"Spoken Word" has come to mean slam poetry, or rap, which are in themselves interesting new literary forms
-- though I don't know if I put them in the same category as poetry readings, and I much prefer the quieter way of reading and writing.
Listening to poems has become for me a very stimulating part of my writing practice. So I'm pleased to find audio poetry spreading rapidly throughout the Internet. Poets.org, The Cortland Review, quarrtsiluni, and recently Nic Sebastian's new Whale Sound are sites I've enjoyed listening to. Whale Sound does a twist on the poem-read-aloud: it includes poets reading the work of other poets. This is a practice my local poetry group has tried, and it's a revelation to hear your own work -- or someone else's -- read in a different way than the author might read it.
