Thanks to Andrew Shields for his post dealing with Elizabeth Alexander and the question of the oratorical vs. what I would call the conversational style of reading aloud most poets use. No one programmatically teaches poets to read this way, I think, but the style is certainly entrenched. Only “performance poets” dissent from it—although Naropa preserves Ginsberg’s exalted hipster oratory in the supercharged person of Anne Waldman. Note also Andrew’s link to a thoughtful, humane post by Reb Livingston…. Here, by the way, is Alexander’s poem with the correct lineation.Read More