Colorado Poets Center E-Words Issue #8
Inside issue #8:
Robert Pinsky in Loveland
On Oct. 3, Robert Pinsky, U. S. Poet Laureate from 1997-2000 during which time he founded the Favorite Poem Project, gave a reading in Loveland’s Rialto Theatre. The opening act consisted of Dave Beegle’s guitar music that Pinsky incorporated later in his reading.
Pinsky has a deeply melodic voice and his exact pronunciation, both delicate and powerful, makes his reading both extremely personable and purposefully impassioned. Ripples of amusement went through the audience at the appropriate moments as well as those wonderful moments of silence at the end of a poem that show its effect sinking in and being appreciated.
Pinsky called Beegle back for the second half of his reading, asking him to improvise between lines of several poems, a task he skillfully accomplished. Some in the audience later commented to friends that they would have liked the poems simply spoken while some thought the guitar added a very welcome touch. But it was a heartening experience of poetry throughout the evening.
Many thanks to all those in the Loveland poetry community, including the 1st Western Trust, who helped make the reading a reality.
