Team USA 2019 in a photo by the US Consulate Marseille: from left to right team member Gwendolyn Alley, team member Sue Hill, gf of Jacob Fergus, team Jacob Fergus, Taylor Robertson, Kathy Greene, coach John Vilja.

Back in the day, I did Slam Poetry. That’s competitive poetry where you get points from random judges in the audience on a ten point scale. Like in diving, the highest and the lowest scores get thrown out and your score is the three in the middle added together. While I love performing my poetry in front of an audience and I continue to write and publish poetry plus I’ve had several  major paying commissions and fellowships (Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and more) I no longer compete in Slams. While I loved the community, I’m just not into competitive poetry.

But I learned a lot, and I carry those word and life lessons as well as those friendships with me today. One of the most important came when I was active at the Taos Poetry Circus in Taos New Mexico, where I learned from slam ring master Jim Nave that

“The  point is not the point, the point is POETRY!”

I’m trying to keep this in mind Continue reading →