Another quick lyrics question

[rayheinrich]

Nice response.  I'm so brain-dead of late I can't think of a well written reply.  My statement
was kind of a generality, and there's always roadkill involved in such a thing.  My whole
approach to poetry when I first truly discovered it was to write it "as if" it was going to be
performed.  Oftentimes I used "classic" forms, but I had it in my head the way in which I
would perform/enunciate it.  I was into the performance poetry thing (kind of a bigger deal
where I lived).  

I would oftentimes read poems in, say, "The New Yorker", and I would say to myself "why
would anyone want to read this?  You're competing against film, rock, rap, etc..."  I felt like
poetry had to be reinvented for wider appeal.  I didn't want it to die.

Anyway...like I said, I'm pretty brain-dead of late.  

Those poor armadillos, their generality involves getting to the other side of the road.
That there's a car coming down it at 80 mph is a bit too specific for them -- either that
or they're brain-dead and/or eating peyote cactus (I love Austin, Texas and its music).

I write my poetry as if I was going to perform it. It's not that I think I will, it's just the only
way my voice works. I'm my own audience, I perform it for myself. Egotism is pathetic,
but that's what art is about.

I've seen some great performance artists, what always put me off was that it was a competition.
They were great, it worked for them; but the exaggerated emotions, the trick endings, the pandering
to the audience...

Poetry can't compete with a film, a rock concert, a circus performance, etc. The problem is in thinking
that it needs to compete. Ever since clay tablets it's been a bare, skinny kind of thing. It's primitive,
it doesn't require money, and usually not a whole lot of time or talent. Anybody can do it. It's worthless.
And THAT is its saving grace. Through no fault of its own (or ours), the only reason worth doing it is love.

Love never dies.