As many of you ( all 4 or 5) have probably have heard me talking about through my countless plugs (if you haven’t or even if you have, peruse the rest of my blog for some more info), my friend/teacher/co-conspirer in art theft/ slasher/ professor Stacy Lynn Brown had another reading of her book length poem “Cradle Song” here at S.I.U.E tonight.....errr last night. This time she was a special guest of the “Live Nude Girl In The Devil’s Territory” book tour. She threw down some hot verses to kick off the whole shindig. Needless to say it was enjoyable. She read from “Cradle Song” which, after reading it three times myself, was a breath of fresh air to hear it in “THE” voice of the book rather than the voice in my head. Don’t get me wrong, I highly enjoy the voice(s) in my head but it is good to hear outside voices as well. Anyways, like before, I decided to draw a picture based off of what I was feeling based off of what I was hearing. I find that this helps me pay attention. I’ll show the picture after I’m done writing about the night. It was a short read but really enjoyable.
The next reader was Kyle Minor. This cat was interesting to say the least. I’m not sure how I can really describe what his reading was like but I can say he defiantly paints with his words. Very strong and moving, I had no trouble drawing with him and his story. The story was cynical in the kind of way that, like after you have your 6th chocolate doughnut you say, “I want another one,” yeah like that. I wanted another one. It was dark but not in a dark way. If you understand that I applaud you.
The last reader was Kathleen Rooney and she started off by taking our picture. It may or may not make it onto her blog, unfortunately I didn’t get the name of that blog or I would have linked it, but its good too know I’ve been immortalized in the writing world (even if it’s not for writing anything) Then we had a room vote for too see where our reader would begin. We found our decision in the middle. That is in the middle of the story. The story told of a young women modeling nude for a photographer. Again we had another extremely polished story/reader and it was like a live book on tape. Funny and witty, the story played across my mind like a movie I might see while standing in a waiting room of a writers guild who wanted their collection of Sestinas back that I had never taken in the first place so they tried to send me home but I stayed anyways because the movie was well worth the accusations and the trip up the 47 flights of stairs that it had taken me to get too this particular waiting room. Yeah it was like that.
The picture I drew turned out alright I guess. Interesting too me was that I drew 3 main figures. I don’t know why but each reader had a figure and a surrounding. Don’t get me wrong, these our not portraits of the readers just that came from my mind as they were reading. Stacy Lynn Brown’s drawing is the top left, Kyle Minor is the middle right, and Kathleen Rooney is the bottom left. Here it is.
If you looked closely at the top you can see the three words, “Homicidal Homophobic Homophones”. (You’ll find out soon if you haven’t already that I have a thing for alliterations) This came to me right before I had come to the event. I was taking a shower and I was playing around with words when it hit me. They probably will be used in a later poem or so I hope. I did come up with another neat one but I quickly learned that one of the words I was using was not really a word. This put a damper on that idea but I can say one of the real words was condescending. I’ll let you figure out which made up word I use.
There is reason why I chose to title this blog “A Lullaby Encore”. Though not exactly an encore, my friend/professor/boating enthusiast Stacy Lynn Brown had the chance to read “Cradle Song” again and I was lucky enough to be able to go too this reading as well. A cradle song is more or less ( too my understanding) a lullaby and if one were to have an encore of a lullaby it would probably be shorter and quieter than the first lullaby. Her reading tonight was shorter than when she read on her own but, like a lullaby, it was the all important set up for the world of dreams. It was a nice lullaby followed my two nice ( if not bizarre) dreams. Thank you.
Another note on “Cradle Song”, if you read my earlier blog you would have known that I had tried something brand new when reading “Cradle Song”. I turned off my head phones and just let the poem itself paint a world for me. The next time I read it I did the same. At the reading I had decided to honor/commemorate/ tribute (or whatever the word is) “Cradle Song” and my friend/teacher/kite expert/ Mrs. Stacy Lynn Brown. I wanted to do something cool and something that had meaning. Something that was unique that could stand alone as well as stand for something else. I decided that I was going to paint a picture purely based off how I felt after reading the book. I read the book in its entirety and then went to work. I took over an hour or so which, with spray paint, is kind of long. This picture was in a way a small return to art as I hadn’t done any art outside of class in months. At first I wasn’t the happiest with it but it grew on me. The more I looked at it the more it showed itself to me (even though I’m the one who painted it). I think my favorite part of the painting was that it was strictly “Cradle Song”. But instead of confusing/ boring you with odd details I’ll just show you a few pics of it. Keeping with a “Cradle Song” feel it was titled, “Cradle Song Interpretation #11" (though it would have been oddly fitting if I didn’t title it either). Here you go.
Well I got to give her the picture last night and she seemed to like it. If not, and as I tell everyone else you I give a painting, at least you scored a free canvas. It was cool seeing her again and all of the other readers. It has reinforced this idea that was first started when I went to the first “Cradle Song” reading. It is the idea of stepping away from my work and seeing it as a presentation piece. Other words, stop only thinking about the content but how one would receive it. As I’m still a young toddler in the writing world, I’m blind to many of the deeper and more intricate layers of writing. Slowly I’m beginning to see more and more each day. I’ve always strictly worried about the content but not necessarily how that content was delivered. I’ve almost always written for myself but now I’m beginning to change. After watching others read I’ve noticed that I have been missing out on a whole aspect of writing. An example is when I read something of mine in class. I got comments that my micro story had a powerful shift when I read it opposed to when they read it themselves. I was able convey much more of my meaning by reading it then in my words alone. I learned that The full impact of what I was saying was only convayed through “telling” and not “showing”. Though not your typical “showing” “telling” still the same message. If you are confused I’m not saying I should read out loud but rather I should think about constructing my pieces so that it grasps others as it grasps me. I’m not sure if I can change anything in my writing to address this ( or even if I want to) but at least I’m aware of this new perspective of my writing.
So to wrap it all up I’d like to say thank you for everyone who read last night, everyone who is reading this now, and everyone in general. I apologize as always for my atrocious grammar and wish you not too throw heavy objects at me. I really appreciate you reading so stay tuned and you might me rewarded. Now I’m going to write about The Tooth Fairy and The Easter Bunny. Take care everyone and stay safe. Zia Jian!
~Love~
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