My Ideal Reader: Barbra Nightingale

My ideal reader is someone who loves the taste of words. Who reads aloud to him or herself (or to others, of course!) just to be able to roll the words around in the mouth, tasting each one of them, enjoying the sweet, the tart, yes, even the bitter. My reader says to him or herself: “I felt just like that, but I just didn’t how to say it!” Or, “That’s exactly how I feel now!” I want to speak for those to whom words might not come as poetry or prose, I want to speak for those who want to share my words with others, and passes around copies of my poems, or tucks them in gifts or private notes. Most of all, I want to be able to sing, and since I’m tone deaf, I offer my poems instead, even though I sing in key of L. As I say in my first book, “All songs are poems, but not all poems can be sung.” My reader will not only read, but listen as well.

Barbra Nightingale’s newest book of poetry, Geometry of Dreams was just published by Word Tech Editions. Her first book, Singing in the Key of L won the 1999 NFSPS Stevens award. She has had over 200 poems in various journals, anthologies, and online, and resides in Hollywood, Florida, where she is a full professor of English, literature, and Creative Writing at Broward College.

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