On Friday we had this event called Split Personalities, and we were planning on packing the house with 60 or so attendees--we had 65 RSVPs. Well, it turned out there were well over a 120 people crammed into the aisles, the doorway, and then spilling out into the courtyard at the lovely space at 910 Arts. Thanks, all, for coming out!
If you missed it, I've prepared the Cliff's Notes version, in bullets. Each of the poets was asked to talk about how they became poets, and here are some of the things I learned:
- Each, in his or her own way, seemed to catch poetry, almost as a form of enchantment. And most of them, in his or her own way, made fun of the question. (It's all right. I'm used to it.)
- Several of them grew up in blue-collar towns and blue-collar families.
- Many of the male poets had fathers who declared their majors for them, with varying degrees of forcefulness (some through subtle pressure; some by out-and-out filling out the paperwork). In each case, Dad's desire was overturned when the boys changed their majors to English.
- There's no one way that one becomes a poet.
- Eight poets in a room can hold the attention of over 100 people if they're interesting and raw and accessible enough.
- Poets are freaking funny.
- A lot of poets are tall, but some aren't that much taller than most prose writers.
- Poets are freaking smart. And these eight were particularly kind.
- There's no dress code for poets.
- Some of them are poets only some of the time.
- All of them are poets most of the time.
- Poets order a variety of drinks and don't seem that concerned with the eats.
- And finally, there's no better evening than one spent laughing, learning, and clinking a plastic cup with poets.
I wonder what I forgot? Feel free to amend, correct, rescramble. Hope to see you all at Breaking Through with Brian Kiteley on May 16, 4 PM, Tattered Cover LoDo.
