REFLECTIONS ON READING AS A POET

I read some poems recently at Modern Methods Brewery Company in Warren. It was a nice crowd, with some friends there. After a handful of us read, there was an open mike session, so college kids and even those that had already been featured could read again.

I always reflect on this kind of experience, how it benefits or doesn't benefit my work as a poet and writer. It's an interesting experiment for sure, to step out into a public arena with a page of what has been written to be read silently. There's work to be read and work to be performed. The first couple of pieces I read I wrote keeping the Warren gig in mind. The other poems, from my collection, Singing in the Dark, would fall into the category of poems written to be read as they are deeply personal, about family, loss and roots. 

It's not my favorite experience to be in front of an audience, mostly because most of my life I've trained myself to be a good audience to others. It always feels awkward to be center stage, even when I tell myself it's for the good of what I am reading and has to be done in order to sell a book. I wonder whether public readings were a thing 50 years ago, a requirement for poets and writers, the way it is now. Everyone reads now. And in the same way that there is competition with the written word, there is competition with the spoken one. Sad to say, reading is very rarely an aesthetic experience, because too many readers come up to the podium. After the featured readers, audience members are now invited to come up and read their work--as if a multiplicity of readers guarantees holding an audience! What it does, more often than not, is erase the impact of the well-crafted works by practiced writers who read first.

During a phone interview today with Mankh (Walter E. Harris III), my first publisher,  I reflected more on loudness versus softness in poetry and other subjects such as the influence of biculturalism on my writing and my imperative to interweave historicity with personal narratives. Mankh is the publisher of AllBook Books, which published Jewel Fire, my first poetry chapbook in 2011. 

During today's interview Mankh read excerpts from Singing in the Dark and had me read "L'infidele" from that book. I also read "Nina, as in Nina Simone," which I wrote more recently, as we also talked about music, especially jazz, and its influence on writing and poetry.

I'll share the link to our interview here when I get it.

                                                                                    Photo by MJ Bailey