4 tips on how to improve your performance poetry

In the photo above are Nadia Martelli, Steve Wheeler, Richard de Bulat, Tyrone M. Warren and Kate Cameron. All appeared at the recent Invisible Poets Roadshow, performing their poetry for a live audience.

What exactly does it take to be a successful performance poet? The answer can be multifaceted, not least because we are all different, and have different styles, vocal ranges and various ways of communicating. However, there are some tried and tested techniques that you can adopt and practice to improve your performance presence, no matter what kind of poet you are. 

Yes, performance is all about presence. 

The first tip is to connect with your audience. This can be done in a number of ways, including eye contact, body movement, and gestures. I often meet and chat with members of my audience before I even get up onto the stage. This breaks down barriers, people can see that I am human and down to earth, and that helps to span the gap between audience and stage. I try to find commonalities with each person I meet, and can even mention some of those when I'm in performance mode. Knowing a little about members of your audience can be a nice little touch, especially when you are 'filling in' between poems. It all helps to break down barriers and create a connection. 

Secondly, microphone technique is all important. Stand too far away, or too close, and the sound will be compromised. Some poets seem terrified of the mic. It's not a threat, it's a useful tool to enable you to communicate. Use it badly and it can hamper your performance. Use it effectively, and it is magic. Always hold the mic so that it is pointing directly toward your mouth, not to the ceiling, or to somewhere else. If it's on a microphone stand, adjust it o the correct height and angle before you start. Remember preparation time is all important, so a sound check before the audience arrives is always a good idea. You don't need to touch the mic with your lips (that would be unhygienic especially if several of you are performing). However, you should be able to get the flat of your hand in between your lips and the microphone, so no more than an inch or so. Too far away, and the sound system has to work harder to pick up your voice, and the result can be howl-around feedback. Too close, and the sound can be distorted. 

Thirdly, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! The more you are familiar with your own material, the more slick your performance will be. Several poets have told me recently that their live performances have improved since they began to practice breathing, pausing at appropriate points in a poem, and emphasising certain words and phrases. You can practice different voices, ways of expressing your emotions from whispering to shouting, and modulate your entire vocal range according to the demands of the poem you perform. 

Finally, have fun! If you are exuding happiness and confidence on stage, your audience will sense this and will get on your side, because they want to enjoy the performance too. You don't necessarily have to tell jokes or be a comedian, but humorous stories or anecdotes about how you wrote a particular poem, or were inspired can really get your audience on your side. If your audience is laughing, you are winning. Smiling and other facial expressions can also help, especially if the poem is funny. If you don't have any humorous or witty poetry in your repertoire, you might think about writing a few. 

So that's it. Four tips on how to improve your performance poetry delivery. There are many other tips, such as taking a deep breath or two before you go on stage, pacing your set effectively, or visualising success before you start. Watching established performance poets to see what they do is always a good idea. If you receive any feedback, listen to it, and try to learn, even if it is negative. Ultimately, you will only learn through your own experience. 

Good luck (...you won't need it)!

Steve Wheeler

All photographs copyright Wheelsong Books Ltd 2025

Why people use AI to write 'poetry'

Note that in the title of this blog post I use the word people instead of Poets, and the word 'poetry' is in parentheses. That should tell you all you need to know about my personal stance on this issue. However, let's try to examine this question as dispassionately as we can. It's a question that repeatedly arises whenever AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated poetry is mentioned in my several poetry groups: why on Earth do some people use AI to write poetry?

Firstly, people who use AI to generate poetry seem to have no appreciation for good poetry. If they did, they certainly wouldn't put out the kind of facile, vacuous verse that AI algorithms generate. Any self respecting poet would hate to even be associated with it. AI poetry is emotionless, bland and predictable. Assumption 1 then, is that they either don't have a clue what good poetry looks like, or they are too stupid to realise what they are doing. 

Secondly, people who use AI to generate poetry realise they can simply write a prompt or two and then press a key, and the AI model will do the rest for them, churning out the rubbish it does. It's similar to feeding your dog, and then watching it dump out its excrement onto the ground a few hours later. It's the same kind of process. Assumption 2 then, is that these people are incredibly lazy, and don't wish to invest any of their time or energy trying to create their own poetry.

Thirdly, I have noticed over the last few years that the AI poetry frauds (because that my friends, is exactly what they are) can find a gullible audience who will like, love and share their drivel, feeding back to them a dopamine dose that fuels their fragile little egos. Some fraudsters have even gone on to sell entire books of AI generated poetry, under their own names. Assumption 3 then is that these people commit fraud deliberately so they can receive adulation and praise (and possibly even monetary reward) from ignorant saps who will suck up and swallow any putrid detritus served up to them. 

Finally, just to clarify a key point, I call AI poetry users fraudsters, because that is exactly what they are. AI algorithms work off the basis of trawling all  poetry stored anywhere on the web, and concoct 'poetry' from billions of lines of other people's hard work and creativity, just to satisfy the selfish desires of the fraudsters. 

So there you have it. You may or may not agree with me, but these are my analyses of what I know from a career spent studying the evolution of AI and my lifelong passion for poetry. I can't pull any punches on this, because it's a crime that is prevalent across all poetry communities, damages the reputation of poets everywhere and undermines what it means to be a creative human being. It's also theft and deception, and any self respecting poet should call it out publicly wherever they see it.

Steve Wheeler 

Image source with a Creative Commons licence

Pushing the Boundaries

Yesterday I was in the studio recording a series of short radio shows in my Poets Corner slot for CrossRhythms Radio. The show is divided into two short sections with a music track played in between. In the first section I provide some background and context for my poem choice, and in the second section I perform the poem. It's simple but effective and the shows go out every weekday afternoon. 

In one of my shows yesterday I talked about experimental poetry and told the story of how I became interested, and then inspired by avant garde poets and writers. Here's the story again for those many of you who will never get the chance to listen to the show.

I was in my late teens, and had been writing poetry for a short while during my school years. Now in my first job at a local college, I was seconded for a week or so to work in the college library. It was quite a large library in several floors, and the book stacks were huge. One of my tasks was to preserve some of the paper back books by removing their covers, and then rebinding them in hard covers, with the original paper outers incorporated into the new cover. It was fun, although fiddly, and I always managed to get my fingers covered in glue. 

During this time, the library was disposing of many of its old stocks of books. These included poetry and other literature. I spotted a pile of old poetry books and asked one of the library staff what was happening to them. She replied that they were being thrown out, and that if I wanted any I should just take them. I carried a boxful home with me, and I still have most of them in my collection. 

Some that caught my eye included works by e. e. cummings, Charles Bukowski and Philip Lamantia. These great American poets wrote amazing out-of-left field poetry that left me gasping for breath. I never knew that the English language could be manipulated in such inventive ways! Then I read the work of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who created vast lyrical landscapes of metaphors, similes and wordplay that inspired me even more.  

Soon I began to write in similar ways, not in blind slavish copying, but through experimentation and trial and error. I began to perform my new experimental poetry live, and got more positive responses than I did negative ones (you'll always get both). I'm now at the point in my poetry life where I feel I can push the boundaries continually to try to find new ways of experessing myself and new ways of manipulating the English language to create new wordscapes. 

My interactive textbook Creative Deviance and more recently my poetry collection eXp exemplify this creative risk taking and showcase what I have found to be possible. I hope in time these books will inspire poets to push their own boundaries just as cummings et al inspire me to push my own.

Steve Wheeler

Photo (c) Wheelsong Books Ltd

SPECIAL OFFER: If you purchase a copy of Creative Deviance directly from Wheelsong Books: wheelsong6@gmail.com you will also receive a copy of eXp absolutely free. 

Seriously funny

A few remarks on my blog post from yesterday got me thinking. It seems that some poets believe they cannot be taken seriously if they write comedic material. Yes, there are those who specialise in dark and moody poetry. Many do it very well. Some though may feel rather depressed reading it, while others are uplifted by sorrowful poetry. Perhaps these are thinking, I'm glad that's not me! But generally, dark and mournful poetry tends to bring the mood down a little. 

So what about lighthearted poetry? Poetry that is comedic, absurd and even flippant? How does that make us feel, and are we still taking it seriously if we are laughing and giggling? 

Yes, very much so, otherwise, why would we be spending time reading it? Some poetry can be funny and serious at the same time. Poetry about a serious subject that has a comedic twist has impact.

Humorous poetry can be uplifting, improve our mood and perhaps it even inspire us to write our own comedy poems. I can think of many poets (some are even in my online groups) who write seriously funny poetry. One of course, is our own Graeme Stokes. His poetry is cheeky, often very droll, and sometimes contains sledgehammer wit, all wrapped up in incisive social commentary. Go and check out his Wheelsong Books collection Off the Top of My Head to appreciate what I'm saying.

Some of my favourite humorous poets include John Cooper Clarke, Roger McGough and Brian Bilston. I have collections by all three on my bookshelf, because although each is unique in his style, they all have the same effect on me - I laugh out loud, I shake my head at the brilliance of their wit and humour and I feel inspired to create something similar. Personally I like to bridge the gap and write poetry from a dark or dry humour perspective. 

Have you ever broken out of the mould of sorrowful and mournful poetry and tried to write humorous verse? Have a go and see if you can. You might be pleasantly surprised. That would be funny wouldn't it?

Steve Wheeler

Photo from Flicker used under a Creative Commons licence

Are you being taken seriously?

This is an opinion piece, and I anticipate a bit of flak from some people, but I write this post from a position as an editor, publisher and owner/founder of four successful online poetry groups. And do bear in mind, this piece has been written to try to help poets improve their chances of being noticed and possibly even published in due course. 

Please comment in the box below if you want dialogue on this subject. I'm very happy to reply to serious questions and comments. 

How can you be taken seriously as a poet? Firstly there will be some who might reply that they don't really care whether they are taken seriously or not. But I suspect that most people who write poetry want their work to be taken seriously. At the minimum, most poets would rather not be ignored. And yet that is exactly what I see happening in my online poetry groups. Poeple post poetry that is ignored by most. Or it is poetry that fails to get accepted for anthologies or other publications. 

Pen Names. Firstly, writing under your own name, or at least a pen-name that is not ridiculous is an absolute requirement. How you represent yourself is very important, Those who use contrived pen-names, or noms de plume that are jokey do not generally have their work taken seriously. At Wheelsong Books our editors tend to ignore those who we can't take seriously, and the first impression - the name of the poet - is important in setting the atmosphere for any review. 

Emojis. Secondly, the use of emojis and other embellishment in a poem is often a turn-off to a reviewer or reader. The question must be asked: why does the poet use lots of smileys, hearts, and other emoticons in their work? Is it because they lack any confidence in their own writing? It is certainly a distracting feature, and as an editor/reviewer I tend to ignore poems with an overload of emojis. 

Upper case lettering. Thirdly, poetry that is presented totally in upper case lettering seems amateurish. In old money, upper case lettering was considered shouting in text and social media cultures. In poetry, the overuse of upper case lettering makes it appear as though the writer is desperate to be noticed, and again, they lack confidence that their writing alone will keep the attention.

Be original. Fourthly, if you wish to be taken seriously as a poet, make sure your work is original. There is nothing worse in poetry than reading old, jaded phrases that others have used before. The forced rhyme or the predictable line is a clear indication that the poet is struggling to express themselves and maybe has lost their way.

AI Generated poetry. Finally, as an addendum to the last point, you won't be taken seriously (and may even be sanctioned) if you persist in submitting or posting poetry that has been generated by artificial intelligence. You would be surprised by how many posts each day we reject from our online poetry groups. You might also be horrified at the number of people we ban from the group if they persist in this practice. It's dishonest and might even be breaking copyright laws.

So there you have it. Five key points to remember if you wish to be taken seriously as a poet. I believe most of these apply to online poetry groups worldwide, and definitely apply in the publishing world.

Steve Wheeler 

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Poetry and Artificial Intelligence

Occasionally we host guest posts on this blog. They are often topical, provocative or simply informative. This guest post by Dr. Iain Strachan is all three. As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Can AI pass the Turing Test today? by Iain Strachan

In a Invisible Poets Road Show in Derby, Steve Wheeler asked me if I thought AI had passed the Turing test. I replied "Yes ... and No." 

I had just read a poem "A chatBot named Christopher" about Alan Turing, where I had claimed that the answer is "No".

However, AI-generated poetry continues to fool us again and again. I have been fooled by it. I once praised someone's Villanelle on Invisible Poets that on closer examination turned out to be AI generated.

Why does this happen? I think it's to do with the way we interact with pop songs. I asked a member of my family "When you listen to a pop song, do you think about the words?" He replied "Not really. If I know the words, I'll sing along to the tune, but I don't think about what they mean."

I expect most people are like that. Pop songs have to be singable, so the lyrics fit the tune, and so we are only engaging with the words on a superficial level. So they need to flow smoothly, have simple rhyme schemes etc.

Human poetry is different. It doesn't always have a smooth iambic pentameter rhythm; for example:

For thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men (John Donne), or
The soil/is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

See how the strong syllables pile up with no light syllables between. The Hopkins also has enjambment, where the sense carries on over the line break. Song lyrics don't do this - normally each line stands alone.

It's the same with AI generated poetry. It is polished, and flows nicely; each line is self-contained. But, whereas with a pop song, you can find depth and meaning in the lyrics: a story told, or a telling metaphor, if you examine an AI poem carefully, you won't find any depth; it falls apart as a sequence of poetic sounding phrases and clichés strung together with no clear overall message.

So if you find a poem that seems super smooth and polished, take a closer look before you enthuse about it. Don't give the AI fakers their serotonin boost! If it's AI, it will fall apart and you'll find the words of my chatBot poem to be still true:

Chatbots today can't pass the Turing Test
Their show of understanding's fake, at best.

Iain Strachan

Image used under a Creative Commons License

An Invisible Poets roadshow near you?

I mentioned on Live Poets Society UK recently that I was considering the possibility of taking Invisible Poets on the road. By that, I meant bringing a live poetry show with performances, interviews, book launch, open mic etc to a place near you. It's a grand ambition and quite daunting but not one that is impossible. I would need local organisers who were willing to commit to doing some local organisation, promotion and other preparation to make an event happen in their home town. So what would be involved? Putting on a roadshow can be complex, and work needs to go into organising, but there are some tried and tested formulae. 

Here are a few ideas and a checklist of things that would need to be in place to stage a successful Invisible Poets event in your home town.

1) We would need a secure venue. It doesn't need to be a massive space, just a place which is lockable, and where we can set up a small performance area, possibly with staging (not essential), and a power supply (required). Wheelsong Books would provide the public address system and lighting rig. Easy chairs for interviews would be required, depending on which poets are being interviewed. 

2) A table somewhere in the venue to display books and merchandising. Wheelsong would supply the materials for display, the merchandise and the paying facilities.

3) Publicity and promotion of the event. Wheelsong Books would publicise through social media, but it would also be up to the local organisers to put the word out that the event was happening, and to do this at least 4 weeks in advance of the event. 

4) Accommodation near to the venue if the host/MC/invited poets required overnight accommodation depending on the travel distances. 

Wheelsong Books would sponsor the event, and that would mean there would be a small ticket price which might also include free merchandise from the book stand. Ticketing would be managed by Wheelsong Books, through an electronic ticketing service, or pay on the door. 

The essential Invisible Poets Roadshow might include the following elements:

a) Headline performances by invited/guest poets

b) Performance by the host/MC

c) Interviews and question/answer sessions

d) Open Mic session

e) Specialist writing workshops (for all day or half day events)

f) Book launches and signings

g) Meet and greet sessions with authors

h) Social event

So who is up for organising an event, either somewhere in the UK (we can do these fairly easily) or farther afield? Please respond in the comments section beneath this post, or email wheelsong6@gmail.com to discuss this idea in more detail. 

Steve Wheeler

Image Copyright by Steve Wheeler, 2025

P.S. The first event is currently being organised in Derby, England, for Friday 30th May 2025. We aim to raise as much money we can for Save the Children, so please do come along if you can and support this event!

Images and Image

Several members of Invisible Poets showed their nastier side recently. They are all off looking for another poetry group now. 

My post about use of images, poets' over-reliance on their use, and the dangers of using copyrighted images went down like a stone balloon with some members. Perhaps I touched a nerve. I was called arrogant, narrow minded and a few other choice epithets. One even asked me who had made me 'the poetry police.' 

These are of course, all what we call ad hominem attacks in the philosophy world. Or in sporting terms... they were playing the man rather than playing the ball. I love a good debate, but when it comes to personal abuse, I don't tolerate it. Invisible Poets is founded on respect and care, and these individuals crossed the line. 

My points were twofold. 

Firstly I questioned the reason why some poets felt compelled to add images to their poetry (some are repeated selfies and other even less relevant, but spectacular images) when in fact good poetry has the capability to entrance with its words alone. In the words of one of our members, many images seem like click-bait. Other members said they scroll past the images because it puts them off reading those poems. 

My second point, perhaps even more importantly, was that many poets in the group are using copyrighted images. They clearly haven't checked to see if they can use them, and in doing so they run the risk of a lawsuit by the owners of the copyright. One person even remarked to me about 'my purist views'. I replied that they are actually legal views.

Let me make it clear. There are legal consequences. 

You should assume that nothing on the Internet is free-to-use unless it is clearly labelled as such. Most images, photographs, artwork etc are the property of someone. There have been several recent court cases where individuals have been sued successfully by the likes of Getty Images and the New York Times. The damages awarded are not small. If you use images without permission, or simply purloin them without thinking, you could be in serious trouble. It is not good enough to post an image and then state: Credit to the rightful owner or similar. This not only demonstrates that the poet has no idea where the image came from, it also shows their ignorance and laziness. Worse, it shows that they really don't care at all about their theft of someone else's property. 

I was trying to convey this warning to our members, but several were abusive to me. They didn't want to be told by anyone how they should behave online. This kind of incident certainly causes the bad ones to show their true colours. 

Here's some good news. There are plenty of sites where you can obtain and freely use images, photographs and graphics. Unsplash and Pix4free are very good sites to use for non-copyrighted materials. Another way to find free to use images is by using Google search and selecting Images. Next go to Tools, and select Usages Rights. Find Creative Commons Licenses and then you can check the free-for-use licences of images available. 

Finally, let me repeat it here for anyone who cares to listen: If you must use images, please make sure a) you own them yourself b) they are licensed for free use, or c) you have permission from the owner of the image. 

Steve Wheeler

Image used under a Creative Commons Licence

 

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 6

Do you want to be a part of something really great? Something that is far more than just poetry? Something that will leave a lasting legacy and do some good in the world? We are about to publish the latest anthology in our charity series. It's number 6 in the series in our efforts to make lives better for underprivileged children around the world.

Wheelsong Books was established in the UK in 2020 as a not-for-profit organisation. Its mission statement is twofold: To give emerging poets the means to reach larger audiences and to help those who are in need. Since then, Wheelsong Books has published more than 50 books including ten charity poetry anthologies. Here are some of our anthology statistics: 

Absolutely Poetry Anthology 1: 170 poems 

Absolutely Poetry Anthology 2: 176 poems 

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 1: 183 poems 

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 2: 214 poems 

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 3: 229 poems

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 4: 245 poems

Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 5: 248 poems

Invisible Poets Anthology 1: 352 poems

Invisible Poets Anthology 2: 242 poems

Invisible Poets Anthology 3: 246 poems

(This is a total of 2,305 poems written by more than 650 poets representing 112 countries across all 6 continents) 

All the above books are still available on Amazon and through other online outlets, including Waterstones (UK) and Barnes & Noble (USA). The proceeds from Amazon sales of these books is donated directly to Save the Children - a worldwide charity that cares for children in crisis, providing emergency nutrition, health care, medicine, safety and education. At the time of writing, Wheelsong Books has donated £8,350.00 ($11,000.00) to Save the Children and we are not done yet! At the end of October 2025 we plan to publish Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 7.

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Dear poet, here is the bottom line... You have been given an amazing creative gift ... your ability to capture your thoughts, ideas, memories and emotions and present them as beautiful, evocative words. 

You can, if you want to join us, use your wonderful talent to freely give back a little to children who are in desperate, often life-threatening situations. 

We all want our poetry to be read and appreciated by others. Publishing your work in Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 6 will ensure that you gain a new audience for your poetry, but that's not the most important aim! 

Better than that is this ... your poems will be helping to raise much needed funds to support children in crisis. You will also retain ownership of your poem, and Wheelsong Books will protect and administer your copyright for you. 

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To be considered for inclusion in the review process you will need to follow these instructions very carefully:

Firstly, do not bother to submit your poetry if you do not intend to buy at least one copy of the book. We will expect you to pledge to buy at least one copy direct from Wheelsong Books if your work is published. This is a charity publication, and all profits from Amazon sales will go to help children in crisis. If you're not prepared to invest in helping children, we won't be publishing your poetry (we are dismayed that around two thirds of featured poets do not purchase a copy of the anthologies once they have been published). Please give more than you take, because this is not about you or about Wheelsong Books - it's about helping children who are in desperate need. 

Secondly, only submit poetry that is a) your own work and b) has not been subject to any other publishing agreement. Poetry you've shared on Facebook and other social media is fine, but please do not send in work that has been published elsewhere, and is subject to another publishing contract. That could lead to legal action. The editorial team will also reject poems if we suspect they have been either plagiarised in part or whole, or generated partly or wholly through artificial intelligence.

Thirdly, submit up to 3 poems as either plain text or in a Word file via email direct to this email address: wheelsong6@gmail.com. Submissions by any other means will not be considered. Poetry submitted as images or photos will not be considered, nor will links to other sites. Please supply a title for each of your poems. Please also supply your real name - we will not publish works by poets using pseudonyms. 

And before you ask: There is NO specific theme. Write about what you want. 

Finally, all poems submitted will be subject to review by our editorial team. Your poetry will be anonymised (your name blanked out) so the editorial team can't see who you are. If your poetry is selected, you will be informed via email and a publication agreement will be sent to you for you to complete and return. Your work will be then published under your name. If your work is not accepted for publication, you will receive an email informing you of the team's decision. No correspondence other than via email will be valid. Please don't try to text or direct message us. We won't answer. 

The window for submission is now open, and will be closed at midnight (UK time) on Sunday April 27, 2025. Any submissions received after this time/date will be rejected. If there is an extension to this date, you will be informed. The editors' decisions will be final. 

Please Note: Shorter poems are more likely to be accepted for publication than longer pieces - space will be limited in the book due to resource and production limitations. Several poetry groups will participate, including Invisible Poets, Wheelsong Poetry, Pure Poetry and Safe Haven. Poets from outside these groups are also eligible to take part, so point them to this blog, and keep visiting this blog to find out news as it unfolds. We look forward to reading your submissions. Good luck! 

Steve Wheeler (Editor in Chief) 

Photo courtesy of Save the Children

Sowing the poetry seed

You and I both know--because we are poets--that poetry is one of the greatest, most expressive art forms there is. We also know that it takes a lot to convince some people that it's a worthwhile pursuit. Often we are met within indifference, apathy. It's clear that some others don't share our passion. 

"Yeah, well. Not really into poetry..."

"Too many thees and thous for my liking..."

"Poetry is boring..."

I'm sure you've heard these types of remarks before. I certainly have. Many times. It's a shame because poetry can be very exciting, dynamic, liberating, inspirational. 

As a poet you owe it to your friends to switch them on to something good!

So what does it take to get people interested in poetry? Well, you need to sow some poetry seed.  Here are a few things you could try:

1. Buy your friend/family member/work colleague/cell mate a copy of one of a great poetry book. One of the Wheelsong anthologies for example. They are packed full of premier poetry, and the poems are diverse. There's something in these books for every possible taste.

2. Show them a video of a poet performing their work. The more dynamic the performance, the more impact it will have. 

3. Set them a challenge to write a poem. Get them to read it out, and then, together, go through it to find the strong points, and areas where it can be improved.

These are all great ways to encourage people to get interested in poetry, but the last one is probably the most powerful. If they realise they can write their own poetry, they will definitely start to build an interest. 

Steve Wheeler 

Image used under a Creative Commons licence