>I enjoy reading my own work very much - it seems to reveal itself to me in
>a way that it doesnt on the page. When I feel I am close to finishing a
>piece I read it aloud to myself and try to hear it. Esp good with an
>audience so I can see reactions and sense the effect.......
>
> I'm sorry to say that lots of really very good poets present their own
>work very badly though. I was at the 'Manchester Festival of Commonwealth
>Literature' yest with a group of students and I was embarrassed for some
>of the poets - the 'mumbling down into their books' style of reading
>predominated - esp I have to say, amongst the men. Maybe women just have
>to be lots more confident to get up and read at all? Or have more sense
>of how to communicate effectively?
>
> My students, most of whom had never been to a reading before, were very
>quick to distinguish who read well from who read badly and even to
>recognise good poetry being read badly! And I was amazed at the level of
>concentration the so-called 'sound bite generation' have! They kept up
>their concentration in a reading that included 7 poets, and their main
>complaint about the day was that I gave them too much free time!
>
> Liz
That's neat, Liz. I will say that in Canada there is a publicly supported
reading 'circuit' (?), well lots of writers, not just poets, give readings
that are funded by the Canada Council. One thing that hs happened is that
most have learned how to read in public, for the audience of course, but
also I hope, as you say, in order to discover aspects of their work in the
realm of performance. Thos who contin ue to mumble, as you put it, simply
end up not being invited to give many readings. Now some authors decried
this as mere performance having nothing to do with the art of writing, &
even perhaps harming the writing, while others felt that it enhanced
aspects of the writing. Certainly sound poetry has to be performed; but I
have also found that my work in sound has afffected, I hope positively, my
writing of what bpNichol, who also argued the value of working in various
metiers & utilising what's learbed in one in the others, called 'trad
poetry.' Anyway, I guess there's something of a culture of public readings
in Canada, now that the CC has been supporting them for 40 years or so, &
so most of us take them for granted, & enjoy hearing, as well as reading,
poetry, etc.
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
There is no real
world, my friends.
Why not, then
let the stars
shine in our bones?
Robert Kroetsch
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