Transcripts

SPEAKER: The first poem is untitled. "I cannot seem to pull those files or take their names off of lists. The new forms will now need date of death, as well as birth."

JOE KELLY: The poems express personal experiences, feelings and fantasies. Some are funny, others scary. They've been written by people with AIDS, people close to them, and members of a local literary group known as Poetry Harbor.

SPEAKER: "It is only seven letters, actually a little less than 37% of the alphabet and only one word. So why is it so difficult? It is not as easy as letters, words or percentages. It's the hollow feeling of saying goodbye one more time."

JOE KELLY: One of the organizers is Clyde Holmes, a counselor and advocate for people with AIDS at the Duluth community health center. Holmes says the public reading is an acknowledgment of AIDS in rural areas and a celebration for the AIDS community.

CLYDE HOLMES: Well, I think it's both. I think it's a somewhat celebration, celebrating in respect that we're acknowledging and honoring the fact that rural Minnesota, Duluth does, in fact, have persons who are infected with HIV and do have AIDS. And so in that respect, I think it's a significant step.

JOE KELLY: When the idea of a public reading surfaced, Holmes says, he was surprised to find how many clients were already writing poetry. But Holmes says there was room for non-writers, too.

CLYDE HOLMES: We had some people who chose not to write at all, but to sit down and just dialogue with someone. And then one of the poets would sit down and would take that experience as-- would take that experience and use their artistic abilities to develop that into a poem. And so what we had from those people is a work that's more collaborative.

JOE KELLY: Holmes says it's appropriate to use language to mark World AIDS Day in greater Minnesota because language, like calling people with AIDS victims, dictates so much of how society views HIV and AIDS. Plus, Holmes says the writing provides emotional help for people with AIDS.

CLYDE HOLMES: Well, I believe it does. I believe it has therapeutic value. I think that there are some things that perhaps are too painful to say and so can be said, perhaps metaphorically, can be written in a way where it's safer, perhaps than to say them.

SPEAKER: "I pray the Lord my soul to keep. I try, I do my best to accentuate the positive, to be the optimist."

JOE KELLY: A small collection of poems written by rural Minnesotans with AIDS will be published in conjunction with the reading.

SPEAKER: "If I die before I'm gray, I pray my teeth grow back some day. So what would I do if I had teeth? Yeah, I'd chew the cud. I'd chew the fat. I'd bite the bullet.

I'd bite the hand that feeds me. You damn right, I'd break bread with the finest and sit with tables of 12."

JOE KELLY: I'm Joe Kelly, Minnesota Public Radio, Duluth.