I mentioned in my previous post that I read the poem "Total Recall" at the Cultural Identity reading yesterday.  Wanted to say something about what I’ve noticed about varied audience reactions to the poem.

When I first read this poem out to an audience, it was at the Poets’ Asylum, where (obviously) people know my work well.  It got a lot of horrified gasps, with a couple of chuckles at the "funny" lines (the "buffalo lasagna" incident being the most obvious).  For the record, I prefaced it with a comment or two about being scared to read it, so I know that prepped the crowd for that reaction.

The next couple of times I did it, it was in front of audiences that were mostly white.  It was received on those occasions with gales of laughter throughout, and there were post-reading comments about how "hysterical" the poem is.  In each of those cases, though, there was always someone who approached me and asked for a copy of it — a mixed race kid in Delaware being the most memorable one.  I’ve given away several since.

Doing it here, and in the past in front of more racially diverse crowds, was a different experience…big laughs at the "funny lines" and lots of angry, impassioned and positive vocal response to the ones that aren’t meant to be funny;  huge sustained applause and cheers afterward with all kinds of after-talk with people about it.

No real insights, because I don’t think it needs a lot of commentary from me…just an observation about how the same poem can mean different things to different people, or at the very least evoke very diverse responses based on the experiences of the folks in the crowd.

I’m hearing a lot of the same poetic stuff I’m always decrying, but enjoying it anyway.

Still, it’s folks like Esme Vandraager who are still rocking my boat the most, because they aren’t doing the same old things.  There are others, of course…she’s just the first one who came to mind.

For those of you keeping track at home, Lizz Straight and Chad Anderson are tied at the top of the leaderboard after the first night’s bouts with…um…everybody else behind them.  If you were expecting more details on numbers from me, you don’t know me very well.  😉

Have to toot my own horn a bit:  read "Total Recall" at the Cultural Identity reading this afternoon and rocked the house.  i’ll have more to say about this later, I think.

Went to the Erotic reading tonight, heard two poems and turned around and came home.  Sucked in again.

And for those keeping track at home…yup, I’m a little drunk once again.