Regional poet shares work at reading
November 18, 2010
Tuesday evening Oklahoma Baptist University hosted Sandra Soli, a renowned Oklahoma poet, in a charming poetry reading open to both students and faculty. The author of many prestigious poetic awards, Soli’s work is inspiring and entertaining. Soli opened the evening with a peek at her cheerful and bubbly personality. As Dr. Benjamin Myers, associate professor of english said, “Hers is a poetry of precise sympathy and a finely tuned sentiment and sound, of personal revelation and universal themes.
This is a mixture that has brought her much acclaim.”
Soli introduced her work by beginning with a poem entitled “Potter.” This piece was a beautiful illustration of God’s work.
Soli then presented a piece that was from the seventeenth floor of the Sandridge Tower in downtown Oklahoma City. This piece illustrated the idea of the city slowly awakening from night, with beautiful metaphors and analogies. Next was a piece titled “The Neighborhood.” Soli has a strong passion and love for the state of Oklahoma and it was clearly shown through this piece, as well as the others she shared during her reading. “The Neighborhood” talked about a simple suburban neighborhood with all its faults and in all its glory.
The reading continued on with a few more pieces, including one called “An August of Wind and Rain” and another entitled “Oklahoma Shows Off.” This piece demonstrated the chaotic sense of direction that the weather in Oklahoma seems to take.
After reading a few more small pieces, Soli presented listeners with a three-part piece entitled “England 1944.” The first was entitled “Hoping for a Foggy Night,” which intensely showed the negative aspects of living in England during WWII. The second was entitled “The Unlucky,” which illustrated the tragedies of those who were killed suddenly in the war. The last was entitled “Jerry,” which highlighted other important aspects of the war. Next Soli presented a piece called “Fear of Falling.”
This piece was an interesting metaphor for a fear of falling that at first seemed to fairly average, but soon proved to be deeper and more thought provoking than originally anticipated. Continuing on in the reading, Soli presented an entertaining piece entitled “Dragon Man Meets a Stranger.”
This piece humorously demonstrated the idea of a simple country café that seems to be rather uninterested in having outsiders as guests. After a couple more poems, Soli read a piece written by Frank Jacobs that was a parody entitled “If Walt Whitman had Written Humpty Dumpty.
After a few more pieces, Soli ended the evening with a piece entitled “Christmas, Another year of War.” This poem illustrated the experience of spending Christmas in midst of a war. It was a beautiful and inspiring way to end the evening. Soli’s work was presented in such a unique and charming way that all who attended seemed very pleased with the experience.
