On Friday Sandra and I managed to get tickets to the sold out David Lehman reading at the writer's center. David read a phenomenal new poem, Yeshiva Boys, a poem in mutiple sections (it took at least 20 minutes to read I think) and I was amazed at how much ground this poem covered---from Europe to his childhood---the humor and seriousness. I know I'm not doing this the honor here, but the poem made me really think about memoir---how much of our history is a part of our identity. I think for me this was the first time I even thought of Lehman as a Jewish poet even though I knew he was. The poem made me take him more seriously as I often think of David and punning and fun more often. And also someone who writes shorter, less challenging poems. I was really glad for it. I think that line that has been in my head---how we become ghosts of ourselves--will be part of a longer poem.
It was a see and be seen event in DC poetry and I was glad that David gave me a shout out in his introduction. He was mentioning all the trustees and presidents and then my name. I saw a few people turn around trying to figure out who I was. I spent most of the night talking with his wife and some colleagues from GW and I was giddy from some news from the grapevine and a folder full of my students first poems. Afterwards to Biddy's for some good poetry discourse with Sandra and of course the late night slice. Actually two slices.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment