I found several things to be interesting about Todd Davis's poetry and poetry reading last week, some of which we discussed last class period. We touched on briefly how easy it is to make misconceptions about the appearance and personality of the poet based solely on that poet's work. For example, because Davis's poems feature nature, it's easy to picture him as a bearded, wise, hippy-type person. I was sure he was going to fit this stereotype...and then I remembered that I already knew him.
That's right. Todd Davis the poet was the same Todd Davis that went to my home church back in Pennsylvania. In person, Davis was as far from the bearded hippy image as possible. My Goshen life was colliding with my PA life and it was a little unsettling.
The poetry reading itself was the first poetry reading I had been to, and it reminded me that I am a very visual person. Sitting and listening to Davis read his poems was a great experience, but I think I would have functioned better and been able to take more in from his reading if I had had a copy of his poems in front of me. What I did like about the reading was that we got to hear a little bit of Davis's commentary behind his work, which I always think is fascinating (I remember liking one he read about his wife's greying hair, and how she has him dye it for her).
The last thing I realized during the poetry reading was that, as a person who likes being in control, I preferred my own mental narration of Davis' poetry to Davis's reading. This was not because he did a poor job reading, just that the experience of having poems read to me like that was so foreign.
I completely agree. It's much easier for me to understand a poem when I'm reading it. Seeing a person in front of me helps frame the poetry better, but I rarely can comprehend complex poetry by listening to it.
ReplyDeleteI am somewhat of a visual learner, too! It would have been nice to see the poems in front of me. I also noticed that he read them a lot differently than I did in my head; he put emphasis on different words and read at a slower pace than I had anticipated. I think that allowed me to get a better understanding of his intent though, so I appreciated it.
ReplyDeleteThe aural experience is a dimension that can help us enter more deeply into the poetry--even if we don't get the full meaning from listening. Poetry readings are a great opportunity to tune and train your ear. Once you've hear the poems read it deepens your understanding, even if you decide to read or perform them differently than the poet did. Jake, it's interesting that the home and college worlds came together for you in a poetry reading. I'd love to hear more about that!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree on preferring to have a copy in front of me when being at a poetry reading. I feel like this way, there are words that actually stick better with me, words that I emphasize in my mind, and that I understand the poem better. However, I also sort of liked having Davis preface his works. It helps to know a little background.
ReplyDeleteI like that you said you preferred your own mental narration to his (the actual poet's). That is true for me as well most times, as I really like the idea of taking the frame of a poem's meaning and then filling in the rest with your own thoughts and understandings, which creates a modified version of the poem, a mestizo between the poet's mind and meaning and your own. Hearing him tell what he meant in each poem would certainly have been valuable but also very adverse to the usual way I read and understand poetry.
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