Of Poetry and a Red Dress

Where to start?

Book Club meets again in mid-October. The topic for this gathering is "poetry". At our last meeting we discussed the format for poetry night. Some in the group feel mystified and perhaps a bit intimidated by poetry; others welcome the shift away from discussing books. I'm quite excited about our plan to each bring several poems to read aloud to the group. I think it will be interesting to see what type of poetry resonates with people; the choices they make will "tell", much like a window into the soul. Perhaps I'm being overly dramatic but I think what we like in this genre speaks a lot about who we are.

My selections are coming together nicely. Reading Kim Addonizio's What do Women Want? is a given. Kim writes boldly about the passion behind a red dress and captures beautifully the reason(s) for my obsession with my own red dress. I've given some thought to reading one of my own poems at this meeting and perhaps will pen some verse about my red dress in the meantime. I'll look upon the jitters of sharing as a way of revealing more of who I am much like I encourage people to read my blog. The evening should be interesting; fodder for another post in October.

As some in my family know, my love affair with a certain red dress began when good friend M.C. and I ventured into BCBG MAXAZRIA two years ago. On a whim this very generous woman shelled out hundreds to float my fantasy after trying on a certain little red dress. I'll need to write more about this story and may well share the details with book group in October.

In the meantime, let me showcase these wonderful photos of my niece, Jeanne who tried on her red dress recently. She wore this drop dead gorgeous frock to a high school prom twenty years ago. Two decades later, both she and the dress look amazing. Suffice it to say, there's much to be said about this powerful topic. Poetry is a good place to start.

photographs used with permission and courtesy of Jeanne M.
Thank you.