CATRIN LEWIS attends the Poetry of the Natural World reading at The Josephine Hart Foundation’s Poetry Hour.
The Josephine Hart Foundation’s Poetry Hour is fast becoming a favourite of Era Journal’s Literature section. This February, Alicia Doran told Era about her experience at their Fantasy: Realms of Imagination reading. This month we were led down the garden path, over dale, and to a droughted Sicily by chairwoman Dr Mary Wellesley, through The Poetry of the Natural World. It was a pleasure; Romilly and I were delighted to be invited.
The foundation takes its philosophy from Josephine Hart’s own belief in the oral performance of poetry. She wanted to make people gather, read, discuss; to lift poetry from the page. Hart was also a strong believer in introducing an author’s biography. Wellesley beautifully selected elements of each author’s life to colour the poem in one way or another. Poetry Hour encourages you to be a fan, to treat the poets a bit more like rockstars for an evening.
“By nature, I am an all or nothing girl, so line after line in poem after poem of T. S. Eliot’s tumbled into my mind. In poetic terms I had found my man. He – thankfully – did not demand exclusivity.” (Hart, Words that Burn)
You cannot help but love the Josephine Hart you meet through her writing and legacy. Her manifesto Words that Burn is as passionate as it gets. I’ll say if Eliot had loved himself half as much as Hart loved him, he may have written something a little lighter; “April is the coolest month!” perhaps. Hearing poetry aloud was crucial to the development of Hart’s relationship with her favourite writers. She tells us with so much feeling that, every time, with every reading, she is “again transported”.
For the hour, I also found myself taken with each poem. Between the quality of setlist and reading talent, how could one not? The room was dripping with British star power. The night’s readers were absolute powerhouses of film and theatre: Brian Cox, Nicole Ansari-Cox, Tim McInnerny and Joely Richardson. The lineup of poems were classics of English literature: Yeats, Keats, Rossetti, naturally much Emily Dickinson and others of similar magnitude. What Poetry Hour does so perfectly is justice to poetry. Many of the poems on the night were not just read; they were contended with.
Without Joely Richardson’s perfect balance between humour and earnestness, one cannot do justice to a Dickinson poem. There is no life to a D.H Lawrence poem without a true connection to the tragedy and fight for survival that defined his life. These poets demand powerful readers — and their readers delivered.
Now I come to Honesty Hour. In the interest of full disclosure, the real purpose of this article is to say what I was too shy to tell Tim McInnery at the post-reading drinks reception: his reading of D.H Lawrence’s “Snake” was perfect. The highest compliment for a book or a poem, I think, is when someone says I wish I could read it all over again. Thanks to McInnery I was able to read “Snake” all over again. His delivery unlocked a depth to the poem that I didn’t myself find.
The text sees Lawrence contemplate a snake that has taken over his water-trough in the hot Sicilian sun. It’s still, quiet and tragic. What was so perfect about McInnery’s performance was he read the poem like a thirsty man. This is not something you can do in your head. Wellesley introduces the poem using the context of Lawrence’s poverty; he lived a life of constant movement, struggling with money and his health and barely surviving at times. Together with McInnery’s performance, the poem became new again. The snake takes over his water trough: the snake becomes a barrier to his needs. Does he hate it? Should he kill it? Does he love it? Why does he miss it? The poem struggles with the attachment to those things that menace and disturb us, especially those in the way of what we need. This was a reading that never struck me. The whole poem is a diversion from his journey for water; he’s thirsty all the while. It is always when we’re desperate those snakes are in the way…
For me at least, these pillars of Hart’s, performance and biography, combined on that night to rake new light on a poem which is known but never really felt before. It was a highly enjoyable night. Romilly and I particularly enjoyed some very tasty complimentary wine afterwards. I highly recommend joining us for the next one!
The next Poetry Hour is yet to be announced but you can find out details on their social media and website.
Featured image courtesy of Tom Lucas.