Poetry Prompter

An assortment of job titles over the years: mussel farmer, ghostwriter, roving flower seller, guerrilla-art-instigator, body double, phone book deliverer, pâté promoter, attendance goddess, canine physical therapist, living sculpture, Ferrari driver, Instant Poetry Booth operator, Literary Lounge host, neighborhood association president. 

But my favorite title by far is Poetry Prompter. Hired by the Washington State Arts Commission for the National Poetry Slam competition, I sat in the middle of the first row of the audience with a sheaf of poems for the high-school participants. If someone stumbled, s/he could ask for the next line and I would give it. 

Before the event, I went backstage to introduce myself and wish them luck. I pointed out the big-ass flower in my hair so they could easily find me. But not one of them called on me during the competition. They were on it!

I’ve also judged a poetry competition, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. We were given score sheets in order to numerically rate various qualities, like expressiveness and comprehension. Right away I had a problem with this. Art is subjective. How do you assign a number? Sure enough, I was shocked at the disparity in our scores. An aggregate was taken, so outstanding outliers fell off and the mediocre won. Later, in the bathroom, I tried to tell the most astonishing girl — who didn’t even place! — how random judging is. I encouraged her to persevere.

That said, I just shipped off a poetry manuscript (75 pieces!) to a no-fee contest. And my poem, New Year’s Eve, is now live on The Passionfruit Review site.

Yes, it’s true, I do want to be seen and heard and felt. And, frankly, I do like to win. But the best thing about entering the contest so far is that it provided an impetus to go through my poems and put together a potential book. It made me happy.

The publisher of Letters to Lulu just sent me her edits. Minor! Exhale. Now I’m going through the novella again, polishing. This also makes me happy, readying work for publication. All I needed was prompting.