Mitchell discusses his craft on Moonlight
Last Friday, Sept. 11, Wild Rose Moon’s Moonlight series kicked off their second season with one of Plymouth’s own poets, Duncan Mitchel. Born in Bremen, Duncan was based in Plymouth for the majority of his childhood before relocating to Bloomington, Indiana, only to return to Plymouth after some 40 years. “I feel like I’ve always known Plymouth,” Mitchel says. “It’s really like coming home in a lot of ways.”
The show began with the Moonlight theme, written and performed by host and talented local singer/songwriter, John Bahler. Before long, Duncan performed a reading of his original poem, “Respectability,” a commentary on the feeling of losing yourself in an effort to appear professional.
“My hair cut short, a tie around my neck, a jacket on, I wander to and fro. / All this procures a somewhat larger check, / but how much farther will I choose to go?” Even just the beginning of “Respectability” pulls the audience into a story of the costs and benefits of growing, and sets the tone for the majority of his work.
Although he appeared reserved throughout the evening, Duncan proved quite forthright and open to an in-depth discussion with Bahler. As he fielded questions about the inspiration behind the piece, he provided an introduction to one of the overarching themes of his work - the positives and negatives of all life choices, and a growing ambivalence of his “human experience.”
Mitchel continued by reading his most prized poem, “Regne Animal,” or “Animal Kingdom,” a poem about the Egyptians’ point of view during the exodus, and the loss of the Pharaoh’s son. He considers this poem to be one of his best, as its reach and its power drove him to keep creating, and develop further the theme of ambivalence, and the recognition of both sides of a situation-- the positive and the negative.
Duncan’s third poem--and my favorite-was entitled, “Husbandry,” a poem about the losses and sacrifices that accompany the happiness and desire in a relationship. John Bahler was quick to ask, “In the first poem that we looked at, there were positive reasons for taking this job, and there were costs that came along with it. Is that the same perspective here or is it more about the consequences?” Here Duncan mused about his difficulties in maintaining relationships, and his recognition of not wanting to settle down and his sense of failing his partner through such a decision.
Duncan stressed greatly the importance of allowing for audience interpretation of his material, and preventing his own understanding of a piece to necessarily guide an audience’s experience of the work. “The poems are there for other people,” he says, “and I’m interested in what other people get out of them. I quickly saw that a lot of people would get up and introduce a poem at great length, tell you all about it, and then read four lines and that was it. I’ve tried my best not to do that with the work.” After further discussion on the theme of ambivalence, Mitchel brought the evening to a close with a poem cleverly titled “A Poem for the Person That This Poem Is About,” written about the desire for deepening his connection to a person he valued and cared about.
Moonlight will return on Facebook live on Friday, Sept 25, with local singer/songwriter Doug Hammond. All moonlight episodes are archived for viewing on the Wild Rose Moon Facebook page and at the Wild Rose Moon Media Youtube Channel, linked on wildrosemoon.com, where a list of upcoming shows can be found. Wild Rose Moon’s Moonlight is made possible by a grant from Gibson Insurance and the Gibson Foundation, Encore Performing Arts, and from the Marshall County Community Foundation and Marshall County Tourism.