Slam It!

A couple weeks ago when our daughter Debbie was here we took her to The Grove for dinner. I've mentioned The Grove before. Following a delicious dinner (and edamame, mmmmm), we attended the Bend Poetry Slam there.



I had low expectations. The poets on the Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on TV are great. They're picked from poets country-wide, so you expect them to be good. It's not like they're representative of all slam poets. There's a selection process. It's like immigration. The immigrants we meet are not representative of their native country, because the ones we see are the immigrants who were unhappy or unsuccessful at home (for the most part). They're self-selected, not a random sampling. But I digress.

Central Oregon has about a hundred thousand people. How many great poets could we have here? I wasn't expecting much.



Boy, was I wrong! The host was great (c. vance). The poets were great. The crowd was great. We enjoyed the performances, and look forward to attending the next one.

My problem is that I'm a wannabe. When I read a great book, I want to write one. When I see a great movie, I want to make one. When I hear a great musician, I want to be one. Now, of course, I'd like to write slam poetry. Rather than torture the people of Central Oregon, though, I'll keep my day job.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Chatter