Extempore Poetry

Among my literary obsessions, I consider extempore poetry to be one of the highest. There is no reason for it. It is rarely practiced today, but I want the day to come when the grandeur of the poetry competitions in extempore return.

For some 2,000 years, poetry was considered the noblest of arts, and it was a competitive sport in the early Olympics through the Roman Circus era. It continued to be in vogue until the late 1700s when, for some reason, the competitions died out, and the art was rarely practiced anymore. It has grown so out-of-vogue that one can Google the topic now and find relatively little information about it.

Extempore poetry competitions were held in two forms. The first form was a sort-of stream of consciousness competition where a topic was given to the contestants, and they had to compose a poem out loud in front of an audience without any meditation, writing, or editing. The second form was a little easier. It provided each contestant with a pre-determined amount of time to compose the poem on the topic and then read or memorize it and deliver it to the audience. Sometimes, the time period was five minutes, and other times it was a day or so in advance.

Either way, the idea was too see how well a poet could produce a poem without constant revision. In ancient Greece and Rome, before writing became a mainstream art, this was the only way that poetry was delivered. The oral tradition was very strong in those cultures. Later, after quill, ink, and paper were invented, the competition was considered the best way to determine who was the most talented poet.

We all know that the Poet Laurette is a position within the United States government. Each President has the right and responsibility to nominate a poet to read their own poetry at large, important events. The most famous Poet Laurette was Robert Frost, and his reading at John F. Kennedy's inauguration was the most famous poetry reading ever. The Poet Laurette stems from a longer tradition in Europe where the person crowned with the laurel of grape vines (the traditional symbol of the poet) was the one who won the Emperor's own poetry contest. Each participant in this "World Series" of poetry had to get there by winning on the poetry contest circuit. This circuit was still in existence in the early 1700s, and some great poets such as Metastasio and Lorenzo Da Ponte grew up and thrived in that culture.

Both Metastasio and Da Ponte went on, as you know from reading my blogs, to become great opera librettists. Part of the reason that their poetry resonated with the masses was because they were great extempore poets. Their words tended to be more powerful and raw than their companions who only wrote poetry on paper to be published. This translated into more realistic opera and was credited for both of their successes on stage.

Today, as I have said, there are few extempore poetry "readings" being held in the world. There are a few organizations that are trying to bring it back, but they have had little success as of yet. Even stream-of-consciousness writing is out of style now. It's just a shame because I think these forms of art are the most direct ways to getting to the heart of the poet and writer. The words and feelings expressed are just so much more powerful than anything composed over a long time period. Sometimes, it's just better to reach in and pull out the first thing that comes to your mind, but we have forgotten to think like that. We have television, computers, video games, and movies. Our society is built upon structure, and structure dictates that everything should be planned and revised before sending out. Well, sometimes that sterilizes the subject, and all of the color, depth, and feeling are washed away. I have always eschewed planning and lots of editing because I feel that I lose power in my writing when I do those things. Most writers today disagree with me in that regard. The extempore poets who were the greatest of their time would not.

Maybe I am obsessed with this art because I think like an extempore poet. Like I said, I rarely write drafts, and editing is just to make sure that what I've written is readable. I write in my head, and when it is clear to me, it goes down on paper. That's extempore.