On Saturday, April 6th, I had the pleasure of attending a reading at The Poetry Project (http://poetryproject.org) in St.Mark’s Church. This reading was in recognition of a great writer, David Rattray who passed away. A number of talented writers, poets and publishers shared essays, poems and personal stories of or relating to David Rattray. It was very exciting to observe writers who we will be reading in this course like Joanna Fuhrman, Eileen Myles and Susie Timmons along with other writers, and getting a glimpse, a taste of their brilliance as writers. I felt like I was in a room full of people who are the best at what they do, these people were on a whole other level-another world if I may- it got me thinking about how much time, effort, years, endless nights, non stop reading they had done but above all how much talent they had in order to be as good as they seemed to be and I am sure they are. It was a didactic and novel experience for me; I realized that if you chose to do the thing you love most in this life and if you put your heart and soul into it you can really become the best. This experience was novel for me as I have never been to a poetry reading in New York. I thought about how these readings were a part of many writer’s lives just like Professor Kaufman’s. While sitting in the room, I looked around me and observed people observing the readers- first thought I had was that I really dont have any idea how they potray so much understanding of the reading and second thought was that it is so heart warming and inspiring to see how much passion and love people have for writing and poetry….’love was in the air’…. It was like these people were at home the same way a performer is at home on stage, or a teacher is at home in class….it made me think about where I want my ‘home’ to be.
If you asked me to do a close reading of every essay and poem I listened to in that reading I may not have been able to do so, but what I am able to do is to share some of the ideas that caught my attention. These writers talked about D.Rattray and his unique qualities as a person and a writer. A speaker talked about how well he ‘organized reality’ in his writing, writing from the inside outward and finding a connection between life experience and fantasy. They talked about how unashamed he was as an artist and a person; a quality I personally envy and I’m sure many people do. What I thought was really sweet was the fact that D.Rattray would always order the same meal as the other person when he went to a restaurant because he thought it was ‘more like being home’.
I appreciate this experience because it introduced me to another hidden gem of this city and I walk away from it with many valuable lessons.
