A month of verse
by Terresa Redding
The Metropolitan
Photo by Christopher Stark- The Metropolitan
Jake York, creative writing teacher at CU-Denver, reads a poem called "Walt Whitman in Alabama" to start off a poetry reading at the St. Francis Center April 22. The reading was one of several sponsored by UCD to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Aaron Abeyta has read his poetry in front of many audiences. Pressed to explain what poetry is by a kid in a blue jacket when he read his work at a Montrose high school, Abeyta wrote a poem that shares his definition of poetry.
With his fast-talking, rhythmic poetry enactments, Aaron Abeyta contrasted Jane Wampler, and her soft-spoken enactments of poems about love. They may not seem like two people who would perform poetry readings together, but such was the case at last Wednesday's poetry reading at the Tivoli in honor of National Poetry Month.
National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in April, 1996. During the month of April, hundreds of festivals are held around the country to celebrate poetry and its intricate part in American culture.
The Auraria Campus had many events celebrating poetry in April. Though this is the third poetry festival at Auraria, this month's Denver Poetry Festival was the first held in April.
Jake York and Catherine Wiley helped organize the event and introduced Abeyta and Wampler before they performed their poetry.
York, an associate English professor at UCD, said the two contrasting poets performing at the same reading is one of the elements that make Auraria's poetry festival unique.
"We try to think of each poet as a candidate for something similar to presidential elections, we want our poets to represent spectrums that play a part in everyday life. For example: we chose Aaron Abeyta because his poems are very geographically-conscious and culturally-conscious. Jane's poems are the complete opposite-Jane's poem are conceptual poems instead of cultural," said York.
With so much talent in Denver, choosing poets to participate in the festival is not an easy task.
"We make the first step of the selection process by reading their works and determining the quality, interest, and popularity of each poet. Poets that garner good word-of-mouth also are considered in the first step of the process," York said
York said the selection process also depends on what each poet represents and the communities they represent, how people connect to the poet's work, and how good their work is.
"With different styles of poets at the events, it's like conversation, which is what we want the audience to do after each reading, so that's what we model the festival after," he said.
The success of this year's festival is not as great as 2002's, which was held in September and had the highest attendance compared to the other festivals. Last week's weather and the festival's proximity to finals time, when many students are being assigned a lot of papers and projects, are factors York and Wiley will keep in mind when they plan the next poetry festival.
When planning the next poetry festival, York and Wiley plan to be mindful of all the factors that may have kept this year's festival from being as successful as they wanted. They also hope to have more involvement from the schools on campus.
"We wanted to set up the idea of the festival, and we wanted other groups to get involved hosting readings, but we've had trouble getting the concept imbedded in other people's minds, but we just want to involve the community at large," York said.
More involvement from the student body and the campus' surrounding community is essential because everyone in everyday life can be inspired by poems, can connect to poems, and can live poetic lives.
Abeyta explains the importance of poetry's connection with people with a simple sentence. Poems are like people, they come from everywhere, he said.
Poetry contest winner...
there's a Chair across the room
it's empty
i bought that Chair when i met You
i saw You on the street Your hair a Technicolor Rainbow
a silver stud driven through the center of Your tongue.
it looked wet
i think of the taste of metal
i hate it
it's sour
like pennies
like nails on a chalkboard
and i bought You a Chair
imagined You, Your Technicolor hair and impaled tongue sitting across from me
i waited on the street where i saw You
before the Chair
i search for Technicolor Rainbows
You turned the corner, walked toward me
and i smiled thinking of sour penny pierced tongues
You stopped, looked at me.
and spoke,
the metal spear through Your tongue clacking against ivory teeth.
"what does death taste like?"
i smile my teeth like ivory piano keys blank spaces between
"like rainstorms"
You nodded and left.
Technicolor hair fading in the distance
i go home and watch Your Chair
i buy paint and color the walls
i paint with my fingers the thick colors like soup
i rub them on the walls my hands look like Your hair
i paint Technicolor rainbows and tongues with studs through the center,
nailed to a cross,
impaled on sour pennies
skewered on a spear
i go to where i first saw You and wait
my hands look like Your hair
You come round the corner smile at me
click metal against your teeth
my spine tingles
i speak
"i want to eat your soul."
You smile
"what will it taste like?"
i reply
"like fire"
You nod
"i bought a Chair"
the words tumble from my lips before i can catch them
You nod and follow me home.
-Tuvo |
