Outside 5

For my last outside event I went to another poetry reading. I really enjoy the readings that take place at the Otherland’s coffee shop, so I only saw it as fitting to once again go see one. The one I saw for the final time only had two readers. The first reader was a female who read a non-fiction story. Personally, I really did not like it. She read for about 20 minutes, and I probably knew what was going on in the story for about 5 of those minutes. She jumped all over the place, so much so that there were several times I thought she started reading a new story, until I would hear the main character’s name to be reminded that it was still the original story. I don’t, or can’t, see how anyone in the audience could have really enjoyed her story. It was so hard to follow. The story made me feel like giving her one of the books we receive in English class that shows us how to summarize things, oppose to using a lot of wordy sentences to get a point across. I could have told her whole story in about 45 seconds, and it would have made a ton more sense. The other guy who read was very good. He started off singing a Christmas song, to introduce a Christmas poem. I thought this was very neat. Although the poem was about how depressing his Christmas’s always are, and how dysfunctional his family is, I still smiled when he sang. The poems I remember the most from his set were those on Heartbreak. He had two poems about a breakup with a girlfriend. He seemed absolutely crushed about it, and you could tell when he read these poems, his feelings were real. The thing I got out of his reading was a new meaning of courage. He was incredibly courageous to pour his heart out in front of a bunch of people he didn’t know. He opened his soul, and although seemed a bit shy, did not hesitate in reading these. My personality is completely opposite from this. I barely talk to my friends, or my boyfriend about my feelings, let alone a whole crowd of people. I am very closed, and can’t even imagine writing using so many raw emotions. He really inspired me, and made me respect him. He made himself vulnerable, which is an extremely risky thing to do. I feel like he may have inspired me to open up a little more. The result after the poetry reading was somewhat like that at the end of the Grinch. My heart that was two sizes too small grew a couple sizes that day.