I know that when people hear the words "contemporary poet" they automatically conjure up an image (which I have spoken about before, check out the poetry slam post)that doesn't reflect even half of the poets out there working today. Besides the beatniks everyone knows, about there are tons of other subsets that work with really unuque forms and ideas.
One such subset are the extreme formalists (my name for them)or experiemental poets (their name for themselves).
These people are the poets who double as math guys or philosophers (yes they are out there, the math/english hybrid exisst!) and make up really complex rule systems for poetry then try to come up with a poem that fulfills all requirements.
The perfect example of someone like this is Christien Bok, whose book Euonia, came out in 2005 and has garnered a hefty following. Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language that has all the vowels in it. In the book, he writes poems dedicated to people who have only one vowel sound in their name and then only uses that one vowel sound throughout the entire piece. For example Yoko Ono has the "O" poem dedicated to her.
here are the rules he set for himself:
only have one vowel sound - for example all the words in one poem only have the vowel "e" in them, no other vowel is found through the entire piece (which is about fifteen pages long in most cases)
must contain a banquet
must contain a nautical adventure
must reference writing in some way
following these rules, it took him seven years to complete the book. And just in case you, like me, thought there was some really accessible list of all words that only contain one vowel sound, there's not...he used the dictionary...scary scary
Along with these rules, he nuances each poem to reflect what he feels the nature of the vowel is. For example, the vowel "u" in Bok's opinion is lusty, so his "u" poem reflects this attribute.
Sounds horrendously complex right? well, it is. However, people have been setting up these impossible situations since the very beginning of poetry. For example, the epic medevial poets had to work with very strict requirements in terms of line length and rhyme and those poems could go on for hundreds of pages (think shakespeare, or Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer)
Bok isn't the only one out there either. The next couple of posts are going to highlight some of these formalists and the ways they are paving the way for a re-introduction of strict requirements in an era all about the free verse.
here is a link to a website that will let you listen to a lot of the poems found in Eunoia. It's really neat to listen to...check it out!
http://www.ubu.com/sound/bok.html
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Grab Bag
As much as I "preach" about keeping poetry contemporary, I have only briefly touched on my own personal way of doing this. With the addition of the Grab Bag feature, I hope to bring my own idea of contemporary poetics to the forefront.....and I'm going to use a game to do it! As a fan both of games and poetry, mixing the two seemed like a good idea. Thus the Grab Bag came into existence. I order to understand what I am talking about see the below list of questions that would probably be asked frequently if someone ever bothered to ask me questions (or FAQISEBTAMQ).
Q: First of all: what is it?
A: The grab bag is an interactive way to write poetry online using commercial lines as inspiration. I call these poems which incorporate commercials "Collages" because like your typical macaroni/magazine cutout collage from grade school this piece uses "stuff" you came up with and "stuff" someone else came up with.
Q: How do I play?
A: Well there a lot of different options, I'm glad you asked! Here are the "procedures of play" 1. Click on the link at the bottom of this post and do not freak out when a new window
opens.
2. Watch in amazement as the grab bag spills out one or two lines from a commercial
3. In the comment box, write a short, long, silly, serious, nonsense, rhetorical, ironic,analytical, basically awesome poem and post it.
4. At the end of the week, the best poems will be displayed in the Showcase section.
(Coming soon) so stop back and check to see if yours made it to the top!
Q: So how is this a game exactly?
A: OK so maybe not so much of a game, but it is a fun way to find some inspiration, something every poet could do with, or try something new right? Also, since the commercials change every week, you can always keep challenging yourself...who knows you could be the first person to write a book of collage poems!
Ok if there any other questions feel free to comment and I will respond.
I have included here two different "forms" that I think might work well with these commercial lines, try one or all three!
1. Five word weave: pick five words (or if the lines are only five words long, use all five)and try to repeat them as many times as possible in new ways. For example, if one ofthe words is “gone” you could say “Gone are the days of the father’s faces” or youcould say “Gone as a goose” The word can mean, dead or it can mean something thatis no longer around.
2. ABC poem: try and write a poem where each line starts off with a letter of the alphabet. Use the words given for the lines that correspond to their letters. For
example, if “gone” was one of the words, it would appear in the “G” line of the poem.
Here's the link, happy writing all!
http://students.otterbein.edu/rachel.scali/grabbag.html
Q: First of all: what is it?
A: The grab bag is an interactive way to write poetry online using commercial lines as inspiration. I call these poems which incorporate commercials "Collages" because like your typical macaroni/magazine cutout collage from grade school this piece uses "stuff" you came up with and "stuff" someone else came up with.
Q: How do I play?
A: Well there a lot of different options, I'm glad you asked! Here are the "procedures of play" 1. Click on the link at the bottom of this post and do not freak out when a new window
opens.
2. Watch in amazement as the grab bag spills out one or two lines from a commercial
3. In the comment box, write a short, long, silly, serious, nonsense, rhetorical, ironic,analytical, basically awesome poem and post it.
4. At the end of the week, the best poems will be displayed in the Showcase section.
(Coming soon) so stop back and check to see if yours made it to the top!
Q: So how is this a game exactly?
A: OK so maybe not so much of a game, but it is a fun way to find some inspiration, something every poet could do with, or try something new right? Also, since the commercials change every week, you can always keep challenging yourself...who knows you could be the first person to write a book of collage poems!
Ok if there any other questions feel free to comment and I will respond.
I have included here two different "forms" that I think might work well with these commercial lines, try one or all three!
1. Five word weave: pick five words (or if the lines are only five words long, use all five)and try to repeat them as many times as possible in new ways. For example, if one ofthe words is “gone” you could say “Gone are the days of the father’s faces” or youcould say “Gone as a goose” The word can mean, dead or it can mean something thatis no longer around.
2. ABC poem: try and write a poem where each line starts off with a letter of the alphabet. Use the words given for the lines that correspond to their letters. For
example, if “gone” was one of the words, it would appear in the “G” line of the poem.
Here's the link, happy writing all!
http://students.otterbein.edu/rachel.scali/grabbag.html
Monday, February 23, 2009
Making Waves
It's finally here! The podcasts are coming, the podcasts are coming!
For the next two weeks, students from my advanced poetry class will be presenting some information on poets our teacher considers contemporary. I am posting these presentations on the blog in order to try and create some discussion about what makes a writer contemporary and what each of these authors are working with in order to earn the title “contemporary author”. It’s more than just being alive and writing in the 21st century, contemporary poets are like those trend shoppers, always on the cutting edge of the next big thing.
This post will include a list of all the poets you are likely to hear about at the bottom. The students will also be assigning a writing exercise based on the author's work, which you can try at home and post as a comment on the blog. The best one will go up in a post as the winner!
The students will be talking about some complicated stuff, so for those readers unfamiliar with the ins and outs of poetry, I have a link here that will take you to a site that lists common poetic terms and their literary definitions.
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_glossary.html
In order to listen to the podcasts, just click the link that will be embedded in the post with the authors name as the title. So for example, if you want to hear about Sylvia Plath, click the link in the blog post titled Slyvia Plath.
Here is the list of authors most likely to appear in the post, one or two might not, it's up to the students. For more information about any one of the poets you see here, check out http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Philip Levine, What Work IS (1994)
Detroit poet, working class roots, long lines, nearly no stanza breaks, based strongly in memory.
Sylvia Plath, Ariel (1963)
Book came out after her death, image – based, personal and mythological
Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me (2003)
Recent major poet, Billy Collins-y, personal humor, more bite
Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us (1981)
American poet trying to deal with political issues, observer in El Salvador during intense Civil War.
Yusef Komunyaaka, Neon Vernacular (1994)
Pulitzer Prize winner, centers on Vietnam experiences, blues/jazz American scene, almost surreal, tight, imagistic.
Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red (1998)
Fiction/poetry blend, everyday paired with the suddenly mythical, traces early life of winged hero
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958)
So influential it’s worth knowing
Mary Oliver American Primitive (1984)
Break-though book, Pulitzer winner, observations-of-nature based poems but also human world dealings as well, intriguing.
W.S. Merwin, The Lice (1967)
THE “deep image” style book, close to Lorca, earth-bound and surreal
Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah (1986)
Sequencing evokes an era, personal portraits, inventive and true-to-life.
Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightening (1998)
Witty, deceptive, descriptive and natural, tongue-in-cheek and deeply felt.
Mark Doty, Source (2002)
Poems from the tiniest of observations
Jane Hirschfield, The Lives of the Heart
Deceptively simple, crisp imagery, very song-like.
For the next two weeks, students from my advanced poetry class will be presenting some information on poets our teacher considers contemporary. I am posting these presentations on the blog in order to try and create some discussion about what makes a writer contemporary and what each of these authors are working with in order to earn the title “contemporary author”. It’s more than just being alive and writing in the 21st century, contemporary poets are like those trend shoppers, always on the cutting edge of the next big thing.
This post will include a list of all the poets you are likely to hear about at the bottom. The students will also be assigning a writing exercise based on the author's work, which you can try at home and post as a comment on the blog. The best one will go up in a post as the winner!
The students will be talking about some complicated stuff, so for those readers unfamiliar with the ins and outs of poetry, I have a link here that will take you to a site that lists common poetic terms and their literary definitions.
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_glossary.html
In order to listen to the podcasts, just click the link that will be embedded in the post with the authors name as the title. So for example, if you want to hear about Sylvia Plath, click the link in the blog post titled Slyvia Plath.
Here is the list of authors most likely to appear in the post, one or two might not, it's up to the students. For more information about any one of the poets you see here, check out http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
Philip Levine, What Work IS (1994)
Detroit poet, working class roots, long lines, nearly no stanza breaks, based strongly in memory.
Sylvia Plath, Ariel (1963)
Book came out after her death, image – based, personal and mythological
Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me (2003)
Recent major poet, Billy Collins-y, personal humor, more bite
Carolyn Forche, The Country Between Us (1981)
American poet trying to deal with political issues, observer in El Salvador during intense Civil War.
Yusef Komunyaaka, Neon Vernacular (1994)
Pulitzer Prize winner, centers on Vietnam experiences, blues/jazz American scene, almost surreal, tight, imagistic.
Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red (1998)
Fiction/poetry blend, everyday paired with the suddenly mythical, traces early life of winged hero
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958)
So influential it’s worth knowing
Mary Oliver American Primitive (1984)
Break-though book, Pulitzer winner, observations-of-nature based poems but also human world dealings as well, intriguing.
W.S. Merwin, The Lice (1967)
THE “deep image” style book, close to Lorca, earth-bound and surreal
Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah (1986)
Sequencing evokes an era, personal portraits, inventive and true-to-life.
Billy Collins, Picnic, Lightening (1998)
Witty, deceptive, descriptive and natural, tongue-in-cheek and deeply felt.
Mark Doty, Source (2002)
Poems from the tiniest of observations
Jane Hirschfield, The Lives of the Heart
Deceptively simple, crisp imagery, very song-like.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Get yourself Published
Natalie Houston, a graduate Victorian studies student who happened to put an essay up in AccessMyLibrary (for those of you who don 't know about this site...it's awesome, tons of articles and essays from students all over the world) raised an interesting point about the publication of poetry. In Victorian times, more people than ever were able to read or have access to literature, through newspapers and pamphlets. Poetry, because of it's ability to mock public officials, it's familiar and relatable themes, like love or family, and it's brevity (usually anyway) made for great content and boosted the newspapers readership. The public took this form to heart and today it is still the genre, in my opinion, that most people are willing to attempt. Very few people sit down to write a novel or their memoirs, but jotting down a quick poem for a friend on a birthday card, or writing out how you feel about someone you love for Valentine's Day, are pretty common occurances.
Now, all that being said....where has the poetry gone? Like the spooky serial stories by Henry James that used to appear weekly in newspapers, it has virtually disappeared from print. Head into any Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstore, the poetry section is laughably small. In fact, many of the best modern poets don't even have their work appear in print, unless someone prints it off the internet.
Yes, the internet, that's where the poetry has gone. Google pops up with millions of results for poetry because instead of finding a way to justify spending thousands of dollars to a print publisher, most poets can find a place to publish them online and actually get a larger fan base going than any print medium could offer them.
And the options! Good grief there is a place online for any kind of poetry you can imagine, some of which we have tracked on this blog. Also, by publishing online with other people working with similar themes or forms, you can collectively achieve noteriety while individually you may not have been able to.
Despite all the ups of not publishing in print, I do wish that newspapers and poets could work out a collaboration again. Poetry in newspapers (that aren't literary magazines) has a long and fruitful history that should be embraced instead of ignored. There are some instances of this being successful still today, usually when a newspaper runs some work by a local student or holds a contest and publishes the winning pieces. However, these smal isolated instances aren't enough to get the ball rolling again.
Until the day when we poets can show up on your doorstep again (or rather, in your email...) There are tons of poetry contests and resources that practically beg people to publish in them and it's never to early to start. You could even get your own blog going! (there are tons of those out there)
Keep visiting this blog if you are interested in trying a little poetry online because coming soon will be the Grab-bag, a place on my blog to write you own poetry based around lines from commericals...who knows, you might get hooked and start publishing all over the place!
Below are some links I have used successfully in the past to publish my own work and gather a few dedicated readers:
www.CreateSpace.com
www.poetry.com/ - these guys can be annoying, they send a LOT of emails out, but they have great contests with big prozes too
www.writersrelief.com/publishing-poems-online.htm - this is a how to guide that I find useful when trying to get my stuff online
Now, all that being said....where has the poetry gone? Like the spooky serial stories by Henry James that used to appear weekly in newspapers, it has virtually disappeared from print. Head into any Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstore, the poetry section is laughably small. In fact, many of the best modern poets don't even have their work appear in print, unless someone prints it off the internet.
Yes, the internet, that's where the poetry has gone. Google pops up with millions of results for poetry because instead of finding a way to justify spending thousands of dollars to a print publisher, most poets can find a place to publish them online and actually get a larger fan base going than any print medium could offer them.
And the options! Good grief there is a place online for any kind of poetry you can imagine, some of which we have tracked on this blog. Also, by publishing online with other people working with similar themes or forms, you can collectively achieve noteriety while individually you may not have been able to.
Despite all the ups of not publishing in print, I do wish that newspapers and poets could work out a collaboration again. Poetry in newspapers (that aren't literary magazines) has a long and fruitful history that should be embraced instead of ignored. There are some instances of this being successful still today, usually when a newspaper runs some work by a local student or holds a contest and publishes the winning pieces. However, these smal isolated instances aren't enough to get the ball rolling again.
Until the day when we poets can show up on your doorstep again (or rather, in your email...) There are tons of poetry contests and resources that practically beg people to publish in them and it's never to early to start. You could even get your own blog going! (there are tons of those out there)
Keep visiting this blog if you are interested in trying a little poetry online because coming soon will be the Grab-bag, a place on my blog to write you own poetry based around lines from commericals...who knows, you might get hooked and start publishing all over the place!
Below are some links I have used successfully in the past to publish my own work and gather a few dedicated readers:
www.CreateSpace.com
www.poetry.com/ - these guys can be annoying, they send a LOT of emails out, but they have great contests with big prozes too
www.writersrelief.com/publishing-poems-online.htm - this is a how to guide that I find useful when trying to get my stuff online
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
A Tiny Little Rant
So....poetry slams. Yeah today we are going there. Here's the issues I have with poetry slams:
1. nobody is cool enough - Everyone goes in thinking "wow I am just so amazingly cool because I am going to get up on that stage and read this poem to a whole bunch of other people waiting to do the same thing!" Then you get up there and you always follow some amazing person who wrote some epic piece that addresses all these important issues in a witty, darkly ironic way and your piece is about lollipops and running seems like a grand idea so no...no matter how awesome it seems, no one is cool enough for poetry slams.
2. the "slam" part - This is a competition ladies and gent's, sometimes with judges and little tiny timers and such, sometimes only with an audience willing to "boo!" but it is a competition and so the goal is to read something everyone will like instead of something you like. There's a qualitative sacrifice implied and that's why all the poetry at these things starts sounding the same. Nothing is really original, it's all geared towards appealing to as many people in the room as possible. Like the Harry Potter books, the work may boil the pot but does it really have any substance?
3. The stereotypes - These little buggers do more towards building a false image of poetry and poets then anything else. We are more than black turtleneck-wearing, beret twirling, cirgarette smoking, tight pants strutting, emotional hairdo sporting, trainwrecks of people who look like kicked puppies or heroin addicts. (I think I got them all but in case I missed one feel free to point it out). Lots of people think that you have to be this kind of person to write poetry and so feel excluded by their apparent "normalcy" and don't try. THIS IS NOT TRUE! There is no particularly correct way to look and act as a poet and anyone can write poetry, especially now when it doesn't even have to rhyme :)
I think that's about all I have by way of a poetry slam rant. For the record, I am glad that there are places for people who want to share poetry to go. However, I think those places should come out of the dingy, red velvet basement, houka bars and into the 21st century.
If you want to check out one of these events (and you live in columbus or are willing to drive a long way...) there is a calendar posted at this address http://www.puddinghouse.com/calendar.htm
1. nobody is cool enough - Everyone goes in thinking "wow I am just so amazingly cool because I am going to get up on that stage and read this poem to a whole bunch of other people waiting to do the same thing!" Then you get up there and you always follow some amazing person who wrote some epic piece that addresses all these important issues in a witty, darkly ironic way and your piece is about lollipops and running seems like a grand idea so no...no matter how awesome it seems, no one is cool enough for poetry slams.
2. the "slam" part - This is a competition ladies and gent's, sometimes with judges and little tiny timers and such, sometimes only with an audience willing to "boo!" but it is a competition and so the goal is to read something everyone will like instead of something you like. There's a qualitative sacrifice implied and that's why all the poetry at these things starts sounding the same. Nothing is really original, it's all geared towards appealing to as many people in the room as possible. Like the Harry Potter books, the work may boil the pot but does it really have any substance?
3. The stereotypes - These little buggers do more towards building a false image of poetry and poets then anything else. We are more than black turtleneck-wearing, beret twirling, cirgarette smoking, tight pants strutting, emotional hairdo sporting, trainwrecks of people who look like kicked puppies or heroin addicts. (I think I got them all but in case I missed one feel free to point it out). Lots of people think that you have to be this kind of person to write poetry and so feel excluded by their apparent "normalcy" and don't try. THIS IS NOT TRUE! There is no particularly correct way to look and act as a poet and anyone can write poetry, especially now when it doesn't even have to rhyme :)
I think that's about all I have by way of a poetry slam rant. For the record, I am glad that there are places for people who want to share poetry to go. However, I think those places should come out of the dingy, red velvet basement, houka bars and into the 21st century.
If you want to check out one of these events (and you live in columbus or are willing to drive a long way...) there is a calendar posted at this address http://www.puddinghouse.com/calendar.htm
Friday, February 13, 2009
Since my last post, I have continued tooling around in the search results for cool, new wave poetics and this amazing site popped up that has saved me a lot of time and effort. The site is called www.poetryblogrankings.com and includes a listing of the top 100 poetry blogs. From this URL you can view or follow any of the blogs listed. Also, you can check out a "title page" of sorts for each blog, to see which ones may interest you, instead of having to click on each name. It's a very user-freindly set-up and best of all it's free to sign up!
Here is the address for the "about us" section of the site, which includes a youtube video: http://www.poetryblogrankings.com/about_us.aspx
I would reccomend checking this out if, like me,you are overwhelmed with the massive amoutn of poet bloggers out there.
Here is the address for the "about us" section of the site, which includes a youtube video: http://www.poetryblogrankings.com/about_us.aspx
I would reccomend checking this out if, like me,you are overwhelmed with the massive amoutn of poet bloggers out there.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Here's an assignment for you:
step one - go to Google and type in poetry blogs
step two - be amazed at the gigantic, completely unpronouncable number that pops up
step three - hug me because I feel like one teeny tiny drop in one freakin huge 0cean
the number I got was 13,100,000 ... ouch
I don't even know what to do with that number it's so big. Obviously, the blogosphere has taken poetics to heart. It makes sense really, everyone from angst-ridden sixth graders to eighty-year-olds write poetry; it's a cross cultural, cross-generational,, cross-gender experience.
So since today is a rainy boring day, I thought it would be fun to wade through the massive amount of results (at least as many as I can before my eyeballs fall out of my head) and pick the most interesting poetry blog.
Ladies and gentleman, the winner is....EMBARGO poetry
yes, it means exactly what you think, these poets are writing poetry in the style of and based on countries the US currently has an embargo against. I think they take the creative cake in my book.
If you want t0 check some out just click here: http://embargopoets.blogspot.com/
step one - go to Google and type in poetry blogs
step two - be amazed at the gigantic, completely unpronouncable number that pops up
step three - hug me because I feel like one teeny tiny drop in one freakin huge 0cean
the number I got was 13,100,000 ... ouch
I don't even know what to do with that number it's so big. Obviously, the blogosphere has taken poetics to heart. It makes sense really, everyone from angst-ridden sixth graders to eighty-year-olds write poetry; it's a cross cultural, cross-generational,, cross-gender experience.
So since today is a rainy boring day, I thought it would be fun to wade through the massive amount of results (at least as many as I can before my eyeballs fall out of my head) and pick the most interesting poetry blog.
Ladies and gentleman, the winner is....EMBARGO poetry
yes, it means exactly what you think, these poets are writing poetry in the style of and based on countries the US currently has an embargo against. I think they take the creative cake in my book.
If you want t0 check some out just click here: http://embargopoets.blogspot.com/
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