"I can't deny enjoyment of it, but there's not really a choice in the matter," says Frandsen, one of three poets from Utah in Albuquerque, N.M., today to compete in this year's National Poetry Slam. "I just can't not write."

His Salt Lake City teammate, Shae (no last name), feels the same way. He started writing poetry in the form of rock lyrics for his band. He learned poetry essentials at Bountiful High School, a place where he felt like an outsider.

Then he saw "Slam Nation," a documentary about the National Poetry Slam and "it changed my life," Shae says between puffs on a cigarette (his chain-smoking, like his language, harks back to the beatnik era of the 1950s.) "I saw people get up there and basically say the same things I was saying in my music. But it was no music; it was poetry. It opened up my eyes to a whole new culture."

Performing is the best way to experience poetry, says Natasha Saje, a poet and teacher at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.

"It started as an oral art, so the rhythm and the music of the human voice make it come alive," she says. "The vast majority of [poems] are meant to be read aloud."

Saje is one of four prominent Utah poets - along with Paul Swenson, Jean Howard and Alex Caldiero - who performed at a recent fundraiser for the slam team. "Poetry is a way of thinking more deeply about things, and we need more deep thinking in our culture. Anything I can do to support that, I will."

About 400 poets from the United States and abroad are in Albuquerque for the poetry slam, now in its 14th year.

Poets must write and perform their own poetry; in a "slam," they compete and judges in the audience award them points based on the quality of poem and performance.

The slam bills itself as "part Super Bowl, part poetry summer camp and part traveling exhibition."

It's a chance to network and attend lectures such as "The Feminine Voice in Political Poetry: How to Write a Political Poem Without Writing a Political Poem," and, of course, watch and listen as comrades and competitors perform an art that often involves audience participation.

Old rivalries re-emerge or new ones form. Big-time poets such as Taylor Mali and slam team dynasties such as one from Ann Arbor, Mich., become targets. "Sometimes the competition becomes more important than the poetry, which is sad," Shae says. "What I want to do with the Salt Lake team is bring it back to poetry."

For Frandsen, performing is a chance to promote his poetry and Push Publications, his small publishing house that so far has put out two volumes of poetry. He first got into writing poetry when one of his postal co-workers "said I was saying things that were interesting and unique" and should write them down. Once he started, he couldn't stop.

Shae, who started going to Salt Lake City's Cup of Joe for its frequent poetry slams, still incorporates music and rhythm into his performances. Like Frandsen, he says his poems don't generally fit into any particular category - though he admits: "Recently, it's been kind of breakup poetry. It's been the wallowing in my own existence poetry." He writes, he says, about things that affect his life. And poetry is a way to express those things he didn't say when he had a chance.

"I couldn't ask for a better team," Shae says of Frandsen and Zoe Dimitri, the third team member. "Those cats are crazy. . . . They're absolutely nuts. They're brilliant. I love working with brilliant people."

For the past few weeks, the poets have been meeting, writing and most of all, practicing. They have to memorize their poems or they risk humiliation on stage. Even if they don't screw up, they might get jeers from the crowd.

But the rush of the performing is worth the work. "You get caught up in the moment and you feel alive. And when you feel alive, what do you do? Anything goes," Shae says.

How the National Poetry Slam works

* During the four-day event, teams perform in opening bouts against several other teams.

* Team members must write and perform their own poetry; judges in the audience score them based on the quality of their poems and performances.

* Teams scoring in the top half overall move to the semifinals, and the final round ends with the crowning of a champion team.

* "Storm" poets, who aren't part of a team, have their own rounds.

The Utah team of Brian Frandsen, Shae (no last name) and Zoe Dimitri performs at 9 tonight at the National Poetry Slam. For information or to find out how teams score during the event, go to http://nps2005.org.