On Poetry
A competition of communication
Sat through an enjoyable Next Generation Star Trek the other night. In the 5th season’s episode “Darmok”, the Enterprise encounters an alien race whose language is indecipherable to most, even through a universal translator. The struggle of this episode is found through this well-intentioned alien captain trying to find some way to communicate with those apparently from a different galaxy, risking it all for the hope of making some new friends. The struggle comes to a head when they find themselves together on a strange environment battling in a contest for survival, with only their delivery of stories and poetic metaphors to bridge the gap between them.
The solitude of this race of aliens stems from a certain difficulty in the use of plain language or small talk. It turns out that this alien speech, nay even form of thought, is realized through metaphor. These aliens are poets. But the realization of this form of communication is not enough to win this contest. Knowing that a passage is a poem but not knowing the basis of metaphor is like knowing the grammar of a language but not its vocabulary. Thus the only way to win this contest of communication is by finding points of commonality with a listener, either through embarking on some shared experience, tribal mythology, or inherent truths of humanity — otherwise the speaker is just left with colorful imagery but no coherence of shared understanding, a stream of psychedelic ramblings; Lucy in the Sky.
Sat through an enjoyable poetry slam the other night. The idea of poetry as a sporting event, a scored competition, was a little surprising, but it turns out that with simple heuristics like audience reaction, coherence of metaphors, or enthusiasm of delivery it is in fact possible to judge a poem — or at least said poem’s performance. (It turns out that the scoring by volunteers is a little unfair to those early in the program, as it takes several readings for judges to find their calibration.)
Each of these poets had their own grammar and vocabulary of metaphor. Some scored points on elegant imagery, some on creative delivery, some carried the weight of historical injustice, some the fires of passion and romance, some the heartfelt struggle of personal obstacles and difficulties. The commonality of each poet turned out to be their shared struggle to communicate, to say something important and be understood on a deeper level.
At the end of the night, there was a call for any final volunteers to approach the microphone. Since the room was by then half empty and it felt like a safe space and I stood and read a short piece. During the reading the silence from the audience was palatable. And I discovered there in that tiny bar in downtown Orlando the draw of the poetry slam. The appeal is not just to speak and be heard, but do do so in front of a receptive audience that is trying hard to understand you. When you’re on that stage it’s like you have the whole Enterprise crew at attention, picking apart your language and metaphors. It was a brief introduction to kindness, a rushed dockside sunset view.
Albums that were referenced here or otherwise inspired this post:
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band — The Beatles
A Long Strange Trip — Grateful Dead
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For further readings please check out my Table of Contents, Book Recommendations, and Music Recommendations.
