This Blog Post is co-written by Rebecca Clifford & Nicola Schneider.
This past Saturday (Feb. 22, 2025), we had 11 poets read their poetry out loud and 1 supporter.
… Where poets are encouraged to read aloud to the group. The general public is welcome to join as listeners or performers. These Saturdays are an opportunity for anyone looking to hone their public performance skills by delivering a dramatic reading in front of an audience without the critique context of the regular meetings. (The next one is Saturday, June 14, 2 – 4 pm @ Westdale Library.)
Rebecca’s Report: The Latin phrase hic sunt dracones means dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of a medieval practice of putting illustrations of dragons, sea monsters and other mythological creatures on uncharted areas of maps where potential dangers were thought to exist.
Poets who gathered for the Tower’s Poetry Parlour were not disappointed when it came to unexplored territories, mysteries, mythologies, knights (errant or otherwise) and heroes, dragons and other dangers. The works read stimulated all the senses and took us to worlds beyond our ken.
Myriad “thionic deities” watched as dawn rose, “lovely in awakening”. Alliteration and imagery were thick on the ground, much to our delight. Some poets went back to their youth when hearts and spirits were green and tender, where chaos can ensue all “because I sneezed”. Some railed “against the chains of the sky” and the Damocles politics swinging south of the border with talons and dragon’s breath; some simply went there in the fantasies born of new imaginings; some responded to seminal poems with which we were already familiar; some cited silly works because, well, when things are as bad as they are these days, you just gotta laugh.
In every instance, we valued the words, and the voices we heard. All in all, an afternoon well spent in good company.
Nicola Says: We welcome poetry lovers & supporters because it can be scary to share poems. I mean, talking in front of an audience can be scary. Period. But, poetry (Eeeeek!) — Because after all, the poems are parts of ourselves, and not always the most flattering parts.
The good news is that practice helps, and that is why Tower Poetry decided to try this out for the 2024-25 season. I have asked some TPS Members to share their tips for reading your poetry out loud… ta daaaa….
Tips from Tower Poet Members:
Jennifer Tan says: Above all, read as if saying it with feeling, like you care and really mean it.
From Rebecca Clifford, TPS Executive, Member-at-large, Ekphrastic Experience Coordinator, co-communications & all-‘round poetry pal…
For reading:
- choose your pieces knowing your audience will be diverse
- bring more pieces than you will likely recite; you can choose on the fly (esp. if someone recites something similar before you do)
- practice reciting your pieces before the event
- in your reading copy, put in strategic spaces and line breaks that will slow you down.
- speak as if you’re in a large classroom, auditorium, and you don’t have a mic
(it’s odd how many open mics don’t have mics)
For simply enjoying the event:
- enjoy the offerings of other performers/reciters by being fully present for their performances
- jot down words/phrases that capture your interest; it may spark something new in your own work.
Lisa Borkovich, TPS President advises: Whether my own or another poet’s work, I like to dramatize a reading by connecting emotionally with the words and their perceived meaning and then to convey that feeling by modulating my tone, volume and pacing. If appropriate, I also like to add body language and facial expression to further engage with the audience in order to elicit an emotional response in them.
Ed Woods, TPS Treasurer & Circulation Manager, suggests: Pretend you are at a gathering of friends and treat it as a casual test-drive of reading your poem aloud.
Three tips from the Downs (Trudi & G.W.):
- Stand up – It’s better for your breathing and delivery; people can hear you better.
- Slow down – Ears take time to hear what you say and then transmit the sound to the brain for decoding. Slow down your delivery to give your readers a chance to process what you are reading.
- Speak out – Mumbled talking is most annoying to the listener. If your poem is worth reading, speak up so your audience can hear and enjoy your work. Try to project your voice so that the person farthest away from you can easily hear you.
Do you want extra practice? Here is Poetry Foundation’s “Ten Poems Students Love to Read Out Loud.“
Writer in Residence, Jennifer LoveGrove from Open Book (Ontario)
“A How-To Guide for Your Poetry Reading”
Orange County Poetry Out Loud Series: “Top 5 Poetry Performance Tips (Poetry Out Loud #3)”
Hamilton Public Library, Poems From Home, TPS Poets:
** Lisa Borkovich, This Escarpment
** Jennifer Dunlop
** Bernadette Rule
** Nicola Schneider (Mine are what not to do…. These were my first performances… `
The next TPS Poetry Parlour –> Saturday, June 14, 2 – 4 pm @ Westdale Library.
