Disclaimer

Bob Holman
übersetzt von Etrit Hasler und Florian Vetsch

As Dr. Willie used to say,

We are gathered here today

because we are not gathered somewhere else today,

and we don't know what we're doing

so you do –

the Purpose of SLAM!

being to fill your hungry ears

with Nutritious Sound/Meaning Constructs,

Space Shots into Consciousness

known hereafter as Poems, and

not to provide a Last Toehold

for Dying Free Enterprise Fuck 'em for a Buck'em Capitalism'em.

We disdain competition

and its ally war

and are fighting for our lives

and the spinning of poetry's cocoon of action

in your dailiness.

We refuse to meld the contradictions

But will always walk the razor

for your love.

"The best poet always loses"

is no truism of SLAM!

but is something for you to take home with you

like an image of a giant condor leering over
a salty rock.

Yes,

we must destroy ourselves

in the constant reformation that is this very moment,

and propel you to write the poems
as the poets read them,

urge you to rate the judges as they trudge to their solitary and lonely numbers,

and bid you

dance or die between sets.