his Beat poetry. Sutton-Spence notes that the energy of the poets at NTID in the 1980s was akin to Ginsberg's imagery, creating their own "ASL Poetry hydrogen jukebox". Translating sign language poetry into spoken or written language is extremely difficult, as it is impossible to translate the movements and facial expressions and the story being told by the poet's body itself into words. In sign language, it is often said that poetry is articulated through the poet's body, and the poem is performed rather than simply signed. ASL poets have more of a physical connection to their work due to the inherent need to express their works through their body. The poet-performer is never separated from their creations because they are always in front of the audience, whether in person or on video. Heidi M. Rose compares ASL poets to performance artists, in the sense that both create artistic works expressed through their body. Both genres are often autobiographical and do not separate the artists from the works of art they create. In performance art, artists and audiences have a different relationship with one another than in other art forms; artists perform and develop their sense-of-self and audiences have a deeper understanding of the artist. Cynthia Peters makes a similar comparison between ASL poetry and spoken oral poetry traditions. Spoken oral poetry is not simply read aloud, but rather experienced in a community setting. Audiences gather to participate in a group experience, and oral poets create works that appeal to their particular audience and relate to them using their bodies, expressions and props. Similarly to the performance art genres discussed by Rose, oral poetry is rife with aspects infused by the performer that cannot be communicated in writing. Each iteration of the poem varies from the last performance, and it is impossible to define one authoritative version. Furthermore, given that an oral poet is usually a member of the community to whom they are performing, other observers who lack the group's cultural knowledge may miss nuances that the target audience understands. Peters notes that oral poetry in spoken languages is growing less common, but due to the unwritten nature of ASL poetry, alongside its tendency to be created and performed in front of an audience, it is a flourishing oral art form. In relation to ASL poetry, this raises the difficult question of authorship, and how another performer relates to