The second installment of “Poetry in America” aired tonight on WHYY Philadelphia; if you missed it you can catch it here: http://www.poetryinamerica.org/episode/fast-break/
(but I don’t know for how long).
I didn’t have high hopes for this one since it had Shaq and Pau Gasol and Shane Battier (all professional basketball players, if you don’t follow the sport) reading a poem with a basketball theme (don’t beat me up for my snooty bias- I was feeling quite chastened by the end of the episode). But I was pleasantly surprised. Shaq turned out to be a very good reader of the poem and an excellent commentator on its themes and form. My surprise didn’t stem from the fact that Shaq is an athlete, but rather from the fact that I had seen him on tv several times and he was always the joker, the guy who engaged in goofy antics; he had a well-earned reputation for being a prankster. I had trouble picturing him as capable of a serious discussion, let alone about a poem. The episode is worth watching just for his part in it.
I was enlightened by the author’s conversation with the host as well. Bottom line: What looked to me like a minor, throwaway poem turned out to have depth and nuance. I learned something about reading a poem closely and not tossing it aside so quickly. This episode is well worth watching for those reasons.
Poet's Vineyard 