I made a presentation yesterday afternoon and this morning I am still examining how I put that talk together. I worked on it for a week and when I arrived at the site I was carrying a heavy boom box and a tan bag loaded with my 5 different CD’s, books and about six or seven smaller notebooks of my poems and such. Certainly enough to go on for about four hours I guess. Those CD’s had recordings of over 50 songs I had written, recorded by Greg Brayton and me. I’d worked out some opening lines and knew what I wanted to close with. It was the stuff in the middle I hadn’t settled on. I’ve done something like this for years. I generally engage an audience personally after an introduction by a host and then get on with it. Then I let my material compete in my subconscious mind to get into the mix. This might sound like I am completely disorganized and too lazy to do the preparation but just the opposite is true. My goal in any presentation is to engage every attendee so that their attention is held all the way. I know that after fifty some years of making presentations my process works and I present just as if the ideas are new and fresh and I am excited about sharing them.
I did about 80 minutes I guess. We began early and so I finished on time. I used about a dozen poems, five or six recorded songs. I sang other parts of songs off key as is my manner.
It was something like baking a cake but not deciding what kind of cake you are mixing until it goes into the oven. A little humor, some pathos and a whole lot of energy and love. We laughed together, shared a tear or two and felt much better for it.
I made that presentation yesterday afternoon and this morning I feel tremendous. That group was wonderful.
I didn’t know you wrote songs! Would love to hear a few. And when I was a little girl, I love the trapeze song!