Fatefully

Though it wasn’t an actual poetry-reading event, my good friend Hunter had told me he was planning to read some poems at the Monday night Open Mic at Sidewalk Café somewhere in the Village (or was it Alphabet City). I had shown him my other good friend Ilana’s poetry project, which consisted of a poem a day for 365 days (and can be found at ilipowiczdaily.blogspot.com/), and he decided to read them for the open mic. At that point, I was already familiar with Ilana’s poems. I had also been familiar with how Ilana’s poems sound out loud because I had read them out loud before. However, the most interesting part about Hunter’s performance was how differently he chose to approach each poem. I actually had a copy of the poems he was going to read, and I noticed that there were so many different gimmicks in his reading (pauses, breaths, gulps, sighs, accents, dynamics) that were so far from mine when I had read in the comfort of my own home. Another powerful part of Hunter’s performance was his constant exchange with the audience. He was always looking up, looking around, furrowing his eyebrows, giggling, and deeply sighing, ultimately seeming like he was speaking to the audience. This was an important thing to note in my case. I am trying to improve my ability to recite poems and simply trying to do it more. Hunter was a great inspiration that night, and that night was a great inspiration for all.