On Friday, I went to Julia Spicher Kasdorf’s poetry reading, which was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I had only ever been to a poetry slam before, so I wasn’t used to the crowd’s reactions, or the format of presentation. I was a little surprised that after serious poems, the crowd would laugh. I appreciated that Julia opened up the reading for questions and answers, although I had trouble hearing some of the questions asked. I personally enjoyed the reading more because we had studied Julia’s poetry in class, so I knew some of the basic structure and ideas that show up in her poems, and she read a poem I recognized, “English 213: Introduction to Poetry Writing,” which gives us a glimpse of her teaching and poetry readings. She often gave a little background information to her poems, which helped me to appreciate them more, since they’re often abstract. Overall, I found the poetry reading to be a very meaningful and thought-provoking experience.
Your first poetry reading! What a great poet to begin with;-) I noticed, too, that there was room for laughter even in Julia's serious poems. Glad the study in class helped with the listening. Did you have a favorite?
ReplyDelete