THOSE who have never been to a reading may wonder what it is like, what happens on stage, how does it look, sound and feel?
Empty chairs, two of them, not in the audience, but on the stage, Motion first stood, then sat, reading poems then prose and answering audience questions with a warm generosity.
Andrew Motion
Southport Arts Centre
Thursday, September 27
The audience itself could not have been more accommodating or more varied, the current Poet Laureate has a pull on audiences that sees them swell in all ages, young teenage girls, thoughtful young men, middle and old aged mingled, there to listen.
His poetry and prose spanned his writing career from the “word eruptions� of his early teenage years to the present crafted pieces, funny, touching and at times delightful recalling embarrassing childhood times, the empty stage filled with his words to match the capacity of the audience.
Motion’s tales about his friend and poet Philip Larkin were a privilege: “He was the funniest man I ever knew by a distance� recalled Motion, “though his humour was cruel and often directed at others.�
Larkin made appearances throughout the evening, many would have heard Larkin’s voice in Motion’s Eulogy for his mother Serenade.
He spoke of the poet Keats as a demi-god and of his mother’s later life as a tragedy – her eventual death as a release, and none of this was sentimental, none of it was too much, the audience was grateful, Motion willing.
Motion the poet seemed to show Motion the man at times, despite his assertion that poetry is not absolute biography: “It’s art stupid!� he told us, recalling a certain commentator’s attack on his work.
He needs no apologies, just thanks as do Southport’s Literature Festival for hosting such a fascinating night, those who wish to see him again may be in luck, as he stated a wish to attend Liverpool’s Capitol of Culture 08 party.
Are you listening Liverpool? Southport certainly was.
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