10-23-08 Week Eight Monday Beckman Reading

The Beckman reading was wonderful. He reminds me of a mix between my uncle and my first boyfriend. I appreciated hearing his poetry read allowed. When his poems are spoken they have a humor to them, there were times when I wanted to laugh but no one else was, till he read his last one. I also liked his whole attitude and style with the beard and the linen, it was like, where did this person come from?, you know? he was delightfully quirky. It really blows my mind when I encounter people like Beckman who have taken this whole different approach to life and somehow made it work. I always wonder if its worth it, seems like so much work, but then again so does a 9 to 5.

I noticed when Tracy read she looked up at the audience. And Her reading was superb, the style fit her poems, but I absolutely loved how when Beckman read he did not look up from his book once. It gave you some privacy as the listener, it was more of a performance than an exchange, like an actor not acknowledging the audience. Instead of making sure I was smiling in case he made eye contact with me I could loose myself.

It is hard for me to handle anything that takes itself seriously, I have an ironic nature. Beckmans poems seem to teeter on a self-aware mockery of poetry and the real thing. What I was interpreting as pretension when I read his written work is actually a type of obliviousness. I guess what I mean is hes not "trying" to be a poet (like I am when I write poetry) he is the real deal, and because of this his poems can sound arrogant, when they are simply so into being poems they are not constantly trying to be unpretentious. They allow the persona or speakers to be as loud, ridiculous, and cliche as they wish.

Beckman is awesome and adorable and his reading was a great experience.
I loved the line "every night I go to bed promising to quit smoking"-- it is sentences like that, almost thoughts, that get me.