Two Poets Read Their Poems At Library

Two poets, Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah, offered readings of their works and signed books at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Wednesday evening.

Persis Karim, an English professor who teaches creative writing at San Jose State University, said the event, which was sponsored by the San Jose State Center for Literary Arts and Poetry Center of San Jose and was free and open for the general public, was a success with a good student turnout, roughly 100 students.

Karim, who assisted with the setup of the reading event, said she met the writers at a writer’s conference and was impressed by their literal works.

“I think it is important to hear the words of the writers,” said Karim, who familiarized Charara and Joudah’s works to her students.

She said that event was important because it brought exposure to the poets and the literacy program on SJSU.

Marisa Gomez, a sophomore political science major at SJSU, also attended and enjoyed the event.

Gomez, who attended the past reading events such at the Mark Dotty event, said she liked how there are two poets instead one reading their works.

She also said that it was great that the readings were held in the library because it had a lot of space.

Joudah said he also considered the reading event a success.

“It’s always a good thing,” Joudah said about the setup and turnout of the event.

Joudah, author of the poetry collection “The Earth in the Attic”, which won the 2007 Yale Younger Poets Award, met Charara after editing Joudah’s anthology.

Charara, who authored two poetry collections, “The Sadness of Others” and “The Alchemist’s Diary”, read several of his poems, such as “My Father’s Pornography”, “You” and “Starved Dogs Eating Snow”.

Charara, who also edited “Inclined to Speak: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry”, wrote controversial poems about war, death, and his experiences.

He said that poetry kept him sane during some of the hard times in his life.

Charara, a Lebanese-American who lives in Detriot and still has family in Lebanon, he had writer’s block that lasted for almost a year.

Joudah, who is also a translator of poet Mahmound Darwish’s “The Butterfly’s Burden”, read his poems “Pulse”, “Morning Ritural” and “Poem” at the event.

He said does not write Arabic though he can translate it.

Joudah said he was also glad he can influence future creative writers.

“Sometimes it is something that somebody says,” he said about gaining an inspiration to write.

He also said ideas and images in his head helped him some of the poems that he read at the event.

Gomez, who loved Charara’s poem about the dead dogs, said she would encourage everyone to come to the next library reading events.

Karim, who considered the poets performance “powerful” at the reading, said it is great experience to hear the poets read their poems out loud because it brings their words to life.

Joudah is currently thinking about working on a new translation for his future project.