Hearing your words by another...

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Hearing your words by another...

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1eLPy
Ott 12, 2013, 2:44 am

Hello Poetry Fools! :-)

I am a new member to this group and aside from introducing myself as a new member and newly published author I thought I'd ask you all a question about hearing someone else read your work.

Today I heard some of my poems read by my sister after giving her her copy of my book. She was going through it at random and reading them aloud. While attempting to sign my mother's book I couldn't help but stop and listen as she read my poems. They suddenly sounded so much more new than I know them to be, almost as if they weren't mine at all. I heard them differently.

For anyone else who's published their works or prepared to submit them you can probably relate to the redundancy that builds up around you like a sticky layer as you read and re-read your poems, reconsidering them for submission or the order they're in, removing some, then putting them back. To us, they're not new, not at all. And some may be wearing down on you because you know all too well how it goes, what the message is, what your favorite parts are but you just have to re-read to get a sense of how it fits for the journal/agent/publisher your sending your work to or if it really works in the order of your book. I love to read my poems aloud to myself because then I get to really express them with all my intonations and emphasis, the drama real breath and voice bring them. It really helps this redundancy. But hearing them read by someone else has an even more different feel.

They literally are outside of you. In my poem "And So It Begins" I refer to putting my words out there:

"...my words
transforming themselves from what
they were and are to me
to be some other entity/ that is unknown to me
until they tell me what
manifested before them..." - eLPy

Essentially I got a greater sense of this hearing her reading what I wrote. It shifted my understanding of my own work I've worked on so long and I'm not exactly sure just how yet but it made me wonder about all the people who have copies of my e-book & print edition right now and how they're reading my works. What is becoming of my words, how are they manifesting into something perhaps different or the same but in someone else's life?

Do you other poets feel this, or have you ever thought about your work like this?

Thank you,
eLPy

2oldstick
Ott 12, 2013, 6:22 am

I've never heard anyone read my poems out loud, although I do read other people's poems at my talks and love it when they get a laugh.
I think I would be a bit possessive, and consider I could do it better.
Some poems are asking to be performed, while others are better read and digested quietly and alone.
When I get time I'll try to find examples .Things are in disarray at the moment.

3joannasephine
Modificato: Ott 13, 2013, 2:47 am

It's one of the most important things you can do when doing a final hard edit. You know how it's meant to go, and should have read it out loud so many times (by the time it's ready to submit somewhere) that you essentially know how it goes without seeing what you've actually written. It's only when you get someone who doesn't have history with the poem to read it akoud to you that you can fine tune things like linebreaks and punctuation – all those " yeah, I know how to do it, no need to check" things. (You probably do know how. But how sure are yu you've done it as well as humanly possible?)

I also make my students read poems aloud when we're doing close reading. The usual plan is that I read it to them first (having reasonable familiarity with the poem), then I get two students to each read it to the class. It's incredibly enlightening – sometimes the differences are really subtle, but just the fact of hearing it in three different voices will almost always bring something to light that wasn't obvious before. Rhymes can often fade in and out of view, depending on accents. And the rhythm that one person swings into easily may cause another to really stumble. Then there's the question of how enjambed your enjambments actually are ...

But as Oldstick said, it can be difficult to find people who are actually good at reading a poem aloud. And hearng someone who is poor at it read through your poem can be quite painful. (Yet another reason why I make my students read things aloud as often as possible. Getting comfortable with the demands of the form does take practice.)

4eLPy
Ott 29, 2013, 11:17 pm

Sorry to have taken so long to reply!

I do understand what you're saying; I would imagine that most of the time the author of the poem would be a better reader than someone else.

I have poems that I myself may prefer to read silently rather than out loud even alone whereas I also have poems that I know how to "perform" as you say. Such poems I know would be better for me and the reader to be read by me so they can really understand the more important, and most important parts, the more dramatic, the more emotional.

But as I was saying I did very much like to hear my words so objectively, even from someone who doesn't/didn't know how to read the poem the way I would. In a way you get to see and hear from inside the mind of someone else, see/hear what happens between them and your work when you are not around. Very cool, you should try it with a poem you don't feel quite so possessive about and hold your tongue as best you can as they read! :-)

Cheers!
eLPy
author of "That Which Lives Within"
www.littlefacepublications.com

5eLPy
Ott 29, 2013, 11:33 pm

Very interesting what happens with your students; I'm sure it's intriguing to hear several accounts of the same poem.

I did not have my poems read out loud prior to my final edit however I can see the advantage in this mostly if you're able to find someone who can read it as close to how it should be as possible so you're not distracted by wanting to correct how they read it as opposed to you hearing your mistakes, most especially in the case of free verse I would think. Then again, a completely unfamiliar reader may open your eyes to an even better way for it to be read, heard, and written. You may find their reading delivers your writing better.

No matter what the outcome this is a very interesting process. How fun to hear your work in different voices as well!

Thanks for your replies!
eLPy
author of "That Which Lives Within"
www.littlefacepublications.com

6carusmm
Modificato: Mag 19, 2016, 7:30 am

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