Tonight I went to my first poetry reading - and it was an enjoyable experience. Billy Collins, who was Poet Laureate of the US for several years, was at our local community college for a writer's seminar, and he did an open reading at a good-sized meeting room that was quite full (probably a few hundred people).
The only reason I'd even heard of him was because he's been on A Prairie Home Companion several times and we found him witty and entertaining. His reading this evening of a number of his poems was in a similar vein; none were boring and many were very thoughtful or hilarious.
He's apparently been criticized for his poems being too popular, or perhaps not highbrow enough. This is fine with me; as someone that's never been interested in poetry, more intricate styles probably wouldn't appeal to me.
My 14-year old son, who was dragged to this by his mother, hated every second of it and kept bugging us with excuses to try and leave - even though there were a large number of young people all around him, just a few years older than him greatly enjoying it. Oh well, incomplete human beings.
Here's a haiku of his I saved from the evening, because it so succinctly describes the business traveler. I've been in this exact situation.
Midwinter evening
Alone at the sushi bar.
Just me
And this eel.
2 comments:
Actually, there were about 800 people. There was an overflow crowd. = )
Thanks for the update; I've always been terrible on estimating distance and number of people!
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