Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Poetry Out Loud
I watched the video of the second place winner, Barbara Gooding, reciting “Progressive Health” by Carl Dennis. I think she deserves some admiration for her excellent job of memorizing such a long poem. I also thought her physical presence was exemplary. Throughout her recital, she maintained good eye contact and provided visual gesture that gave the audience more view into what the poem was about. She picked a challenging poem and I think it may have affected her final standing.
I think Barbara Gooding’s performance was a little bit on the boring side. Part of this may have been due to the poem she selected. “Progressive Health” repeats the same ideas too much (donate your lungs, liver, etc.). Her voice didn’t seem to help matters get better as she began to sound like Mr. Smith from the Matrix. Her performance seemed to drag on, and that is why I believe she got second in the competition. I understand that she was trying to get into character and show that she understood the meaning of the person being a bit ominous and convincing, but it was too much.
