Spoken Word Artist Or A Poet; What's The Difference?

With written word, the inner spirit of a poem is there on the page, and the poet connects individually with the reader.  The page dictates the line breaks, and the reader determines the pacing and tempo when the poem is read silently in the reader's head or out loud.  The words are there to savor or to return to whenever needed by the reader.  Books are comfortable companions that surround the reader with intimate connections from the writer.  There is an individual communion and healing between the poet and the reader.

Once that poem moves off the page and is performed with the rhythm and the soul of the artist it makes a different kind of connection, a connection with the community, and it now speaks to the masses.  The artist determines the rhythm and spirit of the poem and sometimes starts to merge other art forms into the performance as well.  The poem is now alive being acted out or told like a riveting story.

Poets aspire publication while Spoken Word Artist aspire the stage and the masses.