is this mine

He read haltingly and with a puzzled expression on his face, as though he wasn’t reading his own work, but rather someone had handed him an unknown text before he came to podium.

bird poop

The poet who organized the reading got to the outdoor venue early and began wiping down seats soiled by catbirds.

about to clap

About to clap, put your hands in your lap…apparently the poet didn’t see that passage as the place to close.

mistaken landscape

I remember once reading a new draft of a poem I was quite proud of, only to be corrected after by a member of the audience, that the mountains I called Sierra Madre must have been Sierra Nevada, given other details of locale in the poem.(Gah...a head-slap here). He was right. Somehow John Huston's classic movie had insinuated its landscape into my composition, and I hadn't noticed it.

made thing

I went to a poetry reading tonight: Just wow—the human voice and all the experience contained therein expressed openly, asking for no safety—trusting the made thing that is the poem.

[The 59th Wallace Stevens Poetry Program with Brenda Hillman]

same same

One felt the poet could go on endlessly in the same register and tone of voice.

mood matters

Remember that your mood will determine how you read or hear a poem.

always be closing

At poetry readings, I’ve seen poets who can’t even sell a few copies after having read from their book(s). This should be a cause for concern. You should be able to close the deal in the room.

old new borrowed blue

For a wedding they say it’s good luck for the bride to wear ‘something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue’. This could be the model for a good poetry reading: Read something old, read something new, read something borrowed (the generous act of reading another poet’s poem), and the blue will be evident in the reading because it’s poetry.

bad poet good person

When you are the organizer of a reading series, inevitably someone who is a terrible poet but a very nice person will ask to be a featured reader (often touting a self-published book)—and there is no good way of saying no.

strength in numbers

One of those times when the open mike readers bested the featured poet.

echo form

Two people walk into a poetry reading late, while the reader is reciting her pantoum. The guy says to his date, 'Gosh, there's a terrible echo in this room'.

freebird

At the poetry reading they were all holding up lighters
and calling out for me to read “Free Bird.” I went flapping
through pages of my book, but I couldn't find that poem.

memory of robert bly

I heard Robert Bly read no more than a couple times in my life. Memorable for me was when we brought our infant son to a reading Bly did in Springfield MA. Generally we could get away with doing that, by sitting in the back in case we had to make a hasty exit. This time it didn't work so well: The baby let out a loud cry...but before we could get up and hurry out of the room, Bly called for us to bring the baby to him. Stopping his reading to greet the baby with good words and praise for his early interest in poetry, etc. I'm not certain all of the audience was pleased by the interruption, but you'd have to be pretty hard-hearted not to be impressed by his generous spirit...and it made a lasting impression on my wife and me.

last word

Voices die away. It's the poetry that continues. Hold forth as long as you can, but the written words, recorded words, the remembered words, those will be sustained or not.

[Written in response to a fellow who overvalued poetry readings.]

fire-breather

A political poet whose mouth was like a flamethrower: He had the sympathetic audience leaning back in their seats to avoid being singed.

unsteady reading

The lectern was wobbly…the poems read even shakier.

written in sand

The poet thought he held his new poetry book in his hands, but as he read it turned into a handful of sand running through his fingers.

have you no shame

Apparently poets don’t embarrass easily.

back to even

The poet sold just enough books after the reading to pay for the gas to get there (and back).