Where do poems exist? I thought about that and about reading versus listening and writing for the page versus writing for the stage while simultaneously reading and listening to poems by Stephen Roxborough. Fourteen poems on his fine new cd, Poetica Dystopia, also appear in his book, I Feel Your Doughnut Pain. I've heard people say they like poetry that lives on the page, marking a distinction between sit-and-read-silently-to-yourself poetry and performance poetry. I get that and would classify myself with poetry on the page over poetry on the stage if I really had to choose once and for all, but, in the end, no poem actually exists on the page or stage. They all only truly live in human minds. A poem comes to life in the mind of one human, the sort of human we, therefore, call a poet and is then transferred into the minds of other humans via written and/or spoken word. I think it was Charles Simic who opined that no poem is complete until it is read by someone other than the poet himself. It's the 21st Century, though, so let's change that to her/him/themself lest we exclude anyone. Furthermore, I'd add or heard after read.
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