing - is that you stand by and believe in what you write enough that you can become it and share a little bit of that teeny tiny piece of you that needs to be heard with the rest of the people in the room, even if only for a second.
Bonus if the people in the room "get it".
Point is - you shared it. You put what you had on the table.
While I may not be partaking in the competition part of the Windsor Slam night - I will most certainly be taking part in the open mic portion - which will kick off each night, starting TONIGHT at 9pm.

Here's some info for your day planners...

The Windsor Slam
Phog Lounge
157 University Ave. W.

FUTURE DATES FOR WINDSOR SLAM:
2008
april-8th
May 6th
June 3rd
July 1st
August 5th
September 2nd
October 7th
November 4th
December 2nd

2009
January 6th
February 10th
March 10th

And TONIGHT 9pm SHARP - 5 bucks gets you in. I'll be doing 3 old poems plus ONE BRAND NEW ONE that I haven't even WRITTEN yet.
Seriously.
Freshly picked and thrown out into a crowd of people.
That's what I plan to do.
And you are free to devour it - or spit it out.
But, regardless - It's coming.

And I hope you are too.

See you tonight,

Dan