Particular Qualities Of Erica Dawson Poetry

On Thursday, November 9th, I went to the Erica Dawson poetry reading put on by Georgia Poetry Circuit and the Georgia Southern Writing and Linguistics department. In addition to being a poet, Erica is Director of University of Tampa’s Low-Residency MFA program; she is also an associate professor for the English and Writing department. She also writes a bi-weekly column for Creative Loafing Tampa called Dark and Sinful. As of today, she has published two poetry collections: The Small Blades Hurt, for which she won the 2016 Poets’ Prize, and Big-Eyed Afraid, earning her the Anthony Hecht Prize in 2006.

Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and review journals. Currently, she is working on the manuscript of a third, When Rap Spoke Straight to God.

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This is a book length, multi-form poem that focuses on the women of the biblical universe. During the reading, she read a few pieces from The Small Blades Hurt and some pieces from the manuscript of When Rap Spoke Straight to God.

While waiting for the event to start, and then going into the lecture hall, the first thing that really surprised me was how many people came out to attend the reading, especially on such a miserably cold and rainy night. It was way different from the Ally Harbuck Award Ceremony. I’m sure that’s because it was more open to the public, but the fact that way more people came to see one author versus several authors was very interesting. Another thing that surprised me was how much research can go into writing poetry.

Erica’s comparison of writing persona poems to writing fiction was very compelling. Finally, how quickly time passed surprised me. I expected the hour to go by slowly because the room was freezing and I’m not the biggest poetry fan; however, it didn’t, and I was mildly disappointed when Erica stopped reading for questions.

The reading had a very casual and relaxed feel to it and I attribute that mostly to how cool of a person Erica is. There are two kinds of writers, in my opinion: the ones that think they are the second coming of God and the relaxed, amicable ones. Erica is a writer that doesn’t take herself too seriously while still being great at what she does. There were a lot of laughs and when so many people showed up tardy, she didn’t stop what she was doing like I’ve seen some people do when others enter the room late. Her presentation of her work was very relaxed and intimate that it didn’t feel like a public reading; rather, it felt like a reading among friends. I think that down-to-earthiness is an important quality to have and vibe to give off because it made listening to her read and answer questions enjoyable. She also gave us background before reading each piece which made them easier to enjoy than if we had to draw inferences for ourselves.

As a very visual and tactical person, I tend to gravitate more towards the imagery and descriptions of any piece of work, the things that appeal to one’s senses. As opposed to any other element, the descriptions and images in the poems that Erica read are what I found myself hanging onto. One line from Little Black Boy Heads was the first thing that really stood out to me. “One strand loose with a pick. Though I could plant / A kiss, perfect, on their round scalps’ short threads / Like splinters on my lips…” The splinters line, in particular, is what I fixated on the most because I can identify with the physical feeling of making skin contact with short, stubbly hair and it is very akin to splinters. Another example of Erica’s sensory-based language is from When Rap Spoke Straight to God. “…I throw a stone into the brook to break my face...” she wrote and with this line, I can vividly see water rippling when a stone makes contact with it, breaking the reflection of a face into pieces.

Though I enjoyed my time listening to Erica read her work, I found that I still don’t really like poetry. During the reading, most of my enjoyment was because of Erica herself, not the work that she presented. I went into things with an open mind, hoping that maybe I just hadn’t found The Poet that would get me to like the genre, but I haven’t and maybe I never will. That said, I don’t think the reading had a great impact on me as a writer. I still don’t plan on pursuing poetry at any point during my writing career, so nothing has changed. Even though I enjoyed Erica’s presence, I would probably never go to another poetry reading on my own free will.