The Mad Poets Blog

In January, my girlfriend Donna handed me a book by a guy called Patrick Rosal. “You should read this guy,” she said. “He’s really good.” So I read this guy, and she was right – he’s really good. He’s from New Jersey, which immediately endeared him to me, and his poetry borders on the performance side, with emphasis on sound and rhythm – but his language is so concrete and tangible that the poems work on the page as well as in that sacred space between the poet’s mouth and the audience’s ears. I have been living with his poems since January, carrying their language with me for months now.

So I was thrilled to discover that he was reading at the Barron Arts Center in Woodbridge, NJ. Being a South Jersey girl who is more comfortable in Philly than in North Jersey, I approached the idea of the reading with some trepidation. Driving up the turnpike past exit 9 is something I haven’t done in a long time – but for Patrick Rosal, I decided, it was worth it. And I was not disappointed.

Pat came into the Arts Center and immediately greeted several members of the audience warmly; after a few moments, he headed in my direction and set his bags down in my row. In case you don’t know already, I tend to get super excited and starstruck by poets whose work I really expect, so I sort of smiled at him and tried not to bother him. But we were introduced by some mutual friends, and he was so kind. :swoon: Oh, right, sorry – this is a reading recap, not a swoon-fest.

Deb LaVeglia, a fine poet in her own right and one of the directors of the poetry program at the Barron Arts Center, gave Pat a brief intro, after which he stood up to read. I have to say it’s nice to see a poet who comes to readings in jeans and sneakers – and he had this great Martin Luther King tee shirt on (just a picture of MLK’s face, that’s it). He took to the podium with no pretense, just him and a bunch of poems, and launched immediately into the reading. He only read about six poems, but he did so with incredible energy and passion – his reading style is fast-paced, sort of breathless, and it’s clear that he’s the kind of guy who talks with his hands on a regular basis. I was impressed, and engaged, and entirely smitten.

Pat started with a poem called “Aiza” – his intro for it was, “I dated this girl whose name was Aiza. Someone told her that it meant ‘where’ in Madagascar, and she said, ‘you should write a poem about it.’ I said ‘no.’ So here’s the poem.” He followed that up with a poem called “Beast” about his MFA classmate and good friend Ross Gay (who you may recall from this entry), “The Woman You Love Cuts Apples for You,” a lovely poem about childhood traditions and how they can occasionally come full circle in life, a new, very long poem that is essentially a soap opera about the somewhat thuggish Willie who is trying to make the feisty Yolanda fall for him, and a poem called “St. Patrick,” written for his namesake and for himself.

Pat was gregarious, friendly, engaging. His good humor was contagious, and I left the Arts Center feeling really, really good about the evening. Definitely worth a read, and if you can catch him in person (stay tuned – you may be able to do so sooner, and closer, than you think!), you will really enjoy it. He was fantastic.