Listening to Steve Reich's "Violin Phase."  It's my favorite Reich piece.

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I read my Marsh Hawk manuscript out loud to no one but myself today as a way to think about the(s)pacing of the texts.  And I wound up thinking about how little I care for the poetry readings I have done.  When I put a poem together I think carefully about line breaks and etc.  I know how the pieces should be read.  Mostly my work should be read slowly, deliberately.  That is not to say expressionlessly.  It's to say that pace is important in terms of how the thing gets heard, felt as meaning.

In practice I tend to read in public too quickly.  My nerves overtake me, so I rush things.

 I'm not theatrical and I am bothered by poems that are.  I am more bothered though by the divide in me between the writer and performer.

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Ultimately, though, I would rather be a good poet than an entertainer.  I, of course, speak only for myself.  And I recognize that this might be rationalization.

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