Poets on Poetry Readings

Posted on December 23, 2006
Filed Under Poetry | 2 Comments

Dale Hobson of North Country Public Radio interviewed me & several other North County poets on the subject of giving poetry readings. I haven’t actually given a reading in quite a while — the whole ritual is vaguely embarrassing — but I didn’t admit to that. You can download or stream it here.

Comments

2 Responses to “Poets on Poetry Readings”

  1. Paul Lamble on December 26th, 2006 6:41 am

    I’ve often wondered that about poetry (and other) readings. They’ve always struck me as being for the great benefit of the adoring audience rather than to any tangible good for the poet. But not being a poet or a public reader, I can’t be sure.

  2. Joseph Duemer on December 26th, 2006 8:27 am

    Paul, I’ve given a few readings I really enjoyed. When you get into it, there is a kind of performance hight that sets in & you feel a response from the audience. Obviously, it’s not like playing lead guitar or anything. And the readings I have gone to in order to listen have been a very mixed affair. The best ones have been where the poet gets into the performance & out of him or her self; the worst have been mere displays of egotism. One of the best readings I every went to was by Muriel Rukeyser shortly before her death. Around that same time I witnessed the most painful reading of my life, by Elizabeth Bishop. It was painful not because she read badly, but because she appeared to want to be anywhere but where she was. And the most electrifying reading I ever witnessed was by John Berryman — he was so drunk everyone was waiting for him to fall off the stage; but in fact, he was so out of his mind that he delivered the Dream Songs with manic energy. His speech between the poems was slurred, but not while reading / reciting them. It was like watching a very bright star just before it explodes.