[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.cprw.com/the-lighter-side...etry-readings/

[Quincy Lehr]

Overdone anecdotalizing should also be punishable by death. That said, I think a fetish can be made of memorization (mostly memorized with a sheet available to double-check which stanza is stanza seven and which is stanza eight). The main point, though, of actually performing a bit, could, perhaps, get a bit more emphasis. Let's move a little. Avoid monotonal delivery. Etc.

[Jayne Osborn]

Heck! I can't remember all my poems (or let's say I wouldn't entirely trust myself not to 'fluff' them), but when I 'read' them I only look down once in a while at the paper, which I hold as unobtrusively as possible.

I think it's important to sound natural, smile, use your hands expressively and make regular eye contact. I did two 'readings' (I feel the need to punctuate the word now, after reading that article!) last week, to a local Over 60s group, and a British Legion group. I always make sure it's a 'performance' - they're right about that part - but it's the material that matters most IMO. A fantastic recital of rubbish doesn't cut it

[John Whitworth]

I went with my sister to a poetry reading where the poet recited all right. He even did it to musical accompaniment. It was the WORST experience of my life in that line, and my sister felt the same way. The problem was, I think, that he thought he was Shakespeare and Shelley rolled into one and he... wasn't.

The most important things to remember in poetry readings are:

1. Speak up for God's sake.
2. Have your poems marked in the book. Don't start looking for them.
3. Don't be drunk.
4. Don't fall off the podium (this may be intimately connected with 3.).

[Jayne Osborn]

At least with formal/rhyming poems you (and often the audience) have a damn good idea about what's coming next as you read perform the poem.

At the VERY WORST 'reading' I ever went to, the guy had his hands in his pockets, looked ceiling-wards most of the time (in mock profound concentration) and I would absolutely swear he was just making up the free verse as he went along! (Well, how would we have known if he went wrong as he 'recited' it?)

[Wintaka]

I think the choice between reading and performing (reciting isn't an option) depends entirely on whether the work is for the benefit of attendees or for some other concern: a reader, one's ego (see John's example), one's navel, one's career, etc. Along with elegies, I think the Big Three (comedy, drama and romance) should be performed; for various reasons the more common confessionals, wry vignettes and philosophical observations probably shouldn't.

-o-

[Tracey Gratch]

The main point, though, of actually performing a bit, could, perhaps, get a bit more emphasis. Let's move a little. Avoid monotonal delivery. Etc.

I would agree. Having seen Quincy perform a few of his poems, I can say, the guy could give lessons. Though I think it's a rare art. He's good.

Tracey

Some other good advice here too. I don't mean to slight anyone, but I have not yet had the pleasure of hearing any of you read.

[Maryann Corbett]

[Never mind. Dumb idea.]

Back now: Pardon me for bailing earlier on this answer; I realized after noodling around that I was agreeing and not disagreeing with CPR's point 4.

I was contemplating the problem of needing to read your best stuff, in your most compelling manner, so as to sell books, vs. the need to read your new stuff to test it out. Obviously, one doesn't want to try out the untested weak stuff on the primo audiences. That's actually the SAME thing that the CPR people are saying, not something different, as I first thought. I was short on time, needing to catch a bus, so I backed out.

Certainly we should read the poems to people while we're composing them. The problem of finding test audiences for those untested poems remains--especially if, like me, you can't easily get to and from late-night open mics, and you don't have an in-person poetry group, and your spouse is more interested in mics and recordings than poems.

[Janice D. Soderling]

My thought exactly, Maryann.

Added in:

Well, if it was a dumb idea two of us had it. Let's form a secret club.

[Quincy Lehr]

Maryann--

If possible, the best work/new work dichotomy can be at least partly reconciled by attending a reading one likes with an open mic component (which many MFAers disdain, for reasons I find repugnant; sure, there's the possibility of rubbish at even the best open mic, but the same goes for readings without). Pretty much everyone at the CSM readings--the regulars, anyway--will have heard my A-list work (as I reckon it, anyway), and they'll know I have a book, etc., so reading a poem that stiffs a bit won't kill my rep. And were it not for regular readings, I'd have missed Ray Pospisil, who wasn't terribly widely published in his lifetime, but who, as I've indicated many times before and doubtless will again, was one of the great unsung formalist poets of the last couple of decades.