By Shaylene Silva

A microphone and a music stand are the only items placed in the middle of the floor. All eyes are on Christopher Johnson. He closes his eyes and begins to recite his poem from memory. This lyric is about his poetry, and he compares his prose to sexual gratification. As he recites his words, most of the audiences’ mouths are agape. There are expressions of shock and embarrassment across the room. Johnson has the audience exactly where he wants them – in the palm of his hand.

Johnson comes to practice his work at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge on Sunday nights and has been doing so for 10 years. He gets motivation for his poems from various outlets.

“Life is my inspiration. A lot of my poems come from my life experiences. I try to stay away from political topics because I feel like it doesn’t show the skills of poetry – it doesn’t take very much to talk about politics,” said Johnson.

The Lounge is where Poetry Slam Jam takes place. Slam poetry is the competitive art of performance poetry. According to www.poetryslam.com, it puts a dual emphasis on writing and performance, encouraging poets to focus on what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. The Lizard Lounge’s slams began three years ago after Jeff Robinson, a musician, poet, actor and director, was approached by several local poets who felt the event would contribute to the social fabric of the neighborhood. The venue is now home to veteran poets and newcomers alike.

“We have a diversity that few [poetry] venues can boast about. We get a lot of different types of poets – black, white, young, old, gay, lesbian – that’s what’s good about The Lizard Lounge. We have a lot of diversity,” Robinson said.

The Lounge also tries to get the audience involved in the show as much as possible. Five to six judges are randomly chosen to judge the weekly slam competition. New visitors to The Lounge are sought out by Robinson. He likes to have new people judge the slam because they are not sure what is going to happen and don’t know what to expect.

“The judges are the ones that make the slam happen,” Robinson said.

After hearing the poems, the judges then write down scores between zero and 10 and hold them up. The votes are tabulated and the winner gets the chance to move on to the semi-finals, where they will compete for a spot at The National Poetry Slam Finals, held in St. Louis in August.

John Christofano, 43, an aspiring novelist and a first-time visitor to The Lounge, was thoroughly impressed.

“It is much more of a subculture than I realized,” he said. “People do this everyday, you can’t just whip out a poem. People use this as a venue to express a lot of their social attitudes and personal pain.”

The Lizard Lounge is located at 1667 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge, a short walk from the Porter Square T stop on the Red Line. For more information, call (617) 547-0759, or visit www.PoetryJam.com.

1984 Marc Smith, a construction worker and poet, starts a poetry reading series at a Chicago jazz club, the Get Me High Lounge, jump starting the open-mic “scene.”

1986 Smith meets with Dave Jemilo, owner of the Green Mill, a jazz hangout in Chicago, to talk of having a weekly poetry composition. Jemilo agrees and on July 25, the Uptown Poetry Slam is born. The Uptown Poetry Slam grows and continues nearly 15 years after its start.

1987 Ann Arbor, Mich. becomes the second oldest slam series. New York City, San Francisco and Fairbanks, Alaska follow.

1990 The first-ever national slam is held on Oct. 18 in San Francisco featuring four person teams from Chicago and San Francisco and an individual poet from NYC.

1991-1995 For the next couple of years, national poetry slam competitions are held, helping to extend Smith’s original reach.

1996 “SlamNation,” a documentary by Paul Devlin is shot in Portland, Ore.

1998 “SlamNation” premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.

1999 Poetry Slam, Inc. files for official non-profit status. Information courtesy of www.slampapi.com. find one near you:

Lizard Lounge 1667 Mass. Ave. Cambridge (617) 547-0759

Cantab Lounge 738 Mass. Ave. Cambridge (617)354-2685

Club Passim 47 Harvard St. Cambridge (617) 492-5300

For more listings in the Boston area, check out www.poetryjam.com