Poetry Reading: Jane Day & Larry Fagin

On Wednesday I went to a poetry reading at the Poetry Project in St. Marks. Jane Day and Larry Fagin both read some of their pieces. For me, poetry is kind of hard to understand especially just by hearing it rather than seeing it on paper. Fagin’s was interesting to me because in most, if not all, of the pieces that he read he seemed to be describing different things that he encountered in his world travels. Day’s was more difficult for me to understand. I honestly don’t think I could tell you what even one of her poems were really about.

Poetry is frustrating to me because I feel like a lot of times I can’t mind a meaning in it. After the reading I was talking to Professor Kaufman about how the poetry was hard for me to understand and that I didn’t know what they (especially Day) were talking about a lot of the time. When I mentioned that I caught myself drifting off and getting distracted during the readings, she pointed something interesting out to me. She asked me if I had ever thought to think about what about the poems were putting the particular thoughts in my head? Why did I think that thought during that poem? Is there a connection? It’s something that would be interesting to think about as it happens. I feel like if it put certain thoughts in my head, that it then affected me in someway whether or not I realized it.