Poetry Programmer Extraordinaire

Prosopopeia

2011-09-18T12:37:00.005-04:00

Listen to me!

They have no idea how wonderful you are. You are the most incredible person. You deserve love letters and poetry and slow dances in the rain. Every minute that goes by is carrying us away with it.

Like a snapshot with lemon yellow light flooding exposure, I am frozen in time and space.

I have. I am. I thought I’d die. But I didn’t.

Two radiating		bodies
posed, fac		ing each-
other, in		the open
air. The spa		ce sur-
rounding		them clear-
ed of		things. Fig-
ure 1 see		ks the orb-
it of		Figure 2—
not ful		ly grown.
Both ex		posed,
wear		ing the
same cloth		es looking
indistinguish		able from one
another, like lit		tle bits of viv-
fied matter try		ing to stand
their ground.		Figure 1 gent-
ly touches		the slope of
shoulder		with affect-
tion		and says,

“That is what you are to me.”

Joanne Leva

How to prepare & give a poetry reading (part 3)

2011-09-04T13:37:00.014-04:00

Write it out

When you write - hand-write - your poems on a sheet of paper with an ink pen or a sharp pencil. Words and their truest intrinsic meanings become known through the simple act of writing it out. Sometimes the shape of your poem will reveal itself or an area that needs definition will come to light.

Writing your poem on the page as you would say it out loud helps to organize and define its story line and structure. These elements surface when you think of the page as your medium. A clean page is more than a piece of stationary. It is the vehicle for the telling. It is the surface that refines the art of the poem.

[ UNTITLED ]

Meg McFarland was one

year older than me

and when you’re

in kindergarten

that’s huge.

Meg would talk

back to her mother

so much that her mom

would routinely straddle her

on the floor in front of me and shove

a bar of ivory soap

in her mouth

as I look-

ed on.

Meg

had no fear. I

remember the day

she and I decided it would

be good to lay in the street and

wait for a car to come along, just to see

if it would stop.

Meg really got it for

that one. I don’t remember

too much about Meg’s mom except

for how she used to yell in her crackly voice, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"

Joanne Leva

How to prepare & give a poetry reading (part 2)

2011-08-30T22:59:00.000-04:00

Show them your world

This is your landscape. Talk about your journey. What is not happening is just as important as what is happening. You are creating space with your poems and with your words. Your poems have substance. Images and metaphors have tangible qualities that engage and fill the the room with impressions.

It is important to go slow when you read your poetry. Take time to pause and look at your audience. Listen carefully, you will know your listeners caring hearts by their stillness. You will hear them listening. Their silence has sound.

As the medicine

goes through your blood

you lie still

apparatus around you beeps

and you jump

we jump

at the thought of it

your belly is red

the tubes are clear

your arm taught

from needles and tape

and cotton

and your mother

like cotton

comes to you religiously

she stands over you

and sings

her music

echoes in your ears

and in the room

the whole room becomes full

of you and your mother

she touches you

and you feel her softness

she holds your hand

you feel her gentle fingertips

she comes closer

and your pain disappears

when she is near

your world changes

Joanne Leva

How to prepare & give a poetry reading (part 1)

2011-08-27T17:05:00.000-04:00

Consider Your Audience

As you would invite a friend into your home, invite your audience into the body of your work. They want to know who you are and what is important to you, so begin with a poem or two written by a poet who inspires you. Maybe you have an absolute favorite poem, that whenever you read it you get goose bumps or you find it calls you to write your own story. This sets the emotional tone of your reading.

Try to remember your audience is a living, breathing body in and of itself, and they want to inhabit the images, metaphors, and situations you explore in your work, so don't leave them at the front door. Bring them in. Open the door.

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The Essential Rumi

Translation by Coleman Barks with John Moyne