Dave:
Your mention of footnoting brings up a minor question that is nonetheless interesting to me: how do you approach footnoting a poem? Where do you cut off what a reader is either (A) likely to understand or (B) able to figure out from context, and if something doesn't fit into one of those categories, do you always footnote it? I generally try to avoid footnotes as much as possible, as I sort of get the feeling that a lot of readers will be insulted if I use them much, but at the same time I know of at least one instance in my poetry where a footnote was the difference between one good reader saying "I'm not sure I understand this" and "Wow, I like this." Go figure.
Also, on the topic of Slam, I think it's a good thing as long as you don't call it "Slam Poetry" since it's not poetry. It's a performance art combining equal parts of poetry, rap, and storytelling, and as such I think it's a pretty neat idea and a good way of making the arts appealing to generally good, smart people who might not seek it out by themselves. The problems start when people think Slam matches up well as written poetry with work by even a decent poet.
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Steve Schroeder
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