The Story
James Tate Poetry Reading Enjoyed by All
As part of the Patrick Hayes Writers Series, students, faculty and staff of the College enjoyed an evening of literature as James Tate and Brian Henry presented selections of their poems.
The reading took place on the evening of Mar. 20 in the Ewell Recital Hall. Professor Henry Hart, who teaches poetry at the College and is also a published essayist and poet, introduced the two writers.
An important poet of the era, James Tate won the Pulitzer Prize for his book Selected Poems in 1992 and the National Book Award for The Worshipful Company of Fletchers in 1994.
A 1994 graduate of the College, Brian Henry is the author of four books of poetry and has been the editor of Verse since 1995. He founded Verse Press in 2000. Additionally, he won the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America in 2003.
Professor Hart noted in his introduction how proud he was to see a former student succeed in the competitive world of poetry.
Brian Henry opened the reading with a presentation of poems written throughout his career. He delivered the poems with a rapid excitement that engaged the audience, and he spoke about what had inspired his writing. The poems themselves sported an array of off-beat titles, such as "Discrete Mathematics," "Interior Airport Bar," "The Rain Blisters" and "More Snot."
Many of the pieces Henry read focused on the themes of traveling and the spaces that exist between people.
Following Henry, James Tate recited selected poems from his latest book, Return to the City of White Donkeys. His famous surrealist writing has developed into witty prose-poetry in this book.
Tate opened with the poem "Long Term Memory," which is about a man who stumbles upon a statue of himself of which he was previously unaware. He then recited several other poems, including "The Promotion," about a dog who is reincarnated as a human, and "Bounden Duty," the story of a man who receives a strange call from the President."
His reading style brought the poems vividly to life and had the audience laughing for half an hour. He has a unique storytelling ability, and the poems he read were by turns startling and hilarious.
The evening concluded with a reception for the two poets, during which they chatted with students and teachers and signed copies of their books.