Mark Doty Reading

The first thing that surprised me about the reading was how many people were there. It made my expectations a little higher than they had been for the other two writers that we listened to. I think he met those expectations pretty well. It was amazing how Doty could take some small detail that most other people would overlook and write a stimulating poem about it. The “Lullaloo” poem with the crickets/peepers/ whatever they were poem is an example of this.

It was interesting that he said he couldn’t read his poems from years ago because the rhythm and voice weren’t written the same way he writes today. I thought that once an author finally developed their own voice, it wouldn’t change much over time. But I guess it makes more sense for it to change, because most people themselves change greatly over time because of experiences they’ve had.

My favorite poem was the one about the crashing airplane. There was so much emotion, so much packed dread and anticipation. In that instant, I as a reader knew that Doty thought he was going to die then. Listening to that real experience makes me wonder how I would react if I got the chance to ponder my death before it happened. I also thought it amazing that he worked humor into his near-death-experience. And the strategy worked with the flow of the poem, because that’s the kind of person Doty was.

I liked how he gave a background story to a lot of his poems. The introduction to the poem about the goats was especially interesting. Doty was touched to learn that the kids in the first grade class had read his poem when they weren’t able to go to the goat farm. Stories like that helped me as a listener to delve more deeply into the poems themselves.