Elisa New: evaluation

Transcript context

…Just don’t stop. You just read to them until they tell you to stop. You read through. With two of my children, I got all the way through Little Women. I read all of Little Women to a fifth or sixth grader, who could certainly read herself. She could have read Little Women, but that I was reading it to her, chapter after chapter, and reading her Emily Dickinson. Sometimes if we see one of those leaves, I might say, “Nature’s first green is gold / Her hardest hue to hold. ” I think children, whether they acknowledge it or not, when they’re young, they really do pay attention to what we do and what we care about. If we read, they read. If we read to them, they’ll read to their children. Kids love poetry. They love poetry they can’t understand. They don’t only like rhyming poetry, although they like that. They like the puzzle in it. Here’s two lines of Dickinson’s I love. “We like March, his shoes are purple.” [laughs] “We like March, his shoes are purple.” What does that mean? “His shoes are purple.” I guess it refers to the first crocuses or to the soaking of the ground. You ask a second grader, “Why are March’s shoes purple?” and they like to talk about it. Do you have a Shaquille O’Neal story or impression that you’re able to share with us? NEWWhat a hoot it was, [laughs] reading poetry with Shaquille O’Neal. I think the funniest thing for me was that they had to put me on this chair. They had to take this stool, I guess they’re accustomed to doing this, so that I didn’t look like a teeny, weeny, weeny, little person. He was sitting in a normal chair. My feet when I interviewed him were hanging way, way above the ground. He was splayed on the ground. He’s immensely thoughtful. He’s quick-witted but deep. He was really ready to read a poem with me. He was all over it. He was all over it, and I loved his gusto. We were reading a poem that rewarded quick wits, but actually also rewarded the capacity to pause and say, “Hmm.” In the course of our conversation, he realized this was one of those poems where he was going to have to say, “Hmm.” I love that he slowed down. I’ll close with two questions very directly about you. To invoke the economist’s concept of comparative advantage — and please be immodest — how would you describe or characterize what you bring to poetry that maybe other people don’t quite as well?…

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