“The sound of poetry is ultimately important . . . the breaks and concentrations of sound. It can be shown, not talked about very well,” Hall said. “You can show it with a reading, and that’s why I think of radio and television. The aesthetic unit of a poem is a sequence of sounds. The only way to get it is to hear it. Once you’ve got it, then you can hear it yourself when you read silently.” – [b]Donald Hall[/b] quoted in an article at PoetryFoundation.org

If you follow poetry back to its roots, you find sound. The difference between poetry and prose is in the way that poetry sounds in the ear, the rhythm, the cadences, the way the tones and words play against each other and with your own mind to create something memorable and lasting. Hearing poetry read aloud can be a transcendant experience when the reader grasps the essence of the poem, and makes it live and breathe. One of the wonders of the internet is that it makes it so much easier for poets and those who love poetry to share those moments. You no longer have to be lucky enough to live close to a poetry venue in order to hear good poetry – all you need is an internet connection and a set of speakers.

Last Friday, we wrote about Thom Ingram“s blog at Poetguru.blogspot.com, and his poem-a-day project with its growing poems. Thom is a member of the Association of Poetry Podcasting, a loosely knit organization that encourages poets to record and podcast their work so that everyone can hear it.

From the most recent APP press release:

In addition to gathering the best audio poetry into one organization, the APP supports existing and emerging spoken-word recording artists and spreads vocal poetry to a wider audience: all thanks to “podcasting,” the latest Internet revolution.

With as little as a computer and a microphone, podcasting allows people to create personal audio shows , or “podcasts,” on any topic imaginable. Some of these shows rival the sophistication of anything heard on radio. Podcasts can be downloaded on-demand and enjoyed by anyone with a computer and an Internet connection.

And it’s not just the classics. “There’s definitely something for everyone,” says the APP’s Simon Toon. “Poetry podcasts cover a vast range of performance styles from around the world. You can find everything from traditional ‘page’ poetry (the kind of stuff that actually rhymes), to vibrant ‘slam’ performances and even rap-like poetry over R ’n’ B or Hip Hop music.”

“Podcasting is perfectly suited to poetry,” says Wess “Mongo” Jolley of the APP. “It’s a medium where poets can use the full range of their creative talents.” As a result, the podcasting community is ever expanding. What began as a mere handful of poetry shows as recently as the start of this year, has grown into hundreds of podcasts with thousands of listeners.

But the boom in podcasting has its drawbacks. Per Harry Lafnear of the APP, “It’s becoming harder to find the better shows. Services that list podcasts are not well set up to moderate poetry, so individual efforts easily get lost among amateur or inconsistent offerings.

“Because of this, our community is often marginalized. We hope that by bringing the existing podcasters into a formal association, we can turn up the volume and bring the most vibrant poetry more public attention.”

For additional information, contact:
Will Brown
Association of Poetry Podcasting
Phone: (202) 365-0243
E-mail: Will @ cloudydayart.com
Website: http://www.PoetryPodcasting.org

The Association of Poetry Podcasting website can be found at www.poetrypodcasting.org. Founding members include podcasters in the U.S. and U.K.: Dan Adinolfi of The Florn.net Podcast, Will Brown of Cloudy Day Art, Thom Ingram of The PoetGuru Podcast, Harry Lafnear of The Everyday Muse, Mongo of IndieFeed Performance Poetry, Belinda Subraman of Gypsy Art Show, Simon Toon of the Slam Idol podcast, Nic Treadwell of the Homegrown Podcast, Larry Winfield of Sundown Lounge, and Tairy Woodard of Little Red”s Writing Hood.