Parisian Literary Salon

Last evening it was my pleasure to watch a large group of students present poetry they had chosen and learned. The performances were vivid; many had found how to embody the words that they spoke. I have lots of poetry energy after these remarkable presentations: the relish for language the students communicated was palpable. I am thinking hard about the question someone asked after the performances: “How do we read poetry (as adults)? No one does- we read novels, histories, autobiographies, but poetry? ” I got to thinking how rich poetry is as a shared experience- a recitation, performance, words put into the public space and chewed…how that is the way to read poetry. Some of the students (including my own) lamented that we can’t do a poetry evening more regularly…but luckily for Londoners, there is an opportunity to eat poetry this Monday:
The Parisian Literary Salon Presents
An Evening of Poetry Exploration
At the Dragonfly Organic Café in Highgate
Interested in discussing pathless woods…mythology… hope… sin… poetic form…tenuous, dark earth… narrative perspective…birch-swinging boys…talking stoves…crying teakettles… adolescence … abandonment… shattering glass…boundaries between the living & the dead?
All may surface at the Parisian Literary Salon where we use the experience and questions of each participant to broaden our understanding of literature and of ourselves. Whether you are a lifelong student of poetry or someone who is interested in talking about ideas but not sure how to read a poem - you will find this evening illuminating and pleasurable. Come spend one evening deepening your understanding of the beauty and art of poetry- feeding your mind while connecting with other lively thinkers.
Poems to be discussed (available on the this website): E. Bishop’s Sestina, L. O’Sullivan’s The Cord & R. Frost’s Birches
Date: Monday May 11th from 7 to 8:30 PM
Location: Dragonfly Organic Café
24 Highgate High Street
Details and registration: http://www.villagewholefoods.co.uk/about.html

If you could copy me on your registration through Dragonfly- and I can send you some thoughts and musings in preparation and notes afterwards. I just read this in the paper this morning- and got a jolt of recognition. From Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys:
“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—which you thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.”

See you in the pages…
Toby