What Can Poetry Do? You’re Invited to Find Out!

Saturday May 9 from 2-3:30 pm, in the Parlor

Does it bring people together across time and space? At poetry readings, attendees practice respectful listening – and this is practice for better community and relationship at all times.

It’s possible to read or listen without having to know the meaning of every detail of a poem – or even to have any idea of what the poet intends. We can notice the sounds of the words and the feelings evoked. Some poets have a literal or metaphorical message to share, and some want to express themselves with relatively little regard for the reader or listener’s understanding. Traditional poetry has prioritized the former; feminism and other movements have made room for the latter. Poet and teacher Kristina Marie Darling in her book Look to Your Left: A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle writes of the poem and of the poetry collection as an event that exists as it is – whether the reader or listener gets it or not.

Let’s practice this kind of respectful community and relationship together! Attendees will receive at least one poem to read aloud twice to the group. There will be a time of silence between each poem so that we may sit with and feel what we’ve heard – with no discussion.

Except for a poem to be shared by way of introduction, all of the featured poems are written by women authors – and by particular women authors who have non-traditional ways of expressing their thoughts and feelings.

A First Parish in Needham Community and Relationship event

RSVP to communityandrelationship@uuneedham.org

Saturday, May 9, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Parlor