tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8197997520444984778.post5793293564740500432..comments2011-02-21T15:00:23.299-08:00Comments on Seán Haldane - Poetry: Poetry ReadingsSeán Haldanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07824691046398117311noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8197997520444984778.post-85890060392023132922010-05-24T14:45:37.109-07:002010-05-24T14:45:37.109-07:00I share your misgivings about poetry readings, but...I share your misgivings about poetry readings, but there can be a point to them. I go if I like the poet already because I want to hear his or her voice and compare it with the voice that speaks to me in the poems. It’s as Rilke wrote (though disapprovingly): hostility’s our readiest response. If I don’t know a poet’s work I am automatically hostile – or, at least, refuse to suspend disbelief in that person's talent and sincerity – until the work proves me wrong. Once I like a poet, I’m always predisposed to liking the new work – and only that sinking feeling of being let-down tells me it’s no good. Not everyone feels this way – fortunately! <br /><br />At one time I wanted to believe in Lorca’s idea of the duende, that demonic spirit that can animate a performance. But poetry readings don’t seem to be the place to find it. But, then, there will be the Spanish songs performed by Christina and Ahmed at your reading. And if you do dare to read The Hugger-Mugger....<br /><br />When I started university at Aberdeen (no vote for me in this election) and heard that Iain Crichton Smith was giving a reading in my hometown that evening, I rushed to the bus station and made the 4-hour trip home. The reading was all right. A few days later, he gave the same reading in Aberdeen (I hadn’t known about that one). And I heard him give the same reading – same poems, same anecdotes – a couple of times after that. This was, to say the least, disappointing. But I suppose he had learnt to be protective of himself, had no intention of spilling himself out for others’ entertainment. <br /><br />Good luck with the Oxford reading. May it be animated but not by an arsenic lobster falling on your head (Lorca again).....David Cameronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04862831922648302486noreply@blogger.com