Heart and Soul Magic. Why Not You?

The Magic Rainy Night. My single greatest experience of poetry was when I once flew into the Charlotte airport late at night and had to find a room due to bad weather flight cancellations. A hotel van came to get me, and the young black woman driving was friendly with the three or four of us riding to our lodgings for the night. I sat right behind her and we got to talking. She found out I'm a public philosopher and shared that she is a poet.

As we pulled up to the hotel and began to get out under a wide overhanging roof, I asked if I could hear one of her poems. She looked at me good for a second and said, "Let me get everybody’s bags and send them to the lobby, and I'll do one for you."

I waited a couple of minutes, then she came back out into the chilly air, rain pounding all around and said "It's a little bawdy, or blue, if you don't mind. I mean, there’s some language and imagery.“ I said, "Sure, no problem, go ahead."

And she didn't recite, she performed the Platonic Ideal of performance. She lived into her words like a great jazz musician of the highest quality, weaving a sound and story texture partly rap, part lyrical wonder. it was all this and more. Her voice strode and soared and whispered and almost roared and teased and sang such a range of emotions, I was stunned at how this lone bard was transporting me, perhaps like Homer did long ago, but better. I didn't think I could clap hard or long enough for her, all by myself, under that porch in the rainy night that made the entire trip to give my own performance in California worth doing.

It may have been the single greatest artistic performance I've ever witnessed, across all the arts, and I was the whole audience. But the poet could not have done more or better on a national stage in front of millions. It was heart and soul with extreme talent unleashed in extreme perfection. A shuttle van driver and a traveling philosopher standing in a parking lot, late at night. Wow. Real Magic. Why not you? Why not me? All the time.