Yesterday, at the Women Poets at Barnard series, Rachel Wetzsteon, Evie Shockley, and Katha Pollitt shared their work with a small audience in the comfortable and communal environment of Sulzberger Parlor at Barnard College. One could sense that as the audience settled into their seats, they were there for their own enjoyment, to escape into a rare moment of relaxation while listening to poetry.
Whether last night’s readings met the audience’s expectations, however, is doubtful. All three poets read mostly narrative style poems, which rarely impressed the audience with unique or powerful language. Most frustrating of all were the poets’ attitudes toward their own work. In tradition, Barnard students introduced the poets with admiring comments and analyses on the poets’ works and lives. Each poet made a point to express that her poems, as Evie Shockley put it,  “cannot live up to the introduction.” Through these self-deprecating comments, one is left to assume that these poets are somehow disconnected from their words, not proud of them or energetic to read them. If they do not think their work is worth sharing, why should we?
Rachel Wetzsteon came off as most unconfident as she spoke rather disjointedly, nervously reading her work and constantly feeling the need to explain herself. For the most part, her language failed to fully captivate the audience, although certain familiar subjects such as the Low Library may have interested some. A lot of her writing centers on life in New York. Her descriptions of the city, though, are grounded in Starbucks and bus ride clichés. Curiously, she refers to this ‘cliché quality’ in one of her poems: “to every cliché is a gem of truth.” Perhaps so, but this truth did not explicitly deliver itself. Wetzsteon did manage to introduce some unique themes, however, with her poem ‘Rain at Reading,’ which explores the relationship between our words and the climate.
Evie Shockley did not particularly enchant her audience with her language or ideas, but more with the passion embedded in her poems. Each poem has a purpose, has a powerful, clear subject- such as human rights or Ella Fitzgerald. Shockley chose not to introduce each of her poems. This, after Wetzsteon, was refreshing, for it allowed one to just absorb her words in their pure form, without incessant explanation.
Katha Pollitt, casually leaning against the podium, felt at ease with her audience and read her poems in a light, and at times humorous, tone. It seems suitable to have had Pollitt read at Barnard College, for much of her work discusses the woman and her roles and myths. She does not reveal any novel notions of the woman and the family; but perhaps her intent is to disclose the everyday, domestic details, the moments that are ignored on “rinsed, simple mornings.”
In one of Shockley’s poems, she says “a poem should show not tell” and that “a poem appeals perversely to the senses.” Agreed. Sadly, the three poets mostly told thoughts, stories, and moments that lacked any sensual pleasure or intrigue.