Poetry Festival...Choices

Read at the Summer Dream Reading Festival last night. Choosing what I was going to read...was...as it always is...the most
difficult part of the process...the reading itself...I usually find easy. You may have a library of material you have created...but
when you're doing one or two poems...all of that is not relevant...and you begin to feel what you choose to read...has got to be something that represents you well...and is likely to connect with your audience. Because of this...you feel at first...you
have to choose material you know has worked in the past. When you do that...of course...you are likely to choose the same
material...year in... year out...as you appear at readings. When I am doing a concert... singing...I have two security blankets
with me on stage...my guitar...and my singing. When I am reading...I don't have that to lean on...which tends to add
pressure to the choices you make about what you are going to read...to be ones that don't leave you in the lurch. Last night
the considerations just mentioned were processed. Where I came out...as I have before...was to tell myself that one or two
poems...when you've written many...will never define what you do...so don't put that burden on what you choose. Don't
become intense as you read...as if that will somehow improve the quality of the writing...and don't read in a way that is not
natural to you...either. With this councel in mind...I went up to the microphone...avoiding a preamble that might get me
bogged down...and started reading a poem about the first snow fall I ever experienced in Canada or anywhere. It worked.
Instead of trying to "knock them dead"...I had kept myself alive...one more time..................Quester.