Unlike works in other art forms, a poem has the fascinating ability to appear in many different ways while remaining the original at the same time. Leaving aside hybrid forms such as visual poetry and sound poetry, it makes no difference whether a poem is printed on newspaper paper, memorized, burned onto a CD as an audio recording, embossed in Braille, displayed as an SMS on a liquid crystal screen, or recited by a voice. In every case, it is always the original poem.

This is different in other arts. A four-color print or a JPG scan of a painting by Van Gogh will always remain a reproduction of the original. A plaster cast or a 3D animation of a bust by Rodin will always remain a copy. A musical composition may exist as a recording, a live concert, or as sheet music, but in written form it can unfold its effect only for a small circle of initiated readers.

No other art form offers such a wide range of ways to reach its audience as poetry. It can slip through all channels. Spoken word, paper, celluloid, graffiti, magnetic tape, punch cards, radio, memory chips, fiber-optic cables, vinyl, microfiche, stone tablets, CD, CD-ROM, MC, MD, DVD, DAT, PC, ZIP, photography, mobile phone, palmtop, WWW, satellite radio. There is no medium that is not suitable as a carrier of poetry.

Once a poem has been released into the world by its author, it can be transformed into different states of aggregation. The author no longer has any influence on which path the poem takes, by which voice it is performed, which hands copy it, which server offers it for download, or who memorizes it. The only choice the author has is the choice of the original form of publication. By selecting the medium of publication, the author can suggest a direction and thus focus the attention of the reader, listener, user, or viewer on the textual level he or she prefers.

The various forms of publication can be roughly divided into two categories. On the one hand, there is the written and visual form of publication, for example as print media, ASCII code, handwriting, or engraving. On the other hand, there is the spoken and acoustic form of publication, for example as a public reading, audio CD, MP3 stream, or text-to-speech generation. In the history of poetry, public performance originally dominated as the primary medium of dissemination.

Poetry has always been not only a meaningful linguistic structure but also a sensory acoustic experience. Numerous terms and designations still document poetry’s original closeness to music, even in today’s age of writing. In both genres we speak of meter; the term ballad derives from ballare (Late Latin: to dance); the word sonnet literally means something like “sounding poem”; and the term lyric originates from the name of a musical instrument, the lyre. The Meistersingers were called “singers,” but they were primarily poets as well. A rhapsody designates both a musical form and a poetic form. The list could go on.

Depending on the degree of literacy and the availability of book printing within a cultural sphere, the dates marking the transition to written dissemination vary. Some cultures of the world are still strongly oriented toward oral transmission. Others are involuntarily returning to acoustic modes of reception through the influence of audiovisual media. In those cultural spheres where a transition from orality to literacy took place, it occurred as a gradual development.

A decisive step within this development was the transition from “reading aloud” to “silent reading.” The widespread habit of reading texts silently, without moving one’s lips, has existed as a mass phenomenon for only a few hundred years. With the establishment of silent reading, the acoustic manifestation of poetry was unintentionally neglected. Many poems naturally continued to carry rhythm, sound, vowel structures, and other acoustic subtleties, but they rarely unfolded their full sonic potential. Reading poetry soon came to be regarded as introverted, almost synonymous with being alone and turning inward. Poems became silent and remained hidden between book covers until someone scanned them with their eyes. Memorization was no longer necessary, since the texts were available on demand in libraries.

library
the many letters
that cannot escape their words
the many words
that cannot escape their sentences
the many sentences
that cannot escape their texts
the many texts
that cannot escape their books
the many books
with all that dust on them
the good cleaning lady with the feather duster

(Ernst Jandl)

Certainly, the written form of a poem also has its advantages: the neutral “voice” of print, the timeless availability of all words, the directed and therefore concentrated gaze of the recipient, the look and feel of typography and paper, and not least the relatively easy and widely accepted marketability of poetry in book form. However, some important qualities are missing from the written form of publication. The most important of these seems to me to be sound. Because of this lack, a written text is always forced into passivity. Unlike a spoken text, it cannot actively reach out to its audience. Except perhaps when printed as a poster, it lacks the ability to demand attention. It lacks the third dimension: the acoustic timeline along which rhythm, sound, assonance, dynamics, and meaning can glide in order to pull listeners into a pulsating flow of language.

It is very likely that the long-lamented general lack of interest in poetry is a consequence of this passivity of the written form. The remarkable success of readings within the new spoken word movement shows that actively and vividly spoken poetry is entirely capable of attracting large audiences. Spoken poems also give uninitiated audiences access to poetry. In the wake of popular readings and festivals, several publishers have even been able to increase their print runs of poetry titles.

For me, the comparison between poems in written form and poems in spoken form is not a question of textual quality. I encounter successful poems and less successful ones in both fields. However, texts in written form are naturally selected by editorial boards and publishers according to supposed quality criteria, while spoken texts are often released unfiltered to the public. The result of this unfiltered dissemination is the widespread distorted image of the spoken word poet as a hobbyist, while authors published in book form are regarded as professionals even with very small print runs. At this point, I would like to draw attention, for example, to the criteria used for awarding grants or poetry prizes.

In conclusion, I find that the comparison between poems in written and spoken form is not a matter of “either/or,” but rather one of “both/and.” At present, however, the written form still dominates poetry publishing among publishers, institutions, foundations, and organizers. To achieve a balanced state of “both/and,” we must ensure that, in the long term, both sides are granted the recognition they deserve.

[Bas Böttcher, Berlin 2003]