#LitBeat: “How you talked! And how I listened”: The AWP 2012 Poet Laureate Panel
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On March 3rd, in the Chicago Hilton’s 2000-seat International Ballroom, Poetry’s senior editor Don Share introduced a poet who currently holds a title stretching all the way back to before Chaucer, her most well revered predecessor in the role. He told the audience that Carol Ann Duffy is the UK’s “first female poet laureate”—big round of applause from audience—“the UK’s first Scottish poet laureate”—another big round—“and their first poet laureate of the twenty-first century”—yet another big round. Taking the mic, Duffy said “you know, I hear all these ‘firsts’ being applied to me… what I’m most proud of, though, is being the first gay poet laureate.”
In a stately, orotund tone Duffy began with a reading of three reclamations of classical mythology from her 1999 collection The World’s Wife: “Mrs Midas,” “Mrs Tiresias,” and “Mrs Faust.” Duffy was a consummate reader, with her performance at times almost seeming like an actor reciting a soliloquy. She read: “And this is my lover, I said, / the one time we met / at a glittering ball / under the lights,” She paused—looking pointedly up at one of the vast chandeliers in the ceiling of the Hilton ballroom, composed of probably 10,000 light bulbs, before continuing: “Among tinkling glass, / and watched the way he stared / at her violet eyes.”
