About The Oral Tradition

Now, as always it seems, is an exciting time to be a poet. Conventions have been broken, and broken again and again, until they seem to have lost all meaning. In the past 50 years, we have watched poetry, and art in general, turn its eyes upon itself, and it has found itself wanting. If poetry, all art, has only an arbitrary meaning and an arbitrary beauty, then why should we care? There is no reason to try in vain for hours to understand the meaning of King Lear or to read Homer's tales of men and women who lived two thousand years before our time. And why should we write?

That is perhaps the most important question — and precisely why it is such an excellent time to be a poet, and to be reading poetry. Postmodernism's self-destruction has given us a chance to rewrite some of the history of literature. We have learned our lessons from the mistakes made in the past — Art is not self-reflexive, just as science cannot investigate its own foundations.

This does not mean, however, that we should not think seriously about what Art is and where it comes from. Here at The Oral Tradition, we believe this means remembering that poetry began as an oral art. Culture was passed on through spoken tales, remembered because of the cadences, rhythm and rhyme, indeed, the very beauty of its language. But poetry today is also a written art. Its appearance on the page has a certain energy that imbues itself in the words. Just as rhyme and rhythm help us to remember, so too does this energy allow us to remember, as the inflections and innuendos become clear through the position of the words upon the page.

The Oral Tradition pushes for the return of poetry as a meaningful, accessible and popular art form. We believe that poetry should echo in your mind long after the reading is completed. It should haunt your dreams and your nightmares. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, to pull you into an enchanting half-world and let you slowly return, a little different.

In the past, crowds would gather to hear poetry performed. Today, The Oral Tradition will provide a forum for crowds to gather and appreciate Art that speaks. Although our focus is on poetry, we welcome submissions of short fiction and plays: all writing that sings when it is read.

The Oral Tradition is run by Teilo Moore.