With so many high-voltage entertainment options to choose from, going to a poetry reading at an independent bookstore might not seem very appealing, especially when just down the street in either direction on 4th Avenue, music is resounding from various venues like — depending on ones’ taste and possibly age — either a cacophony of noise or sweet, inviting harmonies.
However, the fact that about 50 or 60 folks gathered at Antigone Books to listen to an hour and a half of readings by U of A professors Boyer Rickel and Alison Hawthorne Deming plus Pam Uschuk, a former Tucsonan who now teaches full time in Colorado (but visits often), suggests a phenomenon that contributes to Tucson’s uniqueness. Given a choice of all the music, movies, theater offerings, bars, nightclubs, restaurants, casinos, bowling alleys, art gallery openings, not to mention the simple joy and/or option of staying home with take-out pizza and a rented dvd, here were dozens of able-bodied adults and a few young people sitting in plastic chairs and applauding word-wizardry, the breathtaking feat of syllable juggling and explication that in the hands of experts is as mesmerizing as any high wire act, trick of film special effects or theatrical magic.
Each poet brings a special sensibility to his or her work, ranging from Rickel’s personal, poignant imagery as demonstrated in his new chapbook “Reliquary,” to Deming’s soaring, lyrical descriptions of nature and man’s place in it (her new collection is called “Rope”) and ending up with Uschuk’s almost lusty, almost brazen, very dramatic and funny narratives of family and love and human emotions. Her book is “Crazy Love.”
Poetry on a Friday night. What a perfect way to end a week!
