Poetry reading at The Village Bookshop in RVC

The Village Bookshop reviews describe it as a great little bookstore with friendly helpful staff and a nice variety of books to choose from. Many nice events are scheduled here and among those are poetry readings.

Walking into a poetry reading for the first time was a bit awkward. The room was set up with the chairs and couch nicely organized all facing forward where the poet would be speaking. There was a quiet pleasant atmosphere in the room and snacks for all to share. It was apparent that just about everyone knew each other and who the newcomers were. On Friday night, October 2, at 7:30PM, everyone anxiously awaited the arrival of the poet who would be presenting her poems. By 7:45, it became clear that Larissa Shmailo, who was the poet to share her poetry that night, was not coming. The announcement was made that it would be open mic night and a sign up sheet was passed around for all to have the opportunity to share what they had written.

Wayne had a reflective tone to his poetry. Each poem spoke of his life's journey and how he was looking back upon special moments or things that struck him as important and worthy of being described in detail. His poetry centered around luck, sand, and reflections. Wayne's use of end rhyme helped to provide rhythm to the poem, which made it easier to follow along and grasp his message. Wayne is an older man who seems content in life and uses his poetry to analyze and highlight his life's journey. Anyone who appreciates looking back upon fond memories and cherishing the details of objects, things, and moments in your life, would enjoy listening to Wayne's poetry. I appreciated the calming voice he used as he read and the peaceful tone that came across in his writing.

Matt had a different style of writing with his poetry. His poetry centered around the thoughts that are going through his head. I was able to picture the topics that he spends time thinking about and how his thought process works. "If I" was written with numerous questions about different directions the speaker's life could have gone in and what may have happened if he had done or been any of those things. Matt used imagery in his poem, "Mystery" to illustrate the many mysteries that exist in life. The vivid language used helped me to visualize the many things in life that he views to be a mystery. His use of metaphors in his poem, "Who am I," left a sense of mystery about who he really is as a person. He writes with a stream of consciousness in "Nothing," which consists of a bunch of rambling thoughts that do not tie together and then ends with "What are you talking about?" "Nothing." His addition of the second speaker at the end of the poem adds both humor and understanding as to why the rest of the poem was full of disconnected thoughts and phrases.

Annie appeared to be a modernist style poet. She focused on topics that centered around nature and her writing was somewhat ambiguous. The conceit of the poems was not as clearly evident as with the other poets. Her message in her poem, "Fly," was the struggle of the human condition. She used a parallel relationship of "a fly struggling on his back; the wind that picked him up so he could fly; his living one last flight and will soon mingle with the dirt" to represent how humans face struggles in life; have people who help us through; and in the end we will also die and be buried. I appreciated the passion displayed in her poems.

One poet focused on two funny poems that he had written about snow and a firefly. His poem about snow was from a memory he had from when he was ten years old and noticed the individual snowflakes that had fallen on his winter jacket. He used descriptive language throughout the poem to describe the action of the snow. His poem about the firefly also focused on the action of the firefly and he used personification to help the listener to develop a relationship with this firefly as the speaker of the poem had. The firefly was "thinking, feeling, and chatting."

Floyd's poetry centered around anger and disappointment in the relationship that he had with his wife and his feelings of loss around the lack of time that he is able to spend with his grandchildren. His poetry appears to be an outlet to express the feelings that are weighing heavily on him.

Listening to the various poets share their poems with such pride and passion helped me to appreciate poetry in a different way. Observing the value the poetry held for each of these poets and the connection that it allowed them to have with those around them was a powerful message that I will carry with me.