| 1775
poems. 20 hours and 20 minutes.
That
was the task confronting the region's writers and performers
on hand this past weekend to conduct a marathon reading, entitled
"Called Back," of Emily Dickinson's entire body
of poetic writing.
"I
can see Emily herself collapsing at the finish line,"
noted US Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
Collins,
however, was not there to witness the finish line or anything
else - in fact he wasn't on the card at all, appearing uptown
in Riverdale as he was with a bevy of other "name"
poets - at an event billed as a memorial to a local writer
but bearing precious little in the way of anything besides
the usual run of name poets and professors attempting to hold
attention to themselves.
By
contrast, lesser known or unknown poets gathered by the dozens
downtown this weekend for a far less self-promotional goal
- their only apparent aim to share the poetry of Emily Dickinson
in unselfish communion.
The
marathon reading held June 8-9, 2002 at the Bowery Poetry
Club, was billed as the first marathon reading of the complete
1775 poems of Emily Dickinson. "After the tragic events
of September 11 I started rereading her work," explained
Jen Benka, managing director of Poets & Writers and one
of the organizers of the marathon. Among those poems? Number
341, 'After great pain, a formal feeling comes.' It's last
stanza, particularly compelling, reads
This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow -
First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -
"That
poem helped define for me in eloquent, succinct, language
what New Yorkers were experiencing," notes Benka.
While
Benka and Maggie Balistreri, her co-organizer and a talented
performance poet and organizer from New York City, did not
read from the poems, their ability to marshal the talents
of dozens of the tri-state area's ample writing and performance
personalities resulted in a marathon reading of unusual energy
and forward motion. Balistreri, in particular, took on the
task with a confidence that at least as many people would
be drawn to a marathon reading of Dickinson's work "as
are to the perennially successful Bloomsday reading"
of James Joyce's Ulysses.
In
fact it was Balistreri who negotiated one of the earliest
and most critical hurdles of all - finding a venue that would
work for an event of this complexity. She presented the idea
to Bob Holman, a mover and shaker in the world of performance
poetry whose Bowery Club between Bleeker and Houston on Bowery
Street has become a mecca for the region's writing community.
The
result was, start to finish, a remarkable harnessing of strong
personalities and individual aura toward the subsumed communal
goal of exploring and celebrating Emily Dickinson.
The
day began with Magdalena Alagna, a regular feature of the
Manhattan Poetry-In-Performance scene. Following her, featured
readers included Bertha Rogers, Evie Ivy, Alice B Talkless,
Tom Catterson, Vicki Hudspith, Mary Jo Bang. Marvellous readings
turned in by the likes of Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Marie Ponsot
and Jean Valentine set the stage for Prime Time - the 8 p.m.
to midnight range - when the audience saw readers like Maureen
Holm, D. Nurske, Emily XYZ and host Bob Holman show off their
Dickinsonian reading skills.
During
the course of the day, the character of the performance varied
widely. Some read in the slightly singsong cadence of the
unschooled; others with a dramaturge's skill or with an uncharacteristically
restrained and respectful demeanor for a crowd drawn largely
from the NYC performance scene.
Through
it all the audience fugued in and out of focus, as the poems
and hours wore on - but whether attentive to the individual
words or the overall mesmerizing effect, the audience was
rapt.
Packed
all Saturday, as many as 50 or 60 in the minimalist warehouse
space; overnight a tiny cadre of approximately fifteen young
stalwarts carried on the marathon. This amounted to something
of a nightlong vigil, as the stage was shared, by Benka and
Balistreri, with Jennifer You, Alex Heminway and others. "We
even had a late night audience member/surprise reader drop
by, still in his tux, after chaperoning a school prom,"
noted the pair.
When
morning came, whatever weariness brought on by the unprecedented
effort of the night was overcome - an eager anticipation that
the end was in sight drove the small group on. In fact, the
last 100 poems breezed by, read by Zoe Artemis, Tim Hall,
Elizabeth Schmidt, and others; all of it closely orchestrated
by Balistreri and Benka with an eye on the finish line.
Finally,
the final five poems arrived, the fifteen or so unstoppable
devotees took the stage together to read in unison, signaling
the conclusion of what many hope will be the first encounter
in a renewed love affair between the poetry community and
the Belle of Amherst.
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