During my recent visit to Vermont I finally had the opportunity to hear poet Verandah Porche perform at a party celebrating the release of Come Over, a CD of songs she wrote with Patty Carpenter. Verandah's delivery moves between sung and spoken styles, and she often encourages audience participation. Her innovative approach to performance provides a refreshing perspective for singers and composers performing and setting the poetry of others. You can sample her poetry and keep up with her teaching and performance schedule on her web site. Listen to the title track of Come Over to get a feel for Verandah's reading style:
How do you prepare a poem for performance? Do you map out the pace of delivery and which parts will be spoken and sung? If you do begin with a plan, how closely do you end up following it?
I read the poem over and try to embody the images, the emotion and the music. Often in the heat of writing I lose track of feeling. So I prepare to give the heart of the poem away, knowing I have one chance to touch the audience. They may be second graders; they may be mourners. I don't map out the pace per se, but I know that some images are more complex and that my voice must cross the distance between us. Writing is such concentrated work. Performance is the release.
My songs do feel like poems. I squeezed the words and the music came to me. But really this music is always simple and my singing voice is the vehicle to drive the poem home to the audience.
Do you warm up your voice for a reading or performance? How?
Since I started doing yoga, I do a few sun salutations and breathe in all the ways I've learned. I used to speak in a constricted way because I lived so much in my head. So now I warm my inner voice, as well.
How has your performance style evolved since you first began reading your poetry in public?
I have had opportunites to collaborate with musicians and dancers. Spoken word backed by music is particularly energizing, like surfing. After working with musicians I am more aware of the rhythm in my own poems, even unaccompanied.
How do you encourage audience interaction? Are there any particularly surprising or satisfying experiences with audience participation you'd like to share?
I tell the audience that my poems want to remind them of how interesting THEIR lives are.
I often have parts for the audience to repeat after me, call and response style. In one poem it is the word "tapioca!" In another, it is "ART" Sometimes my poems have interesting constraints for the audience to ponder. For the 25th year of the Governor's Institute on the Arts where I work each year, I wrote a poem using only letters found in the name "Governors Institute on the Arts." Other poems have guessing games for the audience. [Here are a couple of examples, including the GIA poem.]
Also, since I usually sing alone and a capella, I have my audience sing parts with me. Remember that poetry readings are often so dry that singing is transporting.
Have you ever performed one of your poems prior to its ever appearing in print? Do your performances ever lead you to edit your work or alter the way the poems look on the page?
I have performed lots of poems that haven't been published. They usually appear on my printed page. Performing allows me to hear the poem as the audience does. Often a more vivid verb comes to mind. Sometimes I hear parts that I could cut.
Does your creative process change when you know that your poem will eventually be set to music?
If I am collaborating with a composer I will show my draft to him or her. More often I am evolving my own music with the words orworking together with Patty Carpenter, my songwriting partner on both words and music together.
Who are your favorite poets to listen to? Are there others whose work you would prefer to consume silently?
Right now Leonard Cohen is blowing me away. His lyrics have a passionate strangeness and audacity that turn me on. For silence, I love Wallace Stevens's shorter poems. The mind-feel in his poems is as sensuous as music.
Come Over
I was hanging out the towels. We were trying to save the world.
I was pickin’ up the house. Why don’t you put it down?
Come over.
I was sweeping up a poem. I was driving toward a song.
Got an hour before they’re home. You wanna hear it?
Come over.
You were careful with my heart, when he took off with the car. You’re a star in my
memoir. Someday I’ll finish it.
Come over.
Windstorms and lovers blow through and unwind.
Choose your buzz, sister, Diet Coke or drip grind.
So, we’re over the hill. So-o-o-o-o over it.
Stuck in the mud up to the wheel wells: Rock it, rock it,
get a little traction with the spatter
Back in the shack little kids pinchin’ insulation,
lethal cotton candy, from the walls:
“Apply this vapor barrier side toward living space.”
Spaced-out living. Life’s not stapled down;
it’s all over the place.
He waltzed off the woodpile. Handed her the chainsaw.
Said, “Gotta be going. Going south.
Water’s frozen: can’t thaw it with a chainsaw.
Always winter. Another close call:
photo-finish, too close to call.
He found his thrill on Blueberry Hill.
You remember her.
Sister, I’ve got a jar of peaches
from the orchard, still sealed.
Let’s make a meal of it. Come over.
I was cooking with the band. I was kissing on the side.
I was smashing out the stanzas. My brain is fried. Can I
Come over?
Tell me what was that about? Fuckin’ freezin’ by the stove?
Hip ‘n’ jilted twist ‘n’ shout.
“Love is all you need . . . ”
Come over.
© 2005 words and music by Patty Carpenter & Verandah Porche
I am not much of a poetry guy (though I am a fan of hip-hop - there's a lot of poetry in there), but I enjoyed this discussion of the aural aspect, as I believe that is the proper context for poetry. This particular text didn't do much for me on the page, but it sure sounded sweet in song!
Posted by: Invisible Oranges | 09/08/2010 at 01:54 AM
It is certainly the case that texts created to be sung can have a different impact when just read or spoken: http://bit.ly/41ilnT
Posted by: Claudia Friedlander | 09/09/2010 at 11:13 AM