photo provided by Sherri Rase
CD cover
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"Poetic License, 100 Poems 100 Performers," is Glen Roven's paean to the spoken word. Poetry was never mean to be merely read, for the enjoyment of hearing the voices in our own heads. Poetry is an oral interpretive medium. Unlike song, per se, it has only the cadence and timbre of the speaker to make it real, and the actors and performers featured here enliven these poems, as the poets themselves would have liked to hear them.

Imagine Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" orated by Charles Busch. Or perhaps Joanna Gleason reading Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII" for the more serious minded. A delight like Poe's "Annabel Lee" is read by Donald Corrar. Among my favorites are Michael York, reading Rudyard Kipling's "Tommy," which rings true today for our men and women soldiers coming home, or lighter fare like Richard Cadell's "The Job Interview," read with great verve and character by Donna Lynne Champlin.

If you primary memory of poetry is the enduring adenoidal lament of school students reading aloud unwillingly to one another, you are in for a treat. For those of us who know what it is to bring a poem to life outside itself, the poet, and your own life then you will be searching for your own performance art among your own bookshelves.

Poetic License is released by GPR Records. Visit www.gprrecords.com/projects/spoken-word for more information.