Notes from the Road: Lansing, MI

This past Wednesday, I drove up to Lansing, MI to read at Michigan State’s Poetry Center. My hosts, Anita Skeen and Stephanie Glazier, treated me to coffee and good conversation before I gave a talk to students and community members about the art of revision. I gave examples from Elizabeth Bishop’s transformative revision of “One Art” and Randall Jarrell’s “The Woman at the Washington Zoo,” examining the choices they made between drafts and looking to understand why they made the alterations they did. I also shared some of my own drafts and discussed the various strategies I use in revision. We did a short Q&A session and then had a break before dinner.

After a delicious sushi dinner, I selected poems for the reading. In most readings, I’m paired with another poet, but at Michigan State I had the stage to myself for the evening. I selected poems and chose anecdotes about my personal life and poetic process to share with the crowd. I always want to give something of myself to an audience because I think the “live album” should give people something they can’t get from the studio cut, or in this case the page. Since I had a fair bit of time to work with, I also chose to read a selection of poems from the forthcoming book. It was good to try some of those poems in front of a crowd, but I also realized the tone of the poems was so different that it was hard to leap back and forth from one book to another. Since much of the first book was written during my MFA, those poems have been test-read in workshops, coffee shops, and organized readings at the college and various venues around New York City. Much of the second book was written without the benefit of a community to read to, and even though I read my poems aloud to help me revise, I could feel how different it was to try and read the new poems. I will have to start reading to myself at home so I can be more prepared by the time the book comes out.

The reading was followed by another Q&A, and then I got to sign some books and meet people from the audience. While I enjoy reading poems, the chance to meet people and talk about poetry really is the best part. Some members of the afternoon’s craft talk were present and some people I got to meet for the first time. Even if my discussion with someone is brief, I always hope to make a connection with everyone I talk to, whether we talk about poems, pop culture, or the zombie apocalypse. One student asked when was too late to start writing. It’s never too late. In fact, the more life you’ve lived, the more experiences you have to share with others. I told her that I’ve never been able to dream big enough for my life. I could never have expected the blessings or the challenges. So write. All the time. And dream. Dream big.

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