?I Can Only Write What I Hear, Out of the Blue?: A Night of Poetry with ...
On Thurs?day, Octo?ber 11, the Tem?ple Eng?lish Depart?ment spon?sored a poetry read?ing fea?tur?ing the work of Lisa Fish?man.? I had read some of her poetry in my Eng?lish classes, and I was really look?ing for?ward to hear?ing her read. ?It?s always inter?est?ing to hear the way the poet inter?prets his or her own work.? So, like the cool kid I am, I hopped onto the Broad Street Line on Thurs?day night and made my way to the poetry read?ing.? I had never been to TUCC before, but as I got out at the Cen?ter City stop, there was no mis?tak?ing the big Tem?ple T.? I wan?dered through the halls and even?tu?ally found my way to room 222.? I found a seat in a room full of Eng?lish majors and pro?fes?sors and waited for the night of poetry to?begin.
Before Fish?man began, there was a ?warm-up? read?ing from Jon Lohr, a Cre?ative Writ?ing grad?u?ate stu?dent.? He read a short piece that he had writ?ten about the life of a man in a small town in Wis?con?sin.? When he had fin?ished, Brian Teare of the Tem?ple Uni?ver?sity Eng?lish Depart?ment approached the podium to give Lisa Fish?man a brief intro?duc?tion.? He lauded her abil?ity to choose words by the way they sounded, ?con?scious of the sep?a?ra?tion of eye and ear?.? He con?tin?ued to describe the fan?ci?ful effect her word?play has when both heard and read, con?clud?ing that ?whim is one form of charm in her poetry?.? Then, blush?ing slightly, Lisa Fish?man took the?stage.
A soft-voiced woman with a lovely ?Wis?gon?son? accent, Fish?man began read?ing from her book The Flow?er?pot at the begin?ning and con?tin?ued in chrono?log?i?cal order.? After a while, she said she rarely read her poetry the way that it was printed in the book, and soon after began to jump around to other parts of The Flow?er?pot.? She often started read?ing in the mid?dle of a longer poem, and would some?times pref?ace an anec?do?tal poem with more details of what hap?pened that inspired her to write it. ?She took spe?cial care to tell the back story of her piece ?Harold Square?.? It was a tran?scrip?tion of a note?book a stu?dent of hers gave as a gift.? She held onto that note?book for nine years before finally decid?ing to tran?scribe it into one of her books. ?It is one of the most influ?en?tial works to her because of the way she iden?ti?fies with the anony?mous author and the way her words speak to her.? She then closed with a few read?ings from her other book, Cur?rent, and was received with thun?der?ous applause.
What most impressed me about Lisa Fish?man was the way she deliv?ered her poetry.? The way she paced her words and inflected her voice was hyp?notic, sim?i?lar to hear?ing a story while sit?ting in a rock?ing chair.? The way she formed her phrases was lovely to hear, and I cer?tainly agree that her poetry is meant to be heard as well as?read.
After her poetry read?ing, Fish?man did a short ques?tion and answer ses?sion.? It was very inter?est?ing to hear about her inspi?ra?tions for her poetry, par?tic?u?larly how she sculpted her lines. ?She said the way she approaches a poem is by hear?ing it in her head line by line, as opposed to writ?ing it down. ?I can only write what I hear, out of the blue.? Of course, this means a lot of the time, I don?t hear any?thing, and then I don?t write.?? I found this par?tic?u?larly inter?est?ing, not only because it pro?vides insight on where she gets her inspi?ra?tion to write, but also explains how she reads her poetry so well.? I per?son?ally got to shake the lovely Ms. Fishman?s hand after the read?ing and got her to pose for the beau?ti?ful photo you see above.? I look for?ward to read?ing and hear?ing more of her?work.
The next poetry read?ing in the Tem?ple Uni?ver?sity Poets and Writ?ers series will be on Novem?ber 8th in Ander?son 821 at 8:00 pm.? It will be fea?tur?ing the work of Alli?son Cobb.? I will cer?tainly be there and I encour?age any and all of you to come out for a lovely night of poetry.
If you?d like to learn more about Lisa Fish?man, you can read more of her poetry at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lisa-fishmanpoetry.
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