Eulogy For A Bat – Poetry Reading by Kathy Figueroa

Watch the Poetry Reading EULOGY FOR A BAT:

Poet read by actress Val Cole

Get to know writer Kathy Figueroa:

1) What is the theme of your poem?

The main theme of “Eulogy For A Bat” is appreciation for this beneficial but, often, maligned or vilified critter.

2) How would you like people to respond when they read or watch your poetry reading?

My poems have now been published a collective total of over one hundred times in the Bancroft newspapers and it’s always great when I go downtown and folks tell me how much they liked this one or that one, or that they’ve actually clipped some out to save. As far as poetry readings go, I hope that people find my work entertaining. To me, the reading has been successful when people smile, applaud, and look like they’re enjoying the event.

3) How long have you been writing poetry?

I’ve been writing poetry for a very long time, and was about nine years old when I wrote my first serious poem, but can’t remember exactly how it went. I do recall a limerick I wrote when I was even younger:
“There once was a firefly from Skink
Whose taillight went out with a blink
He moaned and lamented
Then finally he rented
A flashlight – and cheated
…That fink!

4) Do you have a favorite poet?

There are so many brilliant poets I admire, such as Robert Service, William Blake, and Edgar Allan Poe (all of whom are mentioned in “Beautiful Old Style Poems,” which I wrote back in 2011), along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Cullen Bryant, that I really can’t name any particular one as my favourite. Charles Baudelaire and Richard Brautigan are two others whose work I hold in high regard.

5) What influenced you to submit to WILDsound and have your poetry performed by a professional actor?

A friend of mine, out on the West Coast, mentioned, on Facebook, that she’d submitted a poem to WILDsound, which was recorded by an actor, and she was really happy with the results. Though some of my work has already been recorded by other folks, and a few of my own recordings are up on SoundCloud, I thought it would be fun to see what WILDsound could do.

6) Do you write other works? Scripts? Short Stories? Etc..?

Along with my often rural-themed poems, which I’m very happy to say have now been published a combined total of over one hundred times in the Bancroft newspapers, my freelance articles (and photographs) have appeared in local and regional publications over the course of the past decade. I’ve also written screenplays and my short, theatrical play, “Conflicted About The Wolf,” was staged locally as part of the “24 Hour Theatre Event,” in 2011.

7) What is your passion in life?

My feeling is that it’s important to have a lot of different interests and to live a well-balanced life – that is, don’t focus all of your attention and energy on just one thing that you feel hyper passionate about. Make time to be involved in a variety of activities, and try to get outside often, to enjoy the great outdoors. Many of the ideas and, sometimes, actual verses for some of my most popular poems just came to me while I was outside weeding my flowerbeds or doing other yardwork.