By NATALIE J. EVANS
A young woman standing in her living room in front of a video camera told a story of family hardship and courage and read "The Minstrel Man" by Langston Hughes: "Because my mouth is wide with laughter and my throat is deep with song, you do not think I have suffered, after I have held my pain so long, because my mouth is wide with laughter, you do not hear my inner dancing, you can not know I die."
The words, Pov Chin said, described the person she had become.
Pov Chin, whose family came to America to escape genocide in Cambodia, was among the Americans reading their favorite poems for "Poetry in America: Favorite Poems," a project to document for the Library's permanent archives the poetry Americans were reading at the time of the Library's Bicentennial, which coincides with the turn of the century.
Closing his unprecedented third term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, Robert Pinsky capped his Favorite Poem Project on April 3 with a presentation to the Library of the video and audio recordings that capture Americans talking about and reading poems that have particular meaning for them.
Poets themselves also read their favorites, when Mr. Pinsky was joined in the Coolidge Auditorium by Bicentennial Poetry Consultants RitaDove, a former poet laureate; Louise Gluck, and W.S. Merwin. Witter Bynner fellows Joshua Weiner and Naomi Shihab Nye also read, as did Bill Ivey, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who recited a poem he said "was instrumental in repairing a broken heart and relationship."
Though not a smoke-filled coffee house filled with people gathered to hear the words and rhythms of the poets of the "beat generation," the Coolidge was packed with a crowd whose faces mirrored thoughts and emotions prompted by the stories and poems they heard. (The event was also cybercast on the Library's Web site.) Pov Chin spoke about the dangers that her family encountered and the killing of her grandmother and brother as they ran for safety toward the Thailand border. Ms. Chin said that , like the "Minstrel Man," she walked around the halls of her school, smiling and looking happy when in fact she was filled with grief as she remembered all those who had died so she could live.
In another video segment, an aging mother found comfort in the poem "The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goëthe. Though "parents never expect one's children to die first," Olivia Milward said, her eldest daughter died from cancer. Nothing could ever remove that pain, she said, but the poem provided some solace.
Todd Hellems, a student, tried to express himself to his family, to explain the struggles he encountered on a daily basis, but he could not find the words until he read "Yet Do I Marvel" by Countee Cullen. Then, after Cullen provided the words, Mr. Hellems could say, "Yet, do I marvel at this curious thing, to make a poet black and bid him sing."
Student John Ulrich described his South Boston neighborhood, where, as in other American cities, young people were experiencing the trauma of living in a drug culture. Drugs and despair were causing them to feel hopeless and creating a community frightened for its future. Mr. Ulrich said he had experienced friends committing suicide and dying from heroin overdoses. The poem, "We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks, helped put into focus the plight of his generation. He and his friends organized a community group to bring hope to the neighborhood.
Richard Samuel, who lives in Seattle, found that Frank O'Hara's "Poem" expressed the need for people to feel in control, even though they may be very much out of control.
A middle school student, Kiyoshi Houston, was fortunate. His mother exposed him to poetry at an early age. Reading in Japanese and then English, Kiyoshi expressed the beauty in the poem by Sone-No Yoshitada, "The Lower Leaves of the Trees." But it was his grandfather's voice that brought relevance to the poem and exposure to the beauty of the words. He told Kiyoshi, "The sunset of purple and orange engulfs and grabs, the angels and ancestors are cooking cookies for you."
A photographer, Seth Rodney, remembered returning home after having been rejected by a woman. Rodney said he decided to read a poem by Sylvia Plath, "Nick and the Candlestick." The worlds of the author and this photographer were far apart, yet he was able to connect with her words. Mr. Rodney, a Jamaican immigrant, found that Plath's poem "spoke directly to my life."
Ms. Evans is on temporary assignment in the Library's Public Affairs Office.