Poetry Night at the Laurel Theater

I really enjoy poetry. I realize that's not true for everyone. I'll admit I came to it through the back door: music lyrics. I realized by the time I was in high school that I loved music generally, but lyrics particularly. Bob Dylan, John Prine and Hank Williams moved me like few others. As high school turned to college and I realized that I likely would not be a rock star (lack of musical tallent kept rearing its ugly head), I decided to become a poet. Even though I studied with some notable poets, including Pulitzer Prize winning Richard Eberhart, alas, this was also not to be.

Pamel Uschuk, Knoxville Writer's Guild, Laurel Theater, Knoxville, March 2011

Fortunately, I got far enough into it to realize that many poets write accessible, enjoyable, challenging and often moving words. Even without music. Really. I'm sure I don't always get everything they want me to get - I suspect poets are the smartest of our species - but I get enough to keep me wanting more. Sometimes the meaning evades me, but the sheer joy of the words is enough. Words are often delicious pleasures on the tongue. I simply love them.

Pamela Uschuk and William Pitt Root, two poets, recently spoke to a packed house at the monthly meeting of the Knoxville Writer's Guild in the lovely Laurel Theater in Fort Sanders.


Pamela Uschuk, Laurel Theater, Knoxville, March 2011

The couple lives in southwestern Colorado, but are temporarily residing in Knoxville while Ms. Uschuk fills the Hodges Chair as Visiting Writer at UT. She has published five volumes of poetry including Scattered Risks (2005), which was nominated for a Pulitzer and Crazy Love (2009) which won the 2010 American Book Award and was nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer. Her poem "Shostakovitch: Five Pieces" won the local New Millennium Award prior to her winning the other awards - so maybe Knoxville helped launch her to superstar status.

William Pitt Root, Knoxville Writer's Guild, Laurel Theater, Knoxville, March 2011

William Root's roots were on display in his portion of the program. He read from a recently re-issued volume entitled The Storm and Other Poems (1969) which focuses on his childhood years growing up near the Gulf of Mexico and the Everglades and White Boots: New and Selected Poems of the West (2006). Mr. Root has also won numerous prizes, including three Pushcarts and his poetry has been featured in The Atlantic, The New Yorker and The Nation among 350 other literary journals.

William Pitt Root, Knoxville, March 2011

Their reading was fascinating both in subject as well as word usage and provided a marked contrast in style. Hers is, to my blue-collar understanding more intellectual with emotional overtones while his is more visceral with intellectual overtones. I'm including The Wavering Field below read by Mr. Root. It was also a selection at his reading in the Laurel Theater. To conclude, I'm including a poem read by Ms. Uschuk called Crazy Love. Interestingly, she refers to a Tennessee reading in which a listener told her the meaning of her own poem. At the reading for the KWG someone called out "Van Morrison" when she said the title, because that is the title of a great song by Van the Man. It occurred to me it is also the title of two other great songs: one by Poco and one by The Allman Brothers Band.

Dale Mackey Presents Seminar on Social Media: A Blog about Blogging

Dale Mackey discusses Social Media, Redeemer Church, Knoxville, February 2011

It had to happen eventually: I finally got some training in this blogging thing. Actually, the workshop, sponsored by the Knoxville Writer's Guild and presented by Dale Mackey at the Redeemer Church in Fort Sanders was about more than blogging. It was about the changes in the ways that people connect in 2011. Facebook, blogging, Twitter and issues like work flow, content, photographs, building networks and on the list goes. Somewhere around forty people crammed into a room at Redeemer Church at Highland and 17th for the two-and-a-half-hour session.

I attended because I want my blog to do as well as possible. How do you know when a blog is doing well? As of today, thirty-one people are notified about new posts via the registration form in the right-hand column. Another forty-one are followers, meaning they have subscribed to the blog, also available to the right of this post, so they can read it via RSS feeds.

Participants discuss their interest in Social Media.

On average, I have about a hundred people read the blog each day. Many of them are repeat visitors. Of the hundred, five will be from other countries. Twenty will be from out of state. Fifteen will be from Tennessee towns outside of Knoxville. Breaking it down like that says there are about sixty Knoxvillians reading each day and it seems that could be better. There are about two thousand who live downtown alone.


Dale Mackey, Social Media Workshop, Knoxville, February 2011

I learned that I'm doing some things pretty well and I could definitely do some things better. On the positive side of the ledger, I've got a focused topic that I stick to pretty well, I'm posting often, I'm writing as well as I know how and I respond to people pretty quickly. On the other side of the ledger, my photographs could be better, so I'm going to continue working on that. Also, I should probably start producing some video, but that will have to wait for a while. I'm still pondering some of the other pieces we discussed today. I doubt I'll ever twitter. I probably do, however, need some sort of Facebook presence.

So, there will be some changes. Some will not be obvious, but others may be. If you have suggestions for me, I'd love to read them - either in a comment below, or in a private e-mail here. I want to make this blog the best I can make it. In the meantime, check out this video we viewed in our conference today regarding the explosion of social media. It is a couple of years old, so things have changed a bit, but it is pretty amazing.