In my LIT 200 class I was exposed to two poems by Michael Dickman entitled “Red Migraine” and ‘White Migraine.” I had to analyze both poems and I thought I had a pretty good grasp on what Michael Dickman was saying about life in both the poems, so when I heard he was coming to TCNJ to discuss to do a reading and discuss his poetry I was inclined to go. Overall I can say that Michael Dickman is a very charismatic and humorous person. His poems are witty just like him and require some thinking in order to illicit and genuine feeling from. I t was interesting to see how different I read his poems in comparison to how he read them, and while I was interested in the backstory in how he came about writing the poems “Red Migraine” and “White Migraine”
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I think that was the first time I had been exposed to the relationship between a writer and the reader, and how differently works of art are perceived. It was my high school English teacher that once told me “no artist owns the right to interpretation,” and Michael Dickman’s reading helped me to fully understand what he meant by that. The way that Michael Dickman sees his work of art and the way I way I see it are two entirely different views, but I am not wrong for seeing the text in a different way and he is not right in how he perceives his work of art. In short, the way an artist wants their work to be perceived could be entirely different from the way the world sees it, and it is wrong for them to say that any other view is wrong as well. They had an intention but they do not get a say in how the work of art is received by an individual or an audience, and so when Michael Dickman said that a certain point line in his poem meant one thing and nothing else, I felt a little uncomfortable. Overall, I enjoyed the reading and listening to some of his poetry that I had not yet heard of. I thought it was particularly interesting how his poems were so graphic and vivid, he didn’t leave much room for you to imagine a scene different than what was in his head, but I found it …show more content…
I am a secondary education English major; from the reading I believe it has helped me to see how it is not enough to just read a poem to someone. Before Michael Dickman read each of his poems, he provided a little back story or history into what he was going to read. This helped me to better understand the poem. It is not enough to just read something, but it is important to know what you are reading and this is something that I hope I can pass down to my future students. In addition to knowing backstory, Michael Dickman taught me that poetry could be fun, not only to learn, but also to teach. For example, when he was reading his book of plays that he co-wrote with his twin bother, Dickman had separate people read separate parts and it added a sense of comedy, but also helped me get a better understanding of what was being said. Each person gave their own personality to their lines, rather than Dickman himself reading the
I think that was the first time I had been exposed to the relationship between a writer and the reader, and how differently works of art are perceived. It was my high school English teacher that once told me “no artist owns the right to interpretation,” and Michael Dickman’s reading helped me to fully understand what he meant by that. The way that Michael Dickman sees his work of art and the way I way I see it are two entirely different views, but I am not wrong for seeing the text in a different way and he is not right in how he perceives his work of art. In short, the way an artist wants their work to be perceived could be entirely different from the way the world sees it, and it is wrong for them to say that any other view is wrong as well. They had an intention but they do not get a say in how the work of art is received by an individual or an audience, and so when Michael Dickman said that a certain point line in his poem meant one thing and nothing else, I felt a little uncomfortable. Overall, I enjoyed the reading and listening to some of his poetry that I had not yet heard of. I thought it was particularly interesting how his poems were so graphic and vivid, he didn’t leave much room for you to imagine a scene different than what was in his head, but I found it …show more content…
I am a secondary education English major; from the reading I believe it has helped me to see how it is not enough to just read a poem to someone. Before Michael Dickman read each of his poems, he provided a little back story or history into what he was going to read. This helped me to better understand the poem. It is not enough to just read something, but it is important to know what you are reading and this is something that I hope I can pass down to my future students. In addition to knowing backstory, Michael Dickman taught me that poetry could be fun, not only to learn, but also to teach. For example, when he was reading his book of plays that he co-wrote with his twin bother, Dickman had separate people read separate parts and it added a sense of comedy, but also helped me get a better understanding of what was being said. Each person gave their own personality to their lines, rather than Dickman himself reading the