Should You Introduce Your Poem Before Reading It?
Quick answer: Should you introduce your poem before reading it? Yes, but briefly: one or two sentences of title and context, never an explanation of what the poem means.
Yes, a short introduction usually helps, but keep it to one or two sentences and never explain what the poem means. Give the audience a doorway, not a tour: the title, perhaps where the poem came from, and then read. The classic failure at open mics is the three-minute preamble before a one-minute poem. It drains the room's attention and, worse, it spoils the poem's own reveals.
Think of the introduction as tuning, not translation. You are giving listeners a second to settle, letting them hear your natural speaking voice so the shift into the poem registers, and offering just enough context that they are not lost. Anything the poem can say for itself, let it.
What a good introduction sounds like
The best introductions are almost throwaway. This one is called Salt, I wrote it after my grandmother's kitchen was packed up. That is plenty. It names the title, plants one concrete image, and gets out of the way. Notice what it does not do: it does not say the poem is about grief and memory and how objects hold the people we lose. The poem is about to do that work, and doing it twice halves the effect.
Some poems need a single fact to land. If your poem leans on a Greek myth, a news event, or a word in another language, give the audience that key in one sentence. Context that opens the poem is generous; interpretation that pre-chews it is not.
When to skip the introduction entirely
Skip it when the poem opens with a strong first line that works best cold, when you are reading several short poems in a row, or when the title alone does the contextual work. At slams, where every second counts against the clock and rules often forbid long intros, walk up, breathe, and begin. Silence before a first line can be a better introduction than speech.
Also skip anything defensive. I wrote this quickly, it is not finished, I am not sure it works: these sentences instruct the audience to think less of what follows, and audiences obey. If you are nervous, the poem does not need to know.
Introductions on the page and in contests
Written submissions follow the same principle in a different form. Most journals and contests want the poem to stand alone, without an explanatory note. Judges at Writory, for instance, score the poem itself on creativity, emotion, structure, language and theme; a paragraph explaining your intent cannot be scored, so spend that effort inside the poem. If a poem needs a preface to make sense, that is usually a revision note, not a formatting one.
The exception is an epigraph, a short quoted line under the title. Used sparingly, an epigraph is part of the poem's architecture and perfectly acceptable in submissions.
What poets can take from this
- Cap every introduction at two spoken sentences.
- Always say the title, then leave a beat of silence before the first line.
- Explain a reference the poem depends on; never explain the poem's meaning.
- Cut any sentence that apologises for the poem or for your nerves.
- For short poems, consider no introduction at all beyond the title.
- In written submissions, let the poem stand without an explanatory note.
Try it yourself
Write a poem whose title does all the introducing, a title of five words or more that gives the reader time, place and speaker, so the first line can start mid-scene.
Questions
Should I say the title of my poem before reading it?
Yes. The title is part of the poem and listeners cannot see it. Say it clearly, pause for a breath, then begin, so the audience can hear where the title ends and the poem starts.
How long should a poem introduction be at an open mic?
Ten to twenty seconds. If your set is five minutes, every minute of talking is a poem you did not read. Organisers and audiences consistently prefer more poem and less preamble.
Can I explain my poem after reading it instead?
Resist that too, unless someone asks. Post-reading explanations flatten whatever ambiguity made the poem interesting. Let listeners keep their own version; it is usually richer than the footnote.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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