Trust the Word!

Remember the elaborate hat I made for my reading of my poem, Ziggurat Hat at the Paul Robeson Arts Center in Princeton? If not, you can go down a couple of posts and see me wearing it. Gummed stars twinkled on its big veil and a bluck feather was stuck in its grosgrain band. I used black masking tape stripes to suggest a ziggurat--a stepped-pyramid. Well, as some of you know, it was pouring that night, so I stored it in a Hefty Trash bag. After a couple of glasses of wine at the cocktail party, I left my trash-bagged hat there. No surprise, it ended up in the trash. When I was invited to read again at the National Arts Council in Gramercy Park, N.Y., I made a replica. This time, I forgot hat # 2. I was upset, but the reading turned out better without it. The big hat, I realized, had been a distraction. When the hat rose on my head through description, everyone could see it more clearly than if I had worn it!