The First Poem Of Your Set

The first thing to know about performing poetry is

that if you don’t know the first thing about performing poetry 

you cannot expect that you will be able to discern whether the audience is enjoying themselves or not.

2

Oh yeah, these lights 

will throw sand in your eyes.

3
From behind the microphone, there will be gobs of eyes to set you in stone,

so you would do well to assume the dust and carved hardness of a loveless room and
keep moving.


4

All the cuties in the house are formulating

poems about failure 

with your face in mind. And

by no means should you expect 

the other performers on the bill 

to rally the crowd for you from the back of the house.

The others 
are wall-flowering in judgement. Or 

they’re in the ecstasy of words you didn’t write, connecting 

with mucus and tendon all the signifiers you left in the void.

[Poets are like that shrimp that has more optical cones than you: they 

see in patterns you cannot know,

and, being shrimp, they couldn’t explain if they wanted to, 

though they do,

and so they are always furrowed masses of malcontent, sexy 

in their villainy of language, spied on

by science, and the normative sex of 2 things alone. 

And no more.]

But also, some of the performers have the simple seeming of 
dopes who are doomed to bad metaphor and zhuzh - 

either way,

5
poets are not to be trusted.

The sixth thing to know about performing poetry has something to do with sincerity. Unless
you’re really cool.

Seventh Thing- You are not a stand-up comic, unless you are, 

in which case you will be. Good for you. 

And you may ignore the previous instruction. Unless 

you are very good.

Eight:

Your heart will be crushing the hand 

of your throat in anticipation of flight
or birth.

9

And finally.

A thing to know about performing poetry is that if you are persistent or lucky enough to get a gig, or if the venue is desperate enough to host your shit, 

Fail.

You could be a lobster or a tree for no reason at all, but you, 

Are a poet.

-JV