Favorite Poem Project Reading

The only rule for an event affiliated with the Favorite Poem Project is that poems recited are NOT poems the readers or their friends or relatives have written—but rather poems they have read, perhaps many times, and to which they feel a personal attachment. Poems, for example, from the great history of American poetry, perhaps by Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes or Gwendolyn Brooks, Wallace Stevens, or Robert Frost. A reader might also choose Robert Browning or William Shakespeare—or a poem written in another language, along with an English translation. At various readings, we've heard poems in Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Yiddish, Vietnamese, and other languages.

Here's how it works:

• Sign-in for readers begins at 10:30 a.m.
• Readers will be called to the mic in the order they sign in.
• Poems may be no more than one page in length.
• Readers will be asked to briefly share how/why this poem speaks to their heart.
• Each reader will read just one poem.

PROJECT ORIGIN

At its inception, the Favorite Poem Project put out an open call for people across the country to share their favorite poems. Eighteen thousand Americans—from ages 5 to 97, from every state, representing a range of occupations, kinds of education, and backgrounds—wrote to the project. The Favorite Poem Project created a series of short documentaries and anthologies from those thousands of letters and emails. The project continues to create short films and educational resources and host readings to document and encourage the sharing of poetry worldwide.

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES: GIVING VOICE TO THE AMERICAN AUDIENCE FOR POETRY

Poetry is a vocal art meant to be heard in the reader’s voice—whether read aloud or in the inner voice of the imagination. The experience, in both ways, is bodily. As with conversation, song, and many other language uses, understanding is rooted in sound.

That principle is rooted in Robert Pinsky’s experience as a poet and a teacher, working with the melodies of meaning. He long ago found that if you ask students to read aloud and talk about a poem they love, something remarkable happens—a discernible change in their faces and voices that demonstrates their connection to the poem. The Favorite Poem Project grew out of that discovery.

“There is a special comfort and excitement people get from saying aloud words crafted with a certain sound, in a certain order,” says Pinsky. “It’s as though saying the words of a poem aloud makes one feel more able, more capable than in ordinary life. Concentrating on the physical sounds of the words in your own voice can fulfill the meanings. When you say a poem by William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, or Langston Hughes, or even imagine saying it aloud, your voice becomes the artist’s medium. It is a form of collaboration or mutual possession.”

The Favorite Poem Project is also founded upon a second, more social belief: that, contrary to stereotype, many Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have profound, personal meaning. The FPP began with a hunch that poetry had a vigorous presence in American life. The project seeks to document and encourage that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry.

Host or Publisher Bookstore1Sarasota