got a kick out of this article how to look good while reading a poem out loud.  many poets treat poetry readings as a kind of solemn mass.  it's not.  any public speaking is a performance.  anything public is performance.  i'd rather the poet reading slip over her lines if she is enjoying herself in the act of recitation versus a slow, correct reading with no interaction with the audience.

just my preference.  but how one looks is important too.  my late friend pearl stein-selinsky thought fashion was just as important as poetry.  how we wear our hair and clothes, whether we have tattoos and/or piercings, whether you prefer being a square or looking like the fonz, matter a great deal.  even if you choose not to care about your appearance is a choice too.

thom gunn, that most fonzie of poets, in his late 60s and early 70s wore his hair close-cropped.  it was salt & pepper but only because it was dyed.  in her wonderful essay titled 'thom gunn' wendy lesser writes about gunn's hair, 'it would be completely grey if he didn't color it. "i think it's okay to dye your hair if you tell people it's dyed , don't you?' he says, in a confiding tone, to everybody.'

vanity or no we do care how we look and how we look to other people.  so when you get to that podium let your freak flag fly and fucking rock.  imagine going to see your favorite band in concert and they just stood there and desultory played their instruments and mouthed the words.  be a goddamned bummer right.  same for poetry readings.  don't be boring.  rock the fuck out.

peace