Poetry for Conceptual Performance

Conceptual poetry begins with the spark of the writing process, the moment when a poet finds inspiration and begins to write a poem. It is in that moment when the poem begins to be conceptualized, evolving throughout every part of the writing process. Conceptual poetry is the evolving idea of what the poem is working toward becoming, the concept of the end performance, and how the poem will be received. This conceptualization changes drastically with the revisions made throughout the process, the idea of the poem is revised as the author interacts with the work and audience. The revisions to the conceptualization may be minute or drastic. Small changes can be changing the feeling you want to elicit from the reader from slight anxiety to tones of fear. Larger changes can be changing the entire message you want to portray to your audience. Poems go through critical revisions that can leave a poem, and its conceptualized performed product, completely transformed and sometimes unrecognizable from the beginning product. The conceptual poetry and performance ends at the point where it leaves the author and becomes perceived and digested by the audience. The performance itself will always be conceptual and will never truly fulfill the concept the way that the poet has envisioned it.