Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon, 2011 - Review

The 2011 Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon was a great time. I got through 5 poems and they came off without a hitch. From all I could tell were well received. There were about 30 people in the audience I would guess. The other presenters from AllWriters were Kathie Giorgio, and Alita Baker, and Marsha Roberts. Kathy Bram unfortunately wasn't given a chance to read. They all did great and it was nice to have some supporters in the audience. A hearty thank you to AllWriters Workplace and Workshop for sponsoring the hour we had.

The rest of what I saw varied in quality from brilliant and entertaining to boring and unintelligible. A great variety. If I had felt better I would have stuck around longer. Perhaps next year. The most entertaining presenter I saw was Author Paul McComas. He sang a song from a father's perspective about dating his daughter that was hilarious. Very entertaining. The other memorable ones outside of the AllWriters group were James Roberts and his piece on the Rainbow girl, and Charlesetta Thompson and her poem about Africa.

As with any poetry readings, there were some clunkers as well. Either too far out, esoteric or sublime to keep my attention, or just badly presented. The beauty of this event is that if you've got a clunker of a poem, at least you've got another 3 or 4 chances to redeem yourself. It's hard to bomb 4 or 5 in a row. Not impossible, just less likely.

I'm still trying to figure out my place in the world of poetry. I thoroughly enjoy it; talking about it, writing it, presenting it. At the same time, I view poets at a creative level different from me. They are the free spirits who are supposed to dance to the music in their heads regardless of who's looking. They dress funny, sometimes talk funny and can be kind of spacey. I guess I'm generalizing, but that was my perception coming in. It's changing, but I still have a ways to go before I determine where I fit.

All in all, it was a great event; a fundraiser for a great cause. Look for my mugshot on their website in the near future. I'd do it again in a minute. And you should too.

Blogging off...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

National Poetry Month: Issue 18

New Chapters

Local Level Need