poetry readings

This week I attended two poetry readings, after not attending any for a very long time. And it was like water after a long drought. At Tebot Bach, as I've said, I read some of my own work at the open mic, but it was a pleasure just to hear a whole range of work from people I didn't know, including two featured poets, and to feel the presence of others who read and write poetry.
At Casa Romantica, where I went with three of my students, young women whose interest in poetry has been sparked by the class, I experienced a whole other order of pleasure. First of all, it is wonderful to know that I introduced these students to writing poetry, something they seem to find fun and intriguing. They have already had some success in doing it as well. Then the place itself is sublime, complete with the requisite sound of the train whistle and the roaring surf. Every wonderful reading place, in my experience, has some endearing endemic sounds. At Hollins College, where I was an undergraduate, it was the Green Drawing room, a period room on the register of historic places, with its rattling radiators in the winter, sounding like a passel of poltergeists. The sounds and feel of this room at Casa Romantica more than met the standards set by that earlier room.
And the work I experienced there was an even greater surprise and pleasure. At this reading, I was introduced to the work of Elisa Pulido and Sholeh Wolpe. They were as different as could be, but both wonderful. Pulido reminded me of Flannery O'Connor, only in poetry. It wasn't the style of the work, but the ironic voice and the eye behind it. Her work was intensely American and grounded in place. This set off Wolpe's work. This writer stresses that she is from everywhere and nowhere. With her dramatic tallness and face with features both Iranian and reminiscent of the Russian steppes, she drew the audience to her. And her voice was hypnotizing. Her presence was so strong that, as my student remarked after the reading, the whole audience was leaning forward toward her as she read her work, like plants reaching toward the sun.
I could hear traces of both traditions in her work and her style of recitation. I plan to read more of both poets and to find a way to attend more readings at Casa Romantica.
I now have even more respect for my former colleague, Michelle Mitchell-Foust, who is on the board responsible for setting up this reading series. It is even more impressive to think that this was a last minute line-up of readers, after the scheduled readers became unavailable.
WOW.