New York City poet reads at Norfolk Library

NORFOLK — More than 40 people attended a poetry reading by New York City poet and teacher Taylor Mali at the Norfolk Library on Friday, Oct. 10.

“I grew up in Norfolk, and I have a lot of family in this area,” Mali said in an interview before the performance. “This is my fourth time doing a reading at the Norfolk Library. I’m doing a reading tonight, but I tell stories too. No one’s ever entirely sure when I’m reciting a poem or just talking.”

Mali said he has been writing poetry since he was 5 years old.

“I have a very short attention span, so I love that you can get in and out of an idea in half an hour,” he said. “Other poems have taken me a decade to write. I love the spoken word and how there is a place in the spoken word for humor and for rhyme, for insight, sentimentality, honesty and truth. I do both rhyming and nonrhyming poems. I think it’s imperative for poems in the 21st century to rhyme because the human ear loves rhymes.”

Before the reading, Mali spoke of the origins of some of his works.

“I wrote a sonnet called ‘The Bells of Newtown’ for Nancy Lanza, mother of Adam Lanza, the killer at Sandy Hook Elementary,” he said.  “‘My Deepest Condiments’ is about a misspelling in a condolence letter someone wrote to me. You’ll hear that it rhymes but not regularly. 

“The poem ‘Selective Thinning of Maples’ is about my godmother who lives in Norfolk and is what’s called a pantoum. It doesn’t rhyme but it has a repeating pattern. I write a lot of different things but keep coming back to education and the light bulb that goes on over a kid’s head when they finally get something. I also keep coming back to love, desire and loss, but everybody does. I do this full-time, and I do better than I ever thought I would.”

After a brief introduction by his aunt, Mali began the reading with four poems about his father. This was followed by a poem about his wife running over a porcupine. He engaged the audience with humorous stories about his works. At one point during the reading he asked a girl in the audience to spell the word beautiful and rewarded her with one of his poetry books after she spelled it correctly. This act, as well as each poem, was met with thunderous applause and laughter.

For more information visit Mali’s official website at www.taylormali.com.