 |
 |
|
|
3.
AOTW: Does reciting poetry enhance the experience? Do you ever do readings of your own poetry for an audience?
Paul B. Janeczko: Reading poetry aloud is essential to really hearing it. Poetry is sound. The sound comes from rhythm, rhyme, word order, word choice. And you cannot really hear many of those elements when you read poetry to yourself.
Most of the readings that I do are in school or conferences for teachers and librarians. I enjoy reading to an audience, especially when they are sending out good energy.
Betsy Franco: It makes me feel vulnerable to read my poetry in front of groups, but I do it when I give presentations at schools, libraries, bookstores, or conferences. It's exciting to feel the audience response. I love reading from my teen anthologies, You Hear Me? Poems and Writing by Teenage Boys and Things I Have To Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Candlewick Press, 2000 and 2001), which consist of poems I compiled from teenagers across the country. It's thrilling to read those, because people are always so surprised, moved, and transformed by them.
Alan Katz: I have been doing sing-along presentations of the Bathtub songs in schools and libraries. It is among the most rewarding time I have ever spent as a writer.
Mary Ann Hoberman: A poem should be read out loud. Ideally, a poem should be memorized and recited out loud. I often do readings of my own poems in schools and libraries, and I sprinkle the talks that I give to both children and adults with recitations of my poetry. There is eye-poetry and there is ear-poetry, but the best poetry provides a feast for both ear and eye.
Marilyn Singer: Poetry should be read aloud, even if the reader is reading it aloud just to him/herself. It's an aural, as well as a visual, art. So, yes, I do read my poetry to an audience --- to my husband, to friends, to the public.
Sonya Sones: I read my poetry aloud constantly while I'm writing it. It's the only way I can hear if the rhythm is working, and if it's sounding how I need it to sound. And I absolutely love reading my poems aloud to audiences. It gives me an amazing feeling of connection with my listeners. I don't think a poem truly comes to life until it's spoken, until it's heard, until it's shared. So I never say no to an offer to read. Want me to read you a poem right now? Want me to? Huh? Huh?
Robin Hirsch: Yes on all counts.
X. J. Kennedy: It'll enhance the experience if the reciter recites well --- that is, without a mouth full of mush. Guess I've given 250 or so readings in my life, not counting visits to elementary schools.
|
|
|
|
|
(c) Copyright 2002, AuthorsOnTheWeb.com. All rights
reserved.
|
|
