Praise Poem for Slam: Why Slam Causes Pain and Is a Good Thing

By Bob Holman

Because Slam is Unfair.

Because Slam is too much fun. Because poetry.

Because rules.
Because poetry rules.

Because the poetry gets lost.

Because poetry is an endangered species Slam finds and revivifies.
Because you cannot reduce a poem to its numerological equivalent.
Because hey it’s poetry in everyday life every Sunday at 7:30 PM.
Because I can do that.
Because everybody’s voice is heard.
Because Old White Guys as usual.
Because it’s the opposite that includes the opposite.
Because do not institutionalize the anti-institutional!
Because it’s meant for middle and high schoolers so they get their adrenaline poetry shots.
Because Pepsi and Nike have conflicting ideas about the team uniforms.
Because competitive.
Because Allen Ginsberg says, “Slam! Into the Mouth of the Dharma!”
Because Gregory Corso says, “Why do you want to hang out with us old guys? If I was young, I’d be
going to the

Slam!”
Because Bob Kaufman writes, “Each Slam/a finality.”
Because Patricia Smith has more truth in her little finger than entire Boston Globe front page.

Because Marc Smith and because Chicago.

Because Nuyorican Poets Café and multi-culti.
Because Taos World Heavyweight Championship Poetry Bout.
Because rap is poetry, and hip hop is culture.
Because three minute pop song.
Because the point is not the points.
Because audience.
Because heckling.
Because judges selected whimsically are instant experts.
Because Dewey Decimal System of Slam Scorification reduces possibility of Ties and Dreaded
Sudden-Death

Spontaneous Haiku Overtime Round.

Because the National Slam is summer boot camp for poets.
Because first six years only women win Indy Slam Champ Boot.
Because local heroes finally have national community.
Because democratization of art.
Because Best Poet Always Loses.
Because cool mediaization of poetry is rooted in hot live performance of poetry.
Because when in the course it looks like poetry is disappearing, the furious uproar of the Word will
not be stilled. Because William Carlos Williams wrote, “It’s hard to find the news in poetry,” but we
say, we’ve got news for you.
Because performance is a see-through page, and the oral tradition a hidden book
Because it’s called Slam.