Levity at the VA Festival of the Book

Marlie Soderquist, staff writer

On March 24, The Virginia Festival of the Book hosted “Poetry: A Little Levity at the New Dominion Bookshop” downtown. The program included two poets, James Brasfield and Joseph Mills.

Joseph Mills’ readings focused on his book Exit, Pursued By A Bear, which is a series of poetic prompts inspired by Shakespeare’s stage directions. Mills said he began rereading Shakespeare’s plays and noticed that, each time, they had a different meaning to him. “Macbeth”, for example, was a story of gore and death when he was a teen, a story of a horrible job or boss in his twenties, and then a story of marriage after he met his wife.

“The whole idea was absurd,” said Mills with a laugh, “but every [Shakespeare] play is about family.” Mills said his children and marriage were the inspiration for most of his poems in the book. Mills’ poems have a sense of comedy to them, the perfect examples of levity.

The second poet of the program, James Brasfield, read from his book Infinite Alters. To begin, he told a short anecdote of a college professor who always told him that “poems must transcend.” This prompted his first reading, recalling his first seminar and last class with this professor. Brasfield’s book contained poems ranging from 9/11 to trips from his childhood and visiting his grandparents in Alabama. Each poem recalled an important, frivolous memory.

At the end of the program, the audience members asked questions to both authors about poetry, the process, and the enjoyment of it. Mills brought up a very current issue regarding arts and creativity in schools. When he begins teaching poetry to his students, most groan with angst. Mills said, “You all enjoyed poetry when you were a child you just didn’t know it. Poetry gets taught out of students, the idea that there is a deeper meaning to things is taken away from them.”

Both poets handled levity in their own way, coping with serious memories like 9/11 or finding ways to deal with current problems by relating them to Shakespeare’s stage directions. Brasfield gave a notion for the listeners to consider: “Levity was a substance in all things to make them rise. Gravity was a substance in all things to make them sink. We all need this rollercoaster motion to deal with everyday problems and life.”