Poetry Readings…

As Theo was mentioning the Poetry Slam going on at the bookstore on Thursday night, I happened to remember that besides the Pablo Neruda Poetry for Peace reading I went to this semester, I went to another poetry reading at the bookstore last semester. I know we weren’t in this class then, but it was interesting anyway, so I thought I would mention some of my thoughts.

Janice Bradbaw was the poet reading and selling her book, Universe Disturbed, during the poetry reading. It was a very relaxed setting with just a few people sitting around listening by the fireplace in the back of the bookstore. It was fun to hear the author of the poem reading her own poems and reflecting a bit on what she had written and why. Also, one of the things that I found most interesting is that Bradbaw was actually a student here at St. Lawrence. That was what initially got me interested in attending the reading. I’m glad I went!

I decided to buy Bradbaw’s book, and she signed it for me too. I got to talk to her a little bit while she was signing it for me, which was cool! Her book is a collection of poems she wrote while she was a student here. There are references to places on campus and things that wouldn’t really make sense to other people, but since we all go here, we get it! Fun! The poems are really personal, some of them seem kind of juvenile (as they should since they are the writings of a college student), but I found that I could connect with a lot of them as a college student myself. Bradbaw is somewhat of an emerging artist—it’s not like she is my favorite poet or anything, but I enjoyed reading her book and listening to her read her poetry at the bookstore. It was a fun experience!