I drove to Pittsfield tonight to see what goes on at a haiku slam. This one was an intimate affair, with a friendly group of people who seemed to all know each other. Tiny little bar where I grabbed a downeast cider and made myself comfy on a a couch.
I was recruited to be one of three judges. This was fun and made me pay extra attention to each poet. Sometimes the vote was unanimous but it was just as often split, which gave someone the job of tallying up the votes for each round.
I was very curious about how people would manage their haiku. In the FAQ about the slam it was recommended having at least twenty-five haiku ready to go and more was better. Since you’re competing against one other person in each round having some flexibility means you can play off the other person’s subject or set the topic if you can easily access your poems. I wondered if people would have iPads or laptops but in fact pads of paper or a small number of sheets of paper were the implements of choice.
I can see that this has an advantage over cards in the moment because you can scan down the page and find the best next poem. It had occurred to me that I’d need a pen to put a little mark by haikus that had been read and in fact each of the people with paper-form haiku lists did mark off each as read.
Guess I’ll mess around with other printed out versions. The cards are great for practicing reading aloud.
thanks all for a fun night!
