[Audio] Reading a Poem
The Ridiculous Poet-Voice
One of the best examples of cringe moments has returned to me. I saw it again. I was shocked to rediscover it. I had thought it was a phase; it is not. I thought it was over, but I was wrong. It was merely during my own pause from poetry that made me think it isn’t happening any more.
I was wrong.
The “poet-voice” is still going strong. It still exists.
For those of you who are blessed with ignorance to this, allow me to ruin your day. Poetry has been struggling for a long time. When I was avidly involved, I recall a flavor of discourse around “what is poetry for” in this day and age. I won’t get into that. But let it be enough to state that this was a deep rooted issue. For those who were committing everything to the craft, and I really mean everything, it was an existential crisis of the moth and the flame. There is no profit in poetry, only purpose. What is one to do when pulled to a thing that will swallow them up in unemployment unto their demise?
It’s a thing.
And in the throws of this conflict, a certain tonality arrived on the sense. As if to speak to the total profoundness that poetry essentially offers, poets started talking… grossly. This set of speech is distinct from slam poets, though they have their own voice and still away from “podcaster voice”.
The poet-voice is a planned yearning for significance while reading aloud a poem, unnatural and gruesomely lame.
It’s already bad enough that poets need to chill out sometimes (The Onion), but this voice is just too much.
The Event
And so I was remorseful to find that it was still around and well. Earlier this summer, I attended an event at The Library of Congress. The current US Poet Laureate, Adda Limón dedicated a poem to NASA. A POEM TO FREAKING NASA! for their Europa mission. I love this. Along with being another reason why I love DC, it is a profound act to declare humanity to the stars like this. Here is the event in full recording. It genuinely is worth the watch.
I wish I was kidding, but I think I was right when I said that the poet-voice is a clawing for meaning and significance. I love her work, but I don’t think Adda’s answer to the question of why poetry was the right thing to include on this project really did anything. Her answer was essentially that poetry is everything. You can’t just say “it’s everything” and assume we’ll get it. The scientist got it right, though, and better than the poet. Language is our system of understanding and making meaning, and poetry is the total craft of that tool. Hurling our sense of comprehension into the void is a staggering gesture.
So, as the event came to a close, they presented a reading of the poem. It is beautiful and so, so fitting for the experience. It is a great poem, well crafted to speak to the truth of things but avoid the obvious turns along the way.
But the voice of the poem is robbed. The meaning and beauty of the poem are delayed by the annoying poet-voice. But let me give it a try:
More soon,
Trevor
P.S. This letter about catches me up with things, so I will soon be mixing in writing about things I’m learning from my master’s of science in organizational leadership.
Now-reading affiliate links:
