How I Read Aloud, 16

       Going through something like this process helps the poem belong to the one reading it aloud, keeps it close to the heart, to life, and therefore potentially close to the people with whom one will be sharing it.  Such a poem, when uttered, is not a discomfited, self-conscious pronouncing of another person’s words to a group of detached auditors. It is instead an experiential garden where fellow humans meet and revel.