Two Perspectives on the Poetry Reading by Dan Albergotti

Perspective 1

by Carlos Garcia

My First Time Attending a Poetry Reading

Prior to this experience I had never attended a poetry reading, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The poet featured that day was Dan Albergotti. I was somewhat surprised at the turnout. When I entered the room most of the chairs were filled, so I decided to sit up front. Albergotti was getting prepared while occasionally glancing up at the crowd while stooped over the desk sorting out which poems he was going to read. When he was finished sorting through his stuff and proceeded to the front of the room I noticed that he was a tall slender man that possessed an intensity about his glare.

When the poet began, he opened up with poems that had great rhythm as well as humor. This was more or less what I was expecting, light-hearted poems with the occasional laughs, but then something happened that I wasn’t really expecting. He began reading some of his poems that were anything but lighthearted. The energy in the room changed as he read some of these poems with dark undertones. This was something I wasn’t expecting. 

Some of the poems were intense in a way that I never thought a poetry reading could achieve. The poem that stood out for me was “Holy Night,” which was a poem about his father’s racism  and the horrible sentiment towards a child. As he read the poem it felt like the entire room was anticipating each word with a tension that was palpable. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and I was surprised at the energy and emotions that a poetry reading could evoke. 

Perspective 2

                                                     

By Alex Lund

What you are about to read is something I experienced in a poetry reading at College of Central Florida. The gentleman that came on 10/5/16 was Dan Albergotti.   I had never been to a poetry
reading, so I didn’t know what to expect and neither would you if you haven’t been to one. 

He began by introducing himself. Like I said before, his name was Dan Albergotti. He talked about where he was from and that he wrote and published two books that were for sale. Then he began to start reading off his poems in his books. While he was doing so, I just started writing down whatever he read. The first poem was called “Bad Language.” So here it is: “The root of fuck is as much to strike as to copulate” and “To know is to understand … What do you mean when you say no? I think I know. I want to know. Understand me.”   I think when he wrote this he was in an emotional state which was intense where the only word he could come up with is "fuck," which is a curse word. Writing this might have been to help him understand whatever situation he was dealing with. That gave him confidence in his path to succeed in clearing his issues. 

Another poem called “Ars Poetica” starts with “It’s not a perfect world, Mother, but you died at home, without thought, in little or no pain, better than most.”  Later in the poem he talks about the things he wishes he could have changed, like taking away all the things that she lost and the pain and suffering from her illness and in her life. He says “I would take away the illness from your brain” and “You would meet a kinder man in 1946.”   He regrets how he treated his mother when she was alive, with nothing like kindness and thoughtfulness. What I got out of that, is he wishes he could take everything away that's bad and make it better.   All he knows is poetry is left in him. How sad it is. I believe he tells us about how life can be short. No matter where we are, we must communicate with our loved ones.   

The last poem that stood out to me is called “Holy Night." This poem was about his father being a racist. It starts like this: “My father said he wished the child were dead. He didn't say it in so many words but he said it. And it was Christmas Eve.”  It goes on to tell about his father hearing a news story about a black couple who had seven children and all died but one who would survive. He then says in the poem: “I’m sorry to hear that my father hissed. That’s just what this country needs, seven more --  Of course he used the word. You know he did.”  What he means in that is his father is a man with no words but ones full of hatred.  He is ashamed that his father is racist and hateful to people who are different. 

After he had read some of many poems he has written, there were questions if anyone wanted to ask him and he would answer. Unfortunately I could not stay for that because I had to leave after he read his poems. I thought it was interesting to see how another writer communicates through their writing and how their passion goes through them like a lightning bolt and comes out as poetry.