Saturday evening we gathered at Brian and Nancy's house - our hosts for Dinner Club - the Poetry edition. :) Their edict was that we should all come prepared to read/recite a poem of our choice, AND that we should bring a poem we had written ourselves. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about which poem I would share - there are so many wonderful poets to choose from. I thought I had settled on a Mary Oliver poem, but then I ran across my little binder from way back in high school - 1985. I went to state competition with this set of poems depicting the life of a woman from spanning from young girlhood through old age. Well, it was clear that I would choose this to share - seemed to be kismet.
I remember so vividly how Mama helped me select the poems to use and then helped me practice and practice... I would stand on the bottom stair and she would sit in the living room and give me tips and pointers on how to vocalize and enunciate and, the hardest for me, pause for effect. I didn't win but I did place and I know it was because of Mama's coaching.
As for bringing a poem I wrote, I sort of cheated and used a poem that I wrote many years ago - back when I wrote poetry all the time. I even dug out that little poetry book that Daddy had 'published' for me - printed locally here at Simpson Printing Company. I decided on an early poem of mine - Run Wild. I remember writing most of that one night in my closet with a flashlight... since I was supposed to be asleep - but couldn't quit thinking the lines in my head and knew I needed to get them down on paper. I was in 5th grade and I remember exactly who I was thinking about with these lines. (goodness... I think I was *a lot*) :)
Marvin chose a song to share for his poem. It really is a perfect song/poem for Marvin and one he has always liked - Cowboy's Prayer by Don Edwards. See if you don't agree...
It was so much fun to hear all the different poems that people chose to share and the poems they wrote. What an incredibly talented group!!! One thing that blew my mind!... Out of all the poems in the world, 2 of our Dinner Club members chose the SAME poem to share! Nancy went first and shared The Cremation of Sam McGee. What a great poem and she shared it so well. Bob and Debbie were out of town but had zoomed in for the poetry part of the evening and Bob was 2nd in line to share his poem. He began by saying, "She stole my poem" and I laughed out loud because I thought he was kidding. He was not kidding! That was, in fact, the very same poem he had planned to share! What a coincidence! It turns out that Bob had memorized The Cremation of Sam McGee when he was in high school for extra credit to bump up his grade in a class. That is quite a poem to memorize, but he got it done and that higher grade in that particular class ended up being the key to him getting scholarships and going to college... and the rest, as they say, is history. Isn't that a great story? And Bob can still recite the entire poem by heart today! I am so impressed!
All the poems were wonderful and I wish we had just had a video camera recording the whole event - I would watch it over again!!! Susan was dressed like a beatnik and it became clear why when she shared her poem that she wrote. It was a brilliant beatnik style riff on what it was like to move to this town - and right as the pandemic was starting. How lucky we are that Susan and Jonathon DID move to town and that we got to become friends! Then Bryan K read his original poem and it was so good... at the end he shared that he wrote it using ChatGPT. Of course the IT guy is the first person I know to utilize ChatGPT. :) What a cool assortment of ideas, inspirations and performances by every single person there.
And here is the poem I wrote (long ago) that I shared at Dinner Club.
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| from 5th grade *me* |
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