the end-of-line note

Petersen: Kleichen and a Man by George Szirtes
50 secs, poem text

Most days, I listen to someone reading poetry, even if it’s just clicking on the Poetry Foundation Poem of the Day in my news reader. I also stop listening very quickly if it doesn’t go right, and by that, I mean, does the reader establish an end-of-line note and keep returning to it throughout the reading? If not, I’ll keep listening. George Szirtes (about whom I know pretty much nothing else) avoids this phenomenon, and I like that.

Test your own reading. Pretend the reading is a musical performance for a solo instrument and listen to the note that sounds at the end of most of the lines. If you hear the same end-of-line note repeated throughout the reading, go back and deliberately vary it each time. It’s a trap easily fallen into (speaking from experience here) but, once identified and acknowledged, also easily escaped from.

using voice to investigate and internalize

Love this post from Anthony Madrid.

When I was in the middle phase of dissertation writing, I developed a technique of reading I found so helpful and enriching that I want to urge it upon the whole world. This technique is a simple thing—“obvious”—yet I was forty before it ever occurred to me to do it. Now I can’t imagine my life as a serious reader of poetry without it. I’ll tell you the back story.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made – and so are you

watch this beautiful child

(cross-posted at Very Like A Whale)

OK, Mark Doty

A recitation, not a reading – very nicely done in my view.

A reading. I find it a tiny bit overdone, and would have wanted to have less emphasis on the outbreath in many places, but still, he definitely has what it takes.

music when you read?

We talked a while back about people who, while they read, appear to hear a music which both guides and manifests itself in their reading. Cin Salach and Carl Sandburg are my favorite examples of this phenomenon. (NB: They do it well, and engagingly, but I have also heard it done excruciatingly badly.)

Here we have it again, in the voices of two Norwegian poets who do the readings for these two delightful videopoems by Kristian Pedersen (via Moving Poems):

(And just in case you think all Norwegian poets read like this, you can check out more Kristian Pedersen filmpoems at Moving Poems – Norway definitely has its fair share of non-singing poets.)

thumbs up, Joanie Mackowski

One Afternoon by Joanie Mackowski (1 min 15 sec)
poem text

The House Gift by Joanie Mackowski (1 min)
poem text

Lovely warm voice and relaxed, natural reading style. I had never heard of her before, I have to say, but am happy to have found her voice.

poetry doesn’t sell because it isn’t performed well enough

(Cross-posted from Very Like A Whale) Interesting reading from the folks at Commercial Poetry:

… poetry sales figures make it abundantly clear that no one buys poetry without performance of that poem, of that poet’s work or of poetry in general. Aside from the paltry numbers involved, the model of publishing a tome and then doing readings for a few dozen friends and fellow poets fails for two reasons:

- it must be a performance, not a reading; and,
- it is ass-backwards: live, film or theatrical production comes before any expectation of profitable text publication.

This was true even in poetry’s heyday. Shakespeare’s plays were not collected and published until well after he retired. How many copies would his scripts have sold without production? Just as you don’t buy MP3s of songs/artists you’ve never heard, interest in individual poets usually began with seeing their work performed, not necessarily by the poet*. If enough of that writer’s work caught your fancy you might buy the book or catch the author on tour. Contrast that to poetry’s status quo: to no one’s surprise, people who have never encountered a contemporary poem being performed competently are not enthused about reading any particular poem or poetry in general. How many Superbowl tickets are purchased by those who have never seen a football game?

I especially love the footnote corresponding to the asterisk above:

Footnote:
* The notion that anyone other than the author would want to perform a contemporary poem seems utterly foreign to today’s poets. As long as this is the case there is no hope for poetry’s reanimation.

‘An inchling bristles in these pines’

Lol, I love the energy and the humor in this Wallace Stevens reading.

Bantams in Pine-Woods
by Wallace Stevens (52 secs)
poem text

‘To enter in these bonds, is to be free’

Very nice reading of Donne’s On His Mistress Going To Bed by the British actor, Jasper Britton. Of course, their training gives actors a huge advantage over the rest of us when it comes to reading poetry aloud for an audience.

a cool recitation learning tool

A great recitation learning tool from the folks out Poetry Out Loud. (hat tip: the Commercial Poetry blog.) The text at the top of the page frames the intent in presenting below nine videos of young performers, each reciting a different poem in their own performance style. The idea is for teachers to view the videos with students and discuss what the class feels worked or did not work in the performances. What a terrific initiative. Just for fun, my own take on the nine videos (I can’t link to them individually, so you have to watch them at the Poetry Out Loud link):

1. Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem by Gregory Corso
Although good understanding of the material was evident and diction good, I’m afraid I found this one a little over-rehearsed and therefore less convincing.

2. Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
He nailed it – fully agree with the performance assessment appearing underneath the video. This struck me as the best of the nine videos, along with No. 4 below.

3. Bilingual/Bilingüe by Rhina P. Espaillat
Mixed peformance here – moments of great timing and perfect tone, gesture & expression, but also some overdone moments. More good stuff than weaker stuff overall, though.

4. Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun by William Shakespeare
Super performance. Deliberately a bit larger than life and humorous, fantastic diction, expression and timing. Best of the bunch in my view, along with No. 2 above.

5. Frederick Douglass by Robert E. Hayden
I liked this a lot. Was a bit slow to start with, but the style grew on me quickly. Loved the slow deliberate pace and her confidence in the material. Favorite moments were the snap of her fingers on ‘action’ and her voice/facial expression when she said ‘alien.’ Could have varied the agonized facial expression a little more, but overall, great job.

6. I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Nice job. Kudos to the performer for taking on a such a long piece, with that risky repetitive “I am waiting” as its backbone. She worked well to vary her delivery, exudes confidence and joy, nicely mixes satire and sincerity. Great diction and presence.

7. The Man-Moth by Elizabeth Bishop
Very well prepared and delivered – another long one at over 4 minutes. Agree with the assessment underneath the video: “His skillful and deliberate pacing, rhythm, and intonation complement the poem’s language and its subtle shift in mood—from observation to intimacy. His gestures are economical and flow through the poem as an integral part of the recitation, working deftly to heighten its overall impact.” One minor gripe (and this is very personal and rather amorphous, even to me) was that I would have liked to have seen a little more humility before the material on the part of the performer. If that even makes sense…

8. Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins
A difficult piece to take on, but a good try. Felt a bit over-rehearsed in places to me, but loved the delivery of the last couple of lines: “He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:/ Praise him.”

9. Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams
This didn’t really work for me. I found the half-grin facial expression that kept coming back a bit distracting, and the slow pacing seemed over-emphasized to me. A brave attempt, though, and good mastery of the material.