I recently read a book titled, Singing School, by Robert Pinsky. No, it’s not about how to sing music. It’s about how to write poetry by giving examples of notable poems where Pinsky points out the interesting twists and things the poet does to make a particular poem good, interesting or notable. One of the things Pinksy points out that some poems need to be read aloud to get the full impact of the poem. Often just reading a poem silently isn’t enough. There can be important parts missed by just reading with the mind without passing the poem through your ears.
So, I decided to read one of my poems aloud to hear what it sounded like to my ears. I’ve been thinking lately that I need to present my poems in two forms – the written word and the spoken word. Listen to my reading and let me know what you think
Till next time,
Andrew
Andrew's View of the Week 
Voicing poetry and sea shanties and love of words…blessings…really. Smiles.
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Andrew, nice to meet you again. Still discovering my way around planet-blog, I’m glad you stopped by and led me back here.
Just finished listening to the poem. It was a very beautiful and different experience than reading the written word. I pictured as you read every scene, the tea, Boots, winter, play, almost felt like being there with you 🙂 Thanks for a lovely poem and for the smiles it brought!
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Thanks for you kind words. Listen and read are two different processes that’s why I now think it important to hear the poem.
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Andrew, I enjoyed your reading. The cat batting at the keyboard is a great image. You have a good flow to it. I would suggest adding the text right in the post here to easily follow along with the audio rather than going to another post page to read it. 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it. Great suggestion – I’ll do that. This was a bit of an experiment for me so I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do this or if I was going to do more of these. Thanks.
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I think I would agree with Robert Pinksy. The spoken word is always a very different experience. I enjoyed hearing your voice read the poem, and it means even more as you’re reading original work. I very much like the idea. I don’t always have the attention span for spoken word novels, but poetry, typically much shorter, lends itself beautifully. I really enjoyed this and think you’re on to something!
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Glad you enjoyed it. I am planning on doing more reading of my work. Somehow when I read a poem, I can never quite get the same feeling back that I intended. My hope is that I can capture it better with voice.
and yes, a novel is too long for me to listen as well.
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