Reading vs. listening to poetry

In her poem, "Telemachus' Detachment," Louise Gluck writes:

When I was a child

looking at my parents' lives, you know

what I thought? I thought

heartbreaking. Now I think

heartbreaking, but also

insane. Also

very funny.

As provocative as this poem is, can you imagine how much it could resonate if we heard the poet read her own words?

During a 1999 interview, Bill Moyers told me that some poets have the power to give him "the sense of breathless arousal." As opposed to reading poetry, his preference is to listen to poetry read by the poet who wrote the words.

"That person," Moyers said, "is able to attach to that word the emotion he felt, or she's able to find the pitch in her voice that fits the feeling that gave rise to the idea. It's like having Stradivarius pick up his own violin and play it."

No wonder I was excited about the prospect of listening to Louise Gluck (pronounced "Glick"), a recent visitor to Utah. She is the Poet Laureate of the United States, and a professor at Williams College in Massachusetts. Now 60, she has written nine volumes of poetry, her most recent, "The Seven Ages."

The little theatre in the Gore Business Building at Westminster College was packed last week, as Gluck, a tiny slip of a woman, gingerly approached the podium. Awkwardly, she tested the microphone, "Can you hear?" "Is it OK?" Then she put on her glasses and began to read. Instead of the luminous performance I had anticipated, she read her own poems in a laconic, sleep-inducing sing-song voice — for 45 minutes.

Her only commentary was this sudden outburst after 15 minutes: "Sometimes I think 'How many forms can you find for despondency?' They are myriad!"

I almost fell off my chair. She made a comment!

Perhaps she would say more. If there was to be no drama to her delivery, maybe I could gain some insights into her work from her little asides.

But it was not to be.

When it was over, I was disappointed and left wanting what had not been delivered.