Pointers for reading your poetry aloud
Reading your own poetry in front of any kind of group
“On Writing Poetry: We have to take everyday words beyond everyday talent and write them alive.”----C.J. Heck
If you’re going to read your own poetry aloud to a group of people, I have some pointers that may or may not be obvious to you. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an Open Mike, a poetry group you belong to, students in a classroom, or a podcast audio file:
Take your time and do not rush it. Read each poem the way you would want your readers to read it to themselves. Show them how to gain the wisdom, humor, or insight you want them to get from your poem.
You wrote it, so you alone know where all of the pauses are, or should be. You alone know exactly where you want an extra dose of emphasis. You can show which lines should be almost whispered to convey a deep feeling, or emotion you felt when you wrote the poem.
To quote Carl Sandburg:
“Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what was seen during a moment.”
What more could we ask as poets?
Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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Yes, public reading can be as much an art as it's the writing. I tend to be an exasperating over punctuation. I try to use punctuation to indicate sens breaks, meter, rhetorical effects, etc., but sometimes I wonder whether this clarifies or obscures.
I actually enjoy reading my poetry aloud, which is weird because I hated reading parts of my book out loud. Or maybe it’s because I’m older and less self conscious, have less fucks to give, you know, all that jazz. I do need to do it more, it’s just a matter of not being disturbed while recording them, which is not always simple. I’ve yet to do a public poetry reading, as I don’t live in an anglophone country there is not much opportunity.