Monday, October 1, 2012

My Thesis Journey Takes a Turn: Meeting the Man Who Wrote the Words

After months of correspondence and some last minute travel arrangements, I made my way from LA to New Hampshire in order to meet and record the voice of Donald Hall, the man who started it all with his powerful poem. Meeting Donald was an incredible honor and delight. He welcomed Jordan and me with such a generosity of spirit.

Sitting there in his living room, surrounded by hundreds of books, original artwork, and a liftetime's worth of knick-knacks and personal history, I knew how special it was for us to be there. It was beyond moving for me to sit in front of him, clumsily holding a mic, hearing him read A Letter in Autumn. His strong voice and heart adds so much more to the narration than I could have ever imagined.

This short trip was such an amazing experience, and it is something I will never forget. I'm so grateful to Donald for being the wonderful person I hoped he would be.






New Hampshire itself was also very inspiring. The area was pretty rural and there was plenty of natural beauty. It rained our whole first day, but the mist was really quite picturesque.



We had to of course pay our respects to Jane Kenyon, Donald's late wife. This graveyard has been around for a long time. Many of the stones had dates in the 1800s.