Reading Outloud

Always read your own poetry, and all poetry you read, outloud. This is something I sometimes forget to do, but it is so important--meanings, rhythms, stumbling blocks, etc all emerge through readings. This allows you to hear if there are lots of angry sounds in a poem, or soft sounds; it allows you to hear if there are some bits that simply do not 'sound right.'

I actually advocate reading all forms of writing aloud, but it is especially important in poetry. Poetry is meant to be read aloud, whether or not it is rhymed or metrical. Poetry should not simply exist on the page. A powerful poetry reading will stick with you--and this is usually the result of an author who has paid attention to the sonics of their work, and how sound can complement meaning.

Here are some examples of poets that are quite enjoyable to read aloud:

from Muse & Drudge~Harryette Mullen
http://www.temple.edu/chain/2_mullen.htm

when memory is unforgiving
mute eloquence
of taciturn ghosts
wreaks havoc on the living

intimidates intimates
polishing naked cactus
down below a bitter buffer
inferno never froze over

to deaden the shock
of enthusiastic knowledge
a soft body when struck
pale light or moderate

smooth as if by rubbing
thick downward curving
bare skin imitative
military coat made of this

______

tabloid depravity
dirty snowball
held together
with weak gravity

“fool wee, tumble your
head off—that dern wind
can move you, but
it can’t budge me”

he couldn’t help himself
he couldn’t help it
he couldn’t stop himself
nobody stopped him

blessed are stunned cattle
spavined horses bent under their saddles
blessed is the goat as its throat is cut
and the trout when it’s gutted

______

bring money bring love
lucky floorwash seven
powers of africa la man
poderosa ayudame numeros sueños

restore lost nature
with hoodoo paraphernalia
get cured in cuban by a charming
shaman in an urban turban

forgotten formula cures
endemic mnemonic plague
statisticians were sure
the figures were vague

sister mystery listens
helps souls in misery
get to the square root
of evil and render it moot

______

spaginzy spagrades
splibby spabibs
choice voice noise
gets dress and breath

slave-made artifact
your salt-glazed poetry
mammy manufacture
jig-rig topsy-turvy face

dance synched up so
coal burning tongues
united surviving ruin
last chance apocalypso

broke body, stammering spirit
been worked so hard
if I heard a dream
I couldn’t tell it

http://www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid=05/08/13/2356246
Song~Lisa Jarnot

words
toward the boat
that is love
who wears the blue
of night
who is a prince
in the sky
which is bright
as the moon
which is bright
as the green
as the thick
of the trees
of the crisp
of the song of
the whippoorwills
song,
willingly,
in May,
I'd say
unaltered
and reaping.



Invective

May an
ancient
Egyptian
sea monster
swallow you up
since you are not
the great god Ra,
and may your
shiny hair
fall out and
may you never
own an island
of your own,
or cats as good
as mine,
and may the
field mice dance
on your head
while you are
sleeping in a
coat made of
bad dreams,
simpering one,
you cloud
without a home.

In the Greenhouse~Eugenio Montale
(Translated from Italian by Charles Wright)
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/17016

The lemon bushes overflowed
with the patter of mole paws,
the scythe shined
in its rosary of cautious water drops.

A dot, a ladybug,
ignited above the quince berries
as the snort of a rearing pony broke through,
bored with his rub-down—then the dream took over.

Kidnapped, and weightless, I was drenched
with you, your outline
was my hidden breath, your face
merged with my face, and the dark

idea of God descended
upon the living few, amid heavenly
sounds, amid childish drums,
amid suspended globes of lightning

upon me, upon you, and over the lemons...

Your assignment: Read some poems (yours or others) aloud, 2-3x, focusing on poems you have never heard aloud. Do an online search and turn up recordings of poets reading their work aloud (poets.org has a number of recordings). What catches your ear? What sounds very right? What sounds very wrong? The more you train your ear, the more able you will be to work sound effectively into your own work.

Happy listening!

Dani