Timothy David Rey
Timothy David Rey is a Chicago-based poet, playwright, performer and educator. He is a 2015 semi-finalist for the Guild Literary Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award, and one of the winners of Project Exploration (The Poetry Center of Chicago 2004). He is the co-founder of the LBGT Solo Performance Showcase, Solo Homo (2002-2011). In addition, he has taught poetry and performance for Columbia College School of Fine & Performing Arts Community Engagement Program, the Poetry Foundation Summer Teacher’s Institute and is currently a Poet In-Residence for The Chicago Poetry Center. He is the Chicagoland Regional Coordinator for Poetry Out Loud! (Poetry Foundation/National Endowment for the Arts). His book of poetry and performance, Little Victories, was published in 2012 by NewTown Writers Press.
Saturn Returns
By Timothy David Rey
Timothy David Rey’s Poet Spotlight: Robert Frost
Rey: “One of my favorite Frost poems, ‘Choose Something Like A Star’ is both direct and ambiguous and plays on our childlike belief that a wish on a star may come true, as well as our adult want to believe in something more. The poem is very vowel-heavy from the title to the last line, and satisfies our inner-infant’s need for the ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ sounds. Frost uses a regular rhyme scheme in iambic pentameter to give the poem motion—you can almost hear the heartbeat under it all. The poem has been put to music in Randall Thompson’s choral collection, Frostiana. I had the pleasure of singing in a choir that performed this piece, and on the final note you could hear a pin drop in the audience. It is always a wonder to think about what lies beyond and for good reason, as astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson says: “We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.”
Choose Something Like A Star
By Robert Frost
Chicago Poetry Center Team Spotlight:
Eighth & Ninth Grade Poets
