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INTERVIEWER
Your standing-room-only poetry reading in Ithaca last December was memorable. I never thought I’d see you in a tuxedo. Did the event change your feelings about poetry readings, or confirm them? Why do you suppose people go to readings anyway?
AMMONS
It’s a great mystery. When you consider how boring and painful nearly all poetry readings are, it’s a wonder anyone shows up. And, wisely, few people do. I think it’s not a love of poetry readings that attracts those who do come but theater: to see what the beast, possibly already heard of, looks like in person; to make a poetry-business connection that could prove useful; to see who else comes to poetry readings; to endure pain and purgation; to pass one’s books or pamphlets on to the reader; to see the reader mess up, suffer, lose control, and to enjoy the remarkable refreshment of finding him no less human, vulnerable or fallible, than oneself.
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