Clemson Literary Festival

Last Friday, I was able to attend a reading by Mark Halliday for the Clemson Literary Festival. I actually enjoyed the event much more than I expected to. I am generally a fan of most poetry, and I thoroughly enjoyed the poems that Mr. Halliday selected to read. He started off by reading a poem called "The Case Against Mist", which envisioned his struggle with the mystery of reality, the fact that we really are here in this world, not just a "mist." The next poem was called "Parkersburg" which is a self encouragement poem written about a town 35 miles east of where he lives in Athens, OH. Mr. Halliday really showed his enthusiasm and spirit by singing a little bit of a Randy Newman song for this poem which really got the crowd cheering. Then a little bit of a funny thing happened; the speaker system and microphone being used for the event in McKissick Theater started picking up the frequency from the concert being held on campus, so there was a bit of a delay while that got sorted out. We finally got started again, and he went on to read some poems entitled "No Rescue Squad," "First Wife," and "The Beloved." These poems had the theme of love between men and women. Then he read several other poems, including my favorite called "Pathos of a Momentary Smile." This poem captures the feelings felt by two strangers whose eyes meet for a split second, and the awkwardness associated with that fleeting moment of connection. Overall I really enjoyed hearing Mark Halliday speak, and I would definitely be interested in hearing him again. It's amazing how much more meaning the poetry has when you actually hear the author read it exactly how it was supposed to be read.