Poetry Reading

1.Keeping Things Whole
2.Sheet Music
3.I suggested Sheet Music, I then read All This and More
4. For My Contemporaries, Fortuna, I Am Learning to Abandon the World

I really enjoyed reading "Sheet Music" and "I Am Learning to Abandon the World". They both quickly drew me in, they were interesting to read. My favorite line in "I Am Learning to Abandon the World" is "the sun lays its warm muzzle on my lap-
as if to make amends".
It is the last line in the poem, and the first thing I thought of while reading it was my giant yellow lab; he's very needy and social. Whenever he feels lonely he'll come up to you and place his head on your lap, he has the cutest face! It's nice to feel loved and I think that's kind of what Linda Pastan was trying to say in her poem "I Am Learning to Abandon the World". 
I didn't really like the poem "For My Contemporaries". It was really short and held little meaning to me. Even after just a couple of minutes it is hard to think back and remember what it was about, because it just wasn't as special to me. If I were to choose a poem to recite out of these, it would probably be "I Am Learning to Abandon the World" by Linda Pastan.
The easiest criteria for me would be the posture with confidence when reciting my poem. I don't normally have any difficulty with speaking in front of audiences, so this would definitely be easy for me. I also think that finding an appropriate tone and speed in the poem will be simple. The hardest criteria point for me would be choosing multiple poems with different themes and tones while still enjoying and connecting with the poem I'm reciting. Another challenge for me would be just standing still, I wouldn't go into detail with acting things out, but without holding a sheet of paper I don't know what to do with my hands!
      I listened to Stanley Andrew Jackson recite Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem written by Gregory Corso. It was amazing to me how serious and into the poem Stanley was. He seemed to ponder every line before saying it, but the pause was short enough to know that he wasn't just trying to remember the text. I felt like he was actually having an interesting conversation with me, and I probably would have thought so the entire time if there wasn't any subtitles on the bottom of the screen. He got me really into what he was saying, I probably wouldn't finish the poem if I just saw it on a piece of paper, but listening to him tell it was really fascinating. I also listened to Carolyn Rose Garcia read Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The entire time her voice sounded far away which fitted the poem, but it was also hard for me to concentrate and understand the point she was getting to. What about the skies? The hills? The landscape? I felt a bit bored but I suppose that could be just the author's fault. She also made the same expressions and gestures for things that were really different in the poem, which was also slightly annoying and repetitive in my opinion. 
   Poetry Out Loud would take a lot of dedication and time, after going on the website I'm not sure I'd want to compete in it. I already have homework and music to work on. But for the people who do compete and work hard on it, they sound great and it's a great achievment for them. It probably really builds their charisma. If I were to enter this competition though I'm not sure how I'd do. Some people would be extremely hard to beat. I would assume that the judge's would be tough also, I mean you'd have to really appreciate and work with poetry if you're going to be a judge of it. How many people do you know that just randomly decides someday "Yah know, I'm gon'na be a poetry judge, do yah think I'll need a scholarship fer that?". It's just one of those subjects that seems like you'd have to be really dedicated to it from the beginning to get a job commited to poetry. But if I were to perform and hopefully do well, then I would read "I Am Learning to Abandon the World" by Linda Pastan. It's a really neat poem that just connects with me, I appreciate Linda's work and I admire her for it. The Poetry Out Loud Website probably took a long time to write up. The first thing I thought when I looked at the millions of poems was "Kudo's to the editor of this archive." It's a neat website though, there's a ton of work put into it, and it's nice to read what the people of America believe and work with.