Word up Versifying at the Mad Poets Cafe BY BILL RODRIGUEZ

The public’s enthusiasm for the Mad Poets Cafe surprised the organizers. About 45 people showed up at the first event at the Warwick Art Museum three summers ago, a healthy turnout for a poetry reading — and it wasn’t even in Providence. What was to be a one-shot gathering has become a monthly series, which last year won a Providence Phoenix readers’ poll award for "Best Place To Hear A Reading."

Each of the readings begins with an open mike, where budding or seasoned poets may step up and join in without the competitive pressure of a poetry slam. Slams are high-energy, applause-ranking competitions that are closer to gladiatorial combat than to Robert Frost mumbling in a cardigan. (At AS220, open slams are held on the fourth Thursday of each month starting at 7:30 pm. Call 401.831.9327.)

Poet Harris Gardner was a cofounder of the Mad Poets Cafe series and has continued to moderate the programs. Regarding slams, he is careful to downplay their limitations, such as a tendency to value fireworks over substance.

"Every form of poetry has its own validity," Gardner said. "Good slam poets have good poetry. The good slam poets make it with good poetry — performance is secondary."

Or, as he also observed, "If it doesn’t work on the page, forget the stage.

"The competitions have brought in audiences that would not normally go to poetry," he added, "and that has done some good."

But Gardner is more interested in the mainstream poetry of the Warwick series. He has introduced close to 200 poets in the past three years, such as 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winner Franz Wright, Rhode Island poet laureate Tom Chandler, and Mairead Byrne, who teaches English at RISD and will be back this year by popular request.

"Poetry is one of the unappreciated elegant arts," Gardner said. "I think it brings, hopefully, an enhancement to the language of a culture. Hopefully, it makes them more human.

"Our culture does not appreciate poetry to the extent that the European culture does," he said. "I don’t know whether [that’s because] our focus in this country is more on the material. I’m perplexed, myself. In other countries poetry and arts are heavily endowed from the top."

Gardner lives in Boston, but has continued to host the Mad Poets series. He has organized other poetry events and series in the Bay State, published volumes of his own poetry, and last year was poet-in-residence at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts.

The museum’s executive director, Damon Campagna, is glad to be able to offer a program that brings people from Providence to Warwick, instead of the other way around. The casual coffeehouse-like setting is part of the event’s appeal, he noted. Before the featured poets read, many who participate at the open mike appreciate the relaxed atmosphere.

"They don’t have to be afraid of doing it in the sort of loud, noisy, competitive environment like the way a lot of slams work," he said. "They also don’t feel like they have to be part of a poetry club — you come in with your material, you show up."

The museum’s program director of literature and poetry is Sara-Anne Beaulieu, who recently received an MFA in poetry from New England College. She sees the Mad Poets Cafe as serving more than a need for entertainment.

"This society is moving further and further away from poetry, or even the written word," she observed by e-mail. "We are such a media-focused and driven society. I think we are getting more and more removed from the spiritual and emotional components of art.

"We seem to be very much in the ‘I want it now’ age, where no one takes the time to sit and read a book," she continued. "That’s why I was so very grateful for a venue like the museum. What a wonderful opportunity for local writers and the community to get together and celebrate poetry. Keeps the torch burning, so to speak."

The Mad Poets Cafe continues on Saturday, June 25 from 7 to 10 pm, as it does on the fourth Saturday of each month. Admission is $5, which includes refreshments. (Reservations are recommended at 401.737.0010 or at madpoets@warwickmuseum.org.) This month’s poets are Frannie Lindsay, who won the May Swenson Award last year; 1993 Washington Prize-winner Fred Marchant; and poetry instructor Deborah DeNicola.