Once, years ago, I heard someone say that it is an act of respect for your own material to have it memorized. I can’t remember who stated it but I recall the challenge was put forward that if you, as the writer, won’t take that time with it, why should the audience?
At the Guerrilla Poetry Series the guy at minute 5, off camera, later explained how there’s a tradition back to ancient Greeks of composing poems with anchors so that at regular intervals, there are cues to remind you of the next part. Like the device of rhyme to hook you forward through the poem, mnemonic devices can assist but inaudibly. Only you may only know the associations but they can assist if you get stage fright.
At Raise it, there’s an interview with Sean O’Gorman, aka OG that talks about reciting and performing your poetry.
TN: What is the best advice you’ve received?
OG: The best advice I’ve received has come from Rusty Priske and the members of The Recipe who ingrained it into my head that the best delivery comes from memorized poems, and from Brad Morden and Nathaniel Larochette that helped me find better/faster ways to memorize a large amount of material in a short amount of time.
Nathaniel pointed out that I wrote out my poems in half sentences that took up only half of the paper and I broke the lines up to follow the rhyming scheme, but if i wrote them out in paragraph form it would allow me to find the poems natural flow and help in my delivery.
Brad Morden showed me that by memorizing a poem starting at the last stanza and working my way back it would keep the build up throughout the poem sharper because the ending is the part that I would know the most and at the peak moment of the poem I would have a stronger delivery.
At Purdyfest people ran about half and half of people who read off the page, with or without stumbles and those who dropped a poem from memory. Jim Larwill off the top of his head took requests and could perform from repertoire off the top of his head. Jeff Seffinga even when talking at the round table structured his thoughts with oratorial dramatic pauses that hooked the audience. Poems he belted out. Other poems he writes are quiet pieces. Some fit stage, some better fit page.
At Sage Hill people who performed mostly referred to notes except Gerry Hill who performed his poems. He also was able to create an ownership of words by speaking from diaphragm to audience ears, with the sort of composure that many poetry readings rarely see. Others could also hold the audience rapt with performing with the written script.
The act of working it until it is memorized is an act of editing as well, reworking so it all swings freely from the tongue. It’s not something I’ve done but appreciate when I hear. Do it myself? We’ll see.