Kevin Hart is the head of the Religion/Philosophy Department at the University of Virginia. He has been writing poetry since he was 13 years old - The early stuff he dubbed a "crap." He also gave a brief life story about himself that I found very interesting. He grew up in England, and said he was not the smartest child. In fact, he was the bottom in all of his classes. His parents actually tried to take him out of school and put him in a trade. But when that too failed, he just struggled through school. Then, all of a sudden, there was a moment in his life, when he was thinking about a math problem, he suddenly became motivated to work. And when he applied himself to his work, he, and his teachers, found out that he was a brilliant man. The following year, he was at the top of his class, where he stayed, even throughout secondary school and at the university.
He read from a number of his books, but my favorite poems were a poem about a stone and making a rat. The poem about the stone was very interesting. The narrator was the rock, and the rock was describing his perspective on life. Since it was a rock in nature, Hart described beautiful scenery, that really made me think about the beautiful parts of nature. In contrast, the poem about making a rat was dark and even disgusting. He said he attempted to write this poem many times and almost gave up, but finished the poem after someone told him that he could not "make a rat."
Hart also read from his most recent book of poems titled Morning Knowledge, "The totally Virginia book." The reason why I bring the title of this book is because the story behind the title. Typically, we perceive morning as the beginning of the day, and evening at the end. But in the Bible, Angels learned about science, from God, in the evening, so science is known as evening knowledge. Then God created the Earth with all the animals. This creation blinded the Angels because God's love was (and is) so great. So this became known as morning knowledge. I just thought this was a very beautiful story and a great title for his book of creation.
There were two poems that struck me when he read them. The first is called "Inevitably Dark Bird." This is a poem about his father dying. Hart said he was having trouble describing his father's death, until one day, a "very ominous bird" came swooping down towards his face, brushing his ear as it flew by. Hart said he instantly thought of a poem, sat down, and wrote it in his notepad.
The second poem is titled, "My First Tie," which is about his father giving him, obviously, his first tie. Hart said he received this tie when he was 7 or 8, and it was all black. He said that when his father showed him how to tie it, he "felt like a grownup." Consequently, this poem is about a boy entering into adulthood.
At the end, someone asked how thorough Hart was with his revisions and he said that when he was younger, he used to make 40-50 drafts, but now that he's older, they are fewer in number. I thought this was interesting because it means that I have a lot more revisions to make before my poems are finished.
Ultimately, it was a great to listen to an experience poet read his works. Kevin Hart certainly has a gift for poetry with his descriptive metaphors and unique stories. However, the background stories for each poem really made the poems seem that much more special.
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