Dana Gioia and Word Temple

March 26th, the new California Poet Laureate, Dana Gioia, read at Word Temple in Sebastopol.

I am not sure how I've missed seeing Gioia read before now, because I understand that he's something of a Sonoma County local. But he's a great presenter, clearly at ease with an audience and with a gift for putting an audience, in turn, at ease. 

When I spoke to him after the reading, he graciously asked me to share a bit of information about myself. I was already feeling shy, as I often am when trying to gather and maintain the courage to meet someone for whom one must first stand in a line. But we chatted about the MFA program at Pacific and about me focusing on poetry now, so many years after getting my undergrad degree. He was very charming, and when I accused him of not being an introvert, he said that on the contrary, he has few friends. He said that if it weren't for readings, he would just stay at home with his family. I found this surprising but we also, perhaps not coincidentally, had been speaking about how little one really knows of the inner life of anyone else - even those to whom we are closest. He said he recently re-read Stendhal's The Red and the Black and it reminded him that people often don't even really know all the layers of themselves. It may well be that to be a poet is to be on a journey to plumb those depths. Excavation. "Digging," as Seamus Heaney might say. 

Word Temple always has great poets reading, and the 26th was no exception. Before Gioia read, the opening poets were two high school participants of Poetry Out Loud, interspersed with the singing of poems from Leaves of Grass by lawyer Daniel Redmond. I must say that I had to close my eyes when listening to Redmond because I was so moved, I was trying to stop myself from simply crying. You can see a video of him singing a couple poems here to get a sense of it. Very cantatory, and somehow also reminiscent of Don McLean. 

I continue to work on poetry for my 3rd semester in the MFA program, especially after the initial hard push at the beginning of the year to write my essay. I am finding my way into more work, better work, a clearer vision and voice, and a compelling subject. A little stumbling in the dark, but it's my own fault. I have matches and lanterns enough, if I remember to use them.