I think Dylan Thomas got it right—that when we’re at our best in this art, we lose sight of all agendas (“ambition,” “bread,” “the strut and trade of charms on the ivory stages”) and go alone into the dark to sing for something that isn’t listening. And yet the final step in the process is to connect with readers—and sometimes (as with Thomas) with listeners too. For a poet like me, whose work is full of sound and narration, “taking it on the road” is a good way to see if I’m connecting—and not just with my literary peers.
For years Poets & Writers has been “taking me on the road” by supporting my readings at places like Barnes & Noble Union Square and the Chautauqua Institution, where (no surprise) I’ve found receptive listeners. But it’s the non-literary audiences they’ve brought me to—the Latino-immigrant environmental activists at the Bronx River Art Center; and the congregants of the fire-devastated church opposite the Beechnut Plant in Canajoharie; and the court-sentenced residents at the Van Dyke Addiction Treatment Center in Willard—who’ve let me see if I’m really connecting. So, thank you, Poets & Writers, for helping me connect with my audience, for letting me learn from that audience, for letting me see how wide that audience is.
—Joan Murray, poet funded by P&W's Readings/Workshops program