Report of David Baker’s Poem Reading On April 4th, I attended a poem reading lecture by David Baker. The poet, David Baker, started to read his poems after a brief introduction on poetry. His recitation was cadenced and rich in feeling, which brought us into meditation in an instant. The first poem he began with, in a smooth and steady way, is like trying to bring us back into a city that only exists in our impression. It was a quaint and elegant city, probably put up in ancient times. He illustrated in his poem that nearly all objects in this city are handcrafted —“the hammer, the pigment around the city” — with an emphasis on the natural beauty. It is this beauty that made its residents simple and hard-working individuals; it is this beauty that showed its respect for nature, and attracted butterflies to linger around; and it is this beauty that is worth remembering. According to Baker, the emotional path to the city is vague, which probably implies the modern life in which industrial and commercial elements everywhere have drifted us further away from memorizing such a city. But no matter “how hard the shadow is trying to block us from seeing anything else,” the era of simplicity is worth memorizing and respecting.
After reading several of his poems, Baker spent some time talking about his experiences on composing poems. First and foremost, it is important to give a clear definition on the subject we try to emphasize through poem. In other words, we should understand some basic concepts of poetry writing beforehand. For example, as his previous poem shows, the main task for a poet is to define such a quaint city and then picture it in his mind so that he can start “conversations” with these objects and gain inspiration. “The hammer” is quite simple and humble, which is consistent with certain characteristics of the city mentioned in his poem. It