#Every poet professional or amateur should strive for this.

[breakingbobcat]

Make 'em feel something!

Watching an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, and he talks about acting on stage. The difference between acting out all the emotions, rather than delivering the lines at a reasonable clip (pacing) is the audience's emotional, visceral reaction. I've noticed this in poetry too. He says that's why on stage, story is king.

The more you talk about your feelings, the less I feel them.

That's the genius behind minimalism in writing, as in Raymond Carver's short stories being like liquid dynamite! That's why people still love Ernest Hemingway, even though he was a sexist prick. The man knows how to tell a story that lives on past himself, past his own nose, past his own ignorance.

This is why the best poetry is solidly grounded in the real, and for the most part, simple diction, German vs. Latinate diction. I want to feel my feelings as I react to the picture or story you are telling.

SO TRUE.

Amateur poets are full of long, drawn out expositions of feelings. Expert poets understand that anyone reading a poem is probably a person who feels already, and probably feels deeply. If you really want to communicate anything of value to your readers, if you wish to penetrate the fog in which each person lives:

Cut the fat. And cut the melodramatics.

YES! YESSSS! I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A WAY TO SAY THIS FOR YEARS.

If you want to change the world, you have to get past a person's so-called logic and make them FEEL. How do you make them feel? Step aside and show them what you mean. Show. Don't tell.

Both William Matthews and Mary Oliver do this. Some of Louise Gluck's best work abides by this principle. I so dig it. I'm all about this when I write poetry.

[chambalguy]

*DISCLAIMER* [My personal views and experience]  Open mic startups are changing the face of indie-music scene in Pune, India.  

Lately, there have been a lots of comedy stand-up all around. Hundreds of open mic comedy stand-ups events are shared on social media everyday. “Original-Music” on the other hand has been given a somewhat less importance when we talk about pure original content and not cover-music. 

Thanks to the upcoming startups in this field who are striving hard to bring a culture of open exchange of ideas through art and thus encouraging new material and collaborations between artists across different genres. 

If an amateur artist is struggling to find a platform to perform or is not a part of a group then these Open mics provide a beautiful opportunity for them. One can gain a lot of experience and get a proper feedback on their original content through the audience and fellow artists. Open mic culture is new to Indian live scene, particularly providing an opportunity to amateur artists to try a new material in front of an audience, again original content is the [key] here! Open mics are generally not as popular as they should be because they are all about experiments, and people(average listeners) usually like what they have heard before i.e. commercially hit songs and are not willing to listen to the new material with open heart, but that is not the barrier as these open mics attract people who really are serious about art and appreciate its beauty! 

Here are a few open mics platforms from which I gained experienced in 2017. They were really helpful in shaping me who I am. I learned a lot as a naive artist and I feel that I have a lot to learn before I more into a fully professional escape!  

Started in 2015 “The-Orange-Octopus-Records” have organized hundreds of Open Mic events successfully in Pune and Bangalore and given a platform for many stand-up comedians, poets, storytellers, songwriters and musicians. According to them in the near future they plan to bring out a platform, where local artists are accessible to the many ardent music lovers, and are committed to finding a sustainable way to allow them to keep creating their content. 

My experience at their open mics has been very satisfying I met like minded artists who gave me blunt feedback at times and it has been an amazing experience altogether. 

  Platform for Artists or simply PFA is all about collaboration! They have a mission to create “Art together”. You can see a painter collaborating with a musician and a rapper collaborating with a songwriter in their open mics! They are spread across many cities in India. Some of them being Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Ahemadabad, Agra, Indore, Goa, Chennai, Udaipur and Bangalore. 

Speak is a youth driven organization started in 2015 by the students of  The Bishop's Junior College, Pune to promote poetry, prose, literature, _music, open debates and every other form of art you can imagine! They conduct open mics around Pune at various locations which are full of energy supporting original expressions!