Here’s Rachel Dacus reading her own poem “I spend an afternoon with Monet.” It starts at 30 seconds in and ends at the 2-minute mark.
This is the kind of reading I like – conversational, engaged, convincing. Great breath control, volume and diction, beautifully varied tone and good pace, but Rachel also brings in that intangible – she is very much inside the poem, communicating out of it to you. You can tell she knows the poem well and has practiced reading it, but there is still an element of spontaneity to the performance which I find authentic and convincing. As a bonus, we get great eye contact and facial expressions too.
If I have one very minor nit, I’d vote for eliminating the hand-gestures – the reading doesn’t need them, and I found them a touch distracting and detracting.
Thanks for sharing, Rachel!
April 15, 2011 at 9:09 am
I love this, Rachel. And I agree with Nic that the conversational tone and pace is wonderful. I disagree with Nic in terms of the hand gestures. Perhaps less of them, but if someone is speaking in a conversational tone and they use their hands in conversation, then it follows that they will use their hands when reading as well. It didn’t bother me.
April 15, 2011 at 9:12 am
Yep, this is how it’s done! Thanks for sharing it, Nic. I kind of liked the hand gestures; I just think Rachel could scale back on them a bit.
April 15, 2011 at 9:16 am
Dave, Susan – thanks for stopping by and commenting. It is a really minor nit for me — I think this reading is very well done overall and warmly congratulate Rachel. Skills like this are unfortunately not as widespread as they might be in the poetry world. Best, N
April 15, 2011 at 9:20 am
(Didn’t see Susan’s comment until I’d already posted mine. Glad to see we agree on the hand gestures.)
April 15, 2011 at 9:51 am
Nic, thanks so much for posting this! I am so happy to hear what you and Dave and Susan have to say about this reading. I’m working on my public reading skills, and so this is great feedback to get. I’ll use the hands but maybe not as much.
I thought the same, Nic; they were maybe too often in the frame. Thanks again!
April 15, 2011 at 10:15 am
Rachel – We all learn from those who have the courage to put themselves out there — thank *you* for that! Best, N
May 21, 2011 at 11:18 am
Just for fun, I toss in this defense of the not-conversational way Yeats read (and lived): “The long cape, the flowing tie, the brown velveteen jacket, the cawing voice, the chanted poetry, were no mere affectation, but a declaration of every man’s right to be himself, to act himself out. Yeats consciously assumed a Mask–the word is his own–and wore it until it became part of himself, an antithetical part, according to his own philosophy.” –D. A. Stauffer