New Adventure #16: Poetry Reading

You know how sometimes you have a picture of what something should be like? Maybe you've heard stories about it or seen it in a movie or just dreamed it up. But then when you finally experience it, it's nothing like your idea and you're terribly disappointed?

I was so anxious that that's what attending a poetry reading would be like. I must have seen bits about poetry readings on TV as a kid and thought they must be the coolest, most sophisticated events in the world, with the most interesting and eclectic collection of writers. Experience cautioned me against this over-the-top picture, but to my surprise and delight, the real thing fulfilled every expectation and imagination. 

The event was the Dig's Poetry Night at OBERON. It was a mix of featured performers and amateurs from the audience, and there was a bit of everything. Structured rhyming poems and free form ramblings, rap and song, stand up comedy, a poem composed from flame wars on Craigslist politics forums, reflections on the Marathon bombings, and thoughts about love, sex, parenthood, politics, addiction, god, nature, mythology, and growing up. Performers ranged from the librarian-looking girl who recited earnestly and softly, to a trio of rappers who came down from the stage and danced among the audience, to the anxious-looking guy (one of my favorites) whose hands were shaking but voice was strong as he spoke about addiction and perseverance and hope. 

I was most impressed by Jade Sylvan, a TALENTED person who wowed me with this poem and a couple others and would have made the whole event worth going all by herself. 

She and the other performers have fanned my interest in poetry and in writing. I spent my lunch break the next day scribbling, and maybe one day I'll write something worth reading at a similar event. It's certainly a new dream of mine <3