The 2nd Annual Ohio Poets Reading featured Felicia Zamora, Ben Kline, and Sara Moore Wagner. It was a wonderful event as the poets and the community were able to connect through words. Each poet read a different pieces from their various collections. It was a cold February night, but the room was filled with warmth and the joy of poetry. Felicia Zamora read first and shared her docupoetry, and she was followed by Ben Kline who read his poems in a story-telling style. Last, Sara Moore Wagner gave an emotional reading of her work. The reading was inspiring. This poem is in response to the Ohio Poets Reading. I always find myself itching to write after a reading. Listening to poetry connects me with my emotions and writing is the perfect outlet. I felt the best way to get my emotion and passion for poetry across is through writing a poem.
A Poem about Poetry
A cold February night,
A Wednesday to be exact,
Because exactness is the undertone of poetry
To exact a feeling of community in a room of strangers
To exact the spirit of said room and bring it to the ceiling
And then the sky with the power of poetry
Poetry is not a solemn affair says Felicia Zamora
And she reads and she wills a call to action
Our voices, are our most powerful tool in resistance
Our voices
A tool
In resistance
A voice is valuable
A voice is vulnerable
She brings a light to the stage and a warmth to the room
I feel loved by a stranger and moved by her words
Docupoetry, history, and one鈥檚 self collide in a reading that
Is warm on a freezing cold day
Ben Kline takes the stage and the room
Breathes in and out as each listener takes
In the twang of his voice as he reads
His work, his stories, his experiences,
And his labor of love for poetry
And expression through his unique Appalachian story telling style
The room is silent, the room is moved if not for a second but
For an eternity because poetry is both vulnerable and wonderful
Sara Moore Wagner reads in a long fur coat
A representation of the Ohio cold and the beauty of having one鈥檚 own style
She takes the air in her arms and cradles it as she reads about
Nature and identity and love and all things wonderfully poetic
Combining myth and mysticism with a love
For her daughter so strong it brings her
To tears the audience can鈥檛 help but
Shedding one themselves
As the power of poetry burns in their hearts.