Outside Event 2

Ashley Livingston


Wendy Sumner-Winter

English 1020

15 March 2010



Outside Event 2



I attended an outside event at my old high school. It was a night for people to read poetry. It lasted for about an hour. Students and teachers read from other poets’ work and some read from their own.

The stage was set in the cafeteria. It was emptied of all the tables. The stage was set and the lights were off. They had the room lit dimly by the lamps that were set up. The decorators of the room moved couches into the cafeteria. The atmosphere was very comfy. Each reader came up one by one and read. There were the traditional readings from poets such as Robert Frost, Hughes, and Poe.

The original poems were different. One girl by the name of Jessica read from the paper she put her own pen to. It was very dark, and it made me wonder what her life was like. She talked about a little girl that had a disease. The little girl had a rare disease. Jessica made herself a character in her own poem. Jessica’s character had to care for this girl. The little girl was Jessica’s sister. Apparently, the little girl died. The poem continued on about her divorced parents, her messed up life, and how she had been through many hardships. The story made me feel weird. At first, I felt sorry, but then, I felt pity over Jessica. As she continued with her poem, I lost the feeling of sympathy and started to feel like she wanted attention. The other readers finished. Most of them made very short appearances. The event wrapped up, and I went home shortly after. I kept thinking about Jessica’s poem. I can’t figure out the point she was trying to make in her reading. Maybe she was trying to say that even she does not understand her life.