I do write differently, actually, based on whether it’s a spoken-word poem or not. I tend to write the s-w pieces in fragments, which I weave together later, and I often write those fragments (or large portions of them) in my head, reciting them aloud to remember them, instead of writing via a notebook or computer. The other pieces I tend to sit down with more, and I have a bit better plan ahead of time of what I want them to be; (they’re also a *little* more likely to look at the end like what I expected, in the beginning, I’d be writing.) So I would actually say I focus more on structure, at least in the prewriting stage (to whatever extent I have a “prewriting” stage), in the non-sw-poems, although I try very hard to make sure there is a structure in the s-w poems, as I revise them.

And I’m kind of all about how things sound regardless of the (sub-) genre, although that’s less evident in the project I was working on for a class recently because the prof who was guiding me is a huge opponent of interesting sounds. I’m hoping I can shirk that particular piece of his influence soon.

And now I have to go track down some of your poetry; you have me curious.

Actually, the majority of the pieces aren’t spoken-word. The only ones included here that I think of as spoken-word are the ones that have videos. (With the exception of “Sixteen” which I haven’t recorded yet.)