Ode to poetry: Local residents recite verses
Magness Library?s Spring Poetry Fest was a rousing success, with an appreciative crowd of poetry aficionados on hand to hear a number of local students from Carol Neal?s reading enrichment class recite their favorite poems.
The evening also included readings by some well-known local personalities, including County Executive John Pelham, WCPI Public Radio?s Bill Zechman, Southern Standard news editor Charlie Johnson, Heritage Alliance board member Rachel Killebrew, teacher Carol Neal and even movie star Brad Thornton and movie producer Phil Melfi, both of whom are involved in the production of the independent film ?Tenebrous? which will begin shooting in McMinnville next month.
The group was well prepared, particularly the students, who gave flawless performances with nary a flubbed line or mispronounced word in sight.
The evening began with a rendition of Maya Angelou?s ?Woman Work,? from Bliss Zechman and Megan Dishman, with both dressed in period attire as they listed the seemingly menial chores women perform each day without fanfare, but which nonetheless figuratively make the world turn.
Tess Fryar chose ?Annabel Lee,? a familiar piece by noted, and troubled, short story writer and poet, Edgar Allen Poe, and turned in a delightfully subtle reading of this beloved work.
Allen Betschart followed in the footsteps of thousands of young men with his performance of ?If? by Rudyard Kipling, a poem which has caught the fancy of many a boy in the years since it was written in the late 1800s with its sage advice on what it takes for a boy to become a man.
Anna Whittemore performed the only original poem of the evening with a piece entitled ?What a Year Brings,? which described the seasons with a charming use of poetic imagery.
Anna?s brother, Hank, followed with an amazing performance of Lewis Carol?s nonsense verse ?Jabberwocky? from ?Alice in Wonderland,? a difficult piece to read from the book without error, but which young Hank recited flawlessly, and completely from memory.
The works chosen by the adults were just as varied, ranging from a poem written by a young airman to a prayer by St. Francis of Assisi.
Zechman used his rich and mellifluous voice to great effect in his rendition of traditional favorite ?Crossing the Bar? by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Neal captivated the crowd with her performance of ?By the Pool at the Third Rosses? by Arthur Symons accompanied by the pensive tones of her autoharp.
Killebrew read a poem by an unknown author called ?Blessings,? which listed some of the blessings those of us in the developed countries enjoy while those in other areas of the globe struggle without notice to eke out a meager existence.
Johnson read a piece by southern writer James Dickey called ?The Lifeguard? which he said had a profound effect on him with its almost surreal description of one man?s regret and self-recrimination resulting from his failure to save a drowning child.
Melfi chose a perennial favorite, Robert Frost?s ?Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,? taking the audience with him on a quiet journey through Frost?s sure imagery and poetic style.
Actor Brad Thornton pulled everyone in with his magnetic and moving reading of the ?Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.?
County Executive John Pelham rounded out the evening with a composition which will be familiar to many of us who used to watch the TV stations sign off way back in the 1960s. The poem is called ?High Flight? by John Gillespie Magee Jr., an 18-year-old airman who joined the Canadian Air Force prior to the U.S. becoming involved in the war. Magee was killed in a training accident shortly after he wrote the poem, a paean to the wonder of flight.