Literary Festival Event

On Friday night, I had the privilege of attending the Mark Halliday poetry reading event. I attended the event with two English major friends who really talked up this poet and I was not let down. I really enjoyed his work because it was quite simple, making it easy listening. He read about ten poems on varying topics; with some I was able to relate to. One poem that I particularly liked was entitled “Parkersburg” and was about a town in West Virginia, 35 miles from where he lived in Ohio. This poem was ultra descriptive and made it feel as if I was in the poem myself. It was so descriptive to the point that the appearance of the character is was described down to his “purple shoes.” I also liked the poem “The Rescue Squad” which Halliday described as being about his undergraduate love life. I could relate to this poem as I am in a relationship. Most of this author’s poems sounded less like a poem and more like a story, which I really enjoyed. Although at times it became hard to differentiate between his personal stories before the poem and the actual poem itself. Only one poem called “Cleveland” actually rhymed and the author made it a point to tell the audience that he did have one rhyming poem at the end; which was a question I was pondering throughout the readings. Another poem I enjoyed was “Return to Elmgrove” which was a dream poem. This poem was unlike any other poem because it was not about a specific reality. Lastly, one other poem I liked was entitled “Tim Off To Charlotte” which sounded like a mix of phone conversations that the reader overheard in an airport. This poem reminded me of my own father because I pictured my father being one of the businessmen that the author overheard and took note of. This poem was interesting because it was an interweaving of many conversations that took place and was a peculiar way to present the range of conversations that were overheard. All in all, I was really happy that I chose this session of the Literary Festival and got to expose myself to a fairly famous poet.