At open mike we usually get to read for five minutes. Sometimes less. But the concept of five minutes varies with individuals. That’s why the host of a poetry reading is often the time keeper. A nice little chime is too understated. Its sweetness can easily be ignored by the poet. A kitchen alarm works well, since it is meant to be loud. But I find it off-putting, especially when I’m immersed in something wonderful. The continuous beeping jerks me back into reality and destroys the magic of the moment.
There is really no good way to manage the five minutes. Poets are needy for attention and not good manager of themselves. To cut a poet off in the middle of delivery requires snap judgement and the skill of a surgeon. No one does it better than Don Brennan. He interjects when he hears a pause and in no uncertain terms tells the poet to stop. “OK. Time’s up.”
That is definitely better than having the audience booing at the end of an interminable narration and chiding the “rude” poet for taking up other people’s time.
Yes! Time! That great issue of our world, the world of the spoken word.
This is why I like Don Brennan. He “gets it”. I try to look over the poet’s shoulder to get some idea as to whether or not to let the beeper go off. I mean sometimes I’ll let it chirp once, or delay it sometimes and, often enough, I usually forebear. I mean to say if the audience is rapt, I muffle it because I have come to understand I cannot be “the judge” as to how well a poem is going over. There have been a few times I thought the poet was wandering only to have the audience explode with applause when they finished. It is a nuanced effort that is an art in and of itself. I can add the “Don Brennan” method into the mix too.