A Poet You Might Like

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I know that she's been around forever, but I seldom read poetry. I don't even read it in The New Yorker. I don't understand poetry. It seems too hard. I feel dumb when I read it. But then I listened to some of This American Life's holiday podcasts and they had Sharon Olds on to read some of her work. There is a reason she's able to make a living as a poet. Here are some of them for you:

"Take the I Out"

"I Go Back to May 1937"

"My Son the Man"

This is the one she read on This American Life that I loved so much. It's called "The Race."

I forgot to mention that Lisa Marie and I went to see an open mike night last week. It was set up so that anyone could sign up to tell a story, though it had to be on the subject of holiday spirit, and to stay within a 5 minute time period. Each speaker was then judged by a point system. I wanted to see what it's like in case I ever want to do something like that. We saw five of them and none were very good. One girl told a story about eating bugs--that was the best one. Another guy over told his story, using lots of crazy facial expressions and hand gestures. Another man mumbled and Lisa Marie had to look away in anguish.

You can't believe how some people don't know how to tell a story. Or how they would be brave and dumb enough to not prepare something ahead of time--to just wing it. I couldn't do that. I would have to know exactly what I wanted to say and would have practiced it ahead of time. The next topic is "Beats," and I suppose I have plenty to say about feral cats in South Philadelphia, but I'm just not sure I want to get nervous about it or if I want to do it knowing I could fail. I only want to do it if I succeed. And win. And make people laugh and fall in love with me. Otherwise, why bother?

Comments

Mary Duffy said…
I have been thinking about doing this, the First Person Arts Story Slams, right? Ever since my stuff got put up on that website I've got mad confidence. I want to go to the next one at L'Etage. Will you please come with and tell a story about beasts?
11:49 AM
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