“Veronica, Eve, Lorrie and Lynn”: listen to the cadence of that, especially when repeated several times!

Once again these four powerhouse poets have brought us together on a Sunday afternoon in the name of poetry and music and, in this case, light in the darkest days. And yet these are NOT the darkest days: we just had a full moon that illuminated the high peaks like a celestial flashlight; we have vaccines and masks and a new appreciation for being together, in-person and virtually.  And for two hours over 30 of us were awash in words. 

The general theme of this quarterly reading, “a winter mind” came from the Wallace Stevens poem “The Snowman”  (https://poets.org/poem/snow-man), which was read beautifully by Bill Tremblay from his home in Boston. 

Tremblay set the tone for a reading during which I found myself focused on sound and sight as much as the structure and meaning of the words.  His sonorous voice was representative of the quality of the READing overall--the pace, the volume, the articulation was high across the board; even the pauses between poems and readers were appropriately generous, much better than in some other readings I have attended.  

And most of the readers were aware of their visual environments, so important on Zoom, where it helps if we dress our backgrounds as carefully as we dress ourselves to minimize distraction from our carefully crafted words: very few open closets took attention away from the poems.  I even saw some simple, creative backdrops such as a folding screen. The poinsettia on the host's desk was an elegant reminder of the season even if the weather along Colorado’s Front Range was not.  

Highlights from the reading are difficult to isolate because all the readers brought unique light to us through their words.  I was particularly moved by the work from Sandra McGarry, Cynthia Tremblay and Michael Manning.  So glad to hear the deeply observant and reflective work of Chloe Leisure (https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-end-of-the-world-again-by-chloe-leisure/).

In addition to their coordination and outreach, the Regional Poet quadrumvirate are remarkable for the way they change things up in these readings.  That manifested this time in several group works: a poem in four voices and two duets from Franklin Taggart and Lynn Kincannon. The first was a video which included a foreground of virtual snow.  The second was an original work Franklin wrote in response to a poem by Kincannon: a truly ekphrastic work.

As we move toward and through the days of longest darkness, we can enjoy the longer light of the moon and look forward to the Spring installment of the quarterly reading from the regional poets.  Details, and more minutes of light, to follow.