Spanning the Pond, the Poets Laureate Read
Posted on: May 11th, 2007 by Matt Raymond
Attending poetry readings seems like one of the great fringe benefits of my job, except that occasions such as last evening�s are free and open to the public at large.
The Poets Laureate of the United States and the United Kingdom came together in a historic joint reading at the Library of Congress in a program called �Poetry Across the Atlantic,� sponsored by the Library, the Poetry Foundation and London�s Poetry Society.
What I�m struck by in such settings is how, just as reading a good novel can stoke my internal desire to write great prose, so too can poetry readings stir within me a need to commit lofty verses to paper.
Donald Hall and Andrew Motion each elicited laughter, but they were deeply moving in other ways.
I struggled mightily when Mr. Hall read about his wife�s bout with leukemia and her ultimate passing. And I made it through almost the entire program with relatively dry eyes until the final line read by Mr. Motion, who told of straining unsuccessfully to hear his father�s dying word.
It�s a happy state of affairs when one�s place of work enriches you � not monetarily, but emotionally.
(Image: Poets Laureate Donald Hall and Andrew Motion share a moment before their joint reading. Photo by Michaela McNichol, Library of Congress.)
Other resources:
The Washington Post covered the event as well. And I swear that I wrote the �Spanning the Pond� headline last night, before I saw their own headline! (ADDENDUM: I just read Bob�s story in full, and darned if the tears aren�t welling up again!)
Poetry at the Library of Congress
Tags: poem, poetry, poet laureate, donald hall, andrew motion
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May 14th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
[...] has been suggested that I should consider altering the opening line from my recent post about a poetry reading I attended: “Attending poetry readings seems like one of the great [...]
May 15th, 2007 at 10:45 am
[...] has been suggested that I should consider altering the opening line from my recent post about a poetry reading I attended: “Attending poetry readings seems like one of the great [...]
May 17th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Sounds excellent, wish I’d been there
July 11th, 2007 at 3:26 am
I’ve always found poetry to be beautiful. It’s amazing how poets could string a few words together and form something profound and touching. Poetry readings, for me, have always seemed almost magical. Just by listening to words, I would get transported to a different world that is entirely not my own. It gets me to feel things I have not known. It presents different perspectives, and from this, I could learn much.
It sounds like you really had fun, how I wish I could have been there too.