Poems for Bread

By Judy Tierney, "Poets Rumi-nate at Yale" - The Block Island Times - Block Island, RI, USA
Monday, May 5, 2008

Eight-hundred years after Rumi was born in the greater Persian Empire, in the area that is now Afghanistan or Tajakistan, three American poets, including Block Island’s Lisa Starr, celebrated his life and work in a benefit for the Connecticut Food Bank, “Poems for Bread,” at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., Sunday.

Accompanied by famed drummer Glen Velez and saxophonist Paul Winter, Starr, poet laureate of Rhode Island, Marjorie Wentworth, poet laureate of South Carolina, and Coleman Barks, poet and poet-translator of Rumi’s works, read to an audience of 200.

Starr read several favorites from her repertory, as well as new poems, which will appear in her upcoming collection, “Mad About Yellow.”

Wentworth took listeners through the beauty of her garden and the world from a refugee’s eyes.

Rumi, Barks told the audience, is the most popular poet in America. His translations of the poet average 100 sales a day.

Barks alternated between Rumi’s spiritual verses and his own poems, often sounding like a male counterpart to Starr when he focused on the wonder of his small grandchildren.

Glen Velez played a variety of frame drums, including one with which most are familiar, the tambourine. While one hand tapped, the fingers of his other hand worked as drumsticks, mesmerizing the audience.

Winter’s soprano sax mimicked the taped calls of wolves, then moved into its own songs of the soul.

Chabasco Bakery and Atticus Bookstore sponsored the event. Each audience member was given loaf of warm bread upon exiting the theater, and for an additional donation, was invited to a reception with the poets at Atticus.

[Picture: Lisa Starr reading at Yale last weekend. Photo by Judy Tierney].