Euonia

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

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

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.

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

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

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'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/

Today marks the inauguration of the very first podcast on Rhyme Reason. Click on the link below to here more about what's coming up on "making waves" (podcast title) and check the blog later today for more information about what's coming up next!

http://students.otterbein.edu/rachel.scali/audiotrackspod1.mp3

Math poetry?

One of the more controversial forms of poetry I have stumbled across in my random internet wanderings is the Fibonacci poem. This form bases itself around the Fibonacci sequence which orders itself 0,1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. In case you aren’t a math person and thereby familiar with this concept, the sequence is created by adding the preceding two numbers to come up with the next number. For instance, 0 + 1 = 1 and then 1 + 1 = 2. Once discovered this sequence began popping up everywhere from tree rings to spirals in conch shells. Nature operates around the Fibonacci number, some claim

So how does this relate at all to poetry? It seems that someone decided this formula could be applied to poetry and so created Fibonacci poems. Since lots of natural elements revolve around this sequence, writers working with the sequence could be said to mimic nature (like many poets before them) but in a completely revolutionary way….using MATH, the high school pitfall of many an aspiring poets. Whether the numbers are reflected in the syllables or words per line, lots of people are trying out this strange connection.

Now back to the first sentence of this post which you may have forgotten…why is this controversial? I was slightly miffed when I first read about this form because it seems this engenders the idea that there can be a formula for a successful poem. “It’s like the movement sweeping the food industry, “It’s natural, it might taste terrible, but it’s natural so it must be the right way to go.” I’m not saying that these poems taste terrible, on the contrary I say “check it out at http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/a/fibonaccipoems.htm” but also I feel the need to stress there is no formula for poetry, no sequence that promises a perfect poem every time.

Haik-who?

One of the oldest and most venerated forms of poetry happens to be the haiku; a Japanese poetic form that requires three lines, each with a set number of syllables. The first and third lines contain five syllables and the middle line contains seven. Each haiku usually contains a specific seasonal reference and often shifts from one perspective to another within the tight confines of the three line limit. Since the form is so restrictive and traditional, many people count haiku with the sonnet, something to dread and never ever use. However, at my college and in certain sites on the web, people are stepping this unpopular form. Modernizing haiku and making it an accessible template for new poets to play with is a definite step in the right direction. My college hosts an annual "Haiku Death match" in which all students are invited to write haiku and compete for a year's worth of bragging rights. Many students (and teachers) join in and the results are hilarious. From Brittney Spears to the bailout, no topic is safe from these aspiring haiku masters. The match is in February and I will post some of the best (and worst) haiku then. You'll be able to vote for the one you think should have won or try writing some of your own. Keep an eye out!

Also, for a blog that I think is really having fun with this form check out the daily beer haiku's in the links section!

Here a line...there a line...

Ever since I statred looking at commercials as more than just a horribly annoying side effect of all the twenty-first century advancement, I have been flabbergasted by some of the really great lines out there.There is a wealth of catchy, suprising, exciting and sometimes provoking lines. However, I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me either so this post is going to include a collection of my favorite commercial tag lines...just so you can see and believe. Also, since my last post promised a poem but I couldn't get the link set up properly I am putting it at the bottom of this post. It's all cell phone commercials.

For your reading enjoyment
(see if you can guess where they all come from..bet you know more than you think...)

Higher standards, lower prices

What you crave

Think outside the bun

Like a good neighbor, state farm is there

We’ll leave the light on for you

When you’re here, your family

All state, you’re in good hands

Where kids have the power

Navy, accelerate your life

America runs on Dunkins

Taste the rainbow

I’m thinking Arby’s

How you want it

Priceless

Stop dreaming, start playing

Sour, sweet, gone

Down on the farm

Give it to the world

There’s a captain in you

You can do it, we can help

Taste the power of the sun

When you need it most

Dirty mouth? Clean it up, with Orbitz

Tastes like a soda, kicks like an energy drink

A nose in need deserves puffs indeed

Very funny

Every kiss begins with K

It’s in the game

Everybody needs a little

Save money, live better

Shouldn’t your baby be a gerber baby?

Mighty putty does it all

Is it in you?

USA, we know drama

Throw boring overboard

Love pink

Lego my ego

Get to it

Pepper in some flavor

Pure life

Nothing works better

Earn your stripes

Sonic good

Color your world, naturally

Come outback tonight

I want to be a toys R us kid

Raising the bar

Eat great, even late

Power to the players

Bazuka zuka bubble gum

Nothing will ever be the same

You All Know What I’m Talking About

Two Hundred and sixty three million mouths sit
On top of four heads under the tree of the knowledge
Of good and evil asking each other on the hour whether anyone
Can hear yet through the whistling
Of kinetic energy humming from Atlanta to Salem

Nobody believes in witches whispering secrets to loudly babbling brooks anymore because America’s largest network makes everyone slightly supernatural.

Nobody that is, except the Amish neighbors who
Glare at me through hemstitched curtains on Wednesdays
Obviously caring that something has started growing out of my head
In the way other mothers care about the sex offender registry

There’s nothing wrong with rollover minutes I tell myself, trying to overcome the expectation of a larger amount of communication, then I in my isolation, can stomach

Five ghosts -- past present future might-have-been and loss--
Stalk the borders of cages built on the goals of middle management
not dissimilar to the ringleader of a nineteen fifties freak show
only this time we can see from both sides of the bars

If only the security of doorbells existed in the polarized lines between invisible cities
we could travel without feathers through the air like in days before the idea of God

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program for...

So, commercials. Commercials, in my opinion, are the best barometers of the cultural moment we have available to us. How people sell or promote stuff works around the retail Golden Rule: "Give the people what they want." Nobody, not even the long reach of Uncle Sam can understand better what people want then advertisers and their ilk.

That being said, the connection to poetry works like this:
Commercials need to "sound appealing" - principles like alliteration, creative word choice, emphatic pauses and most commonly metaphors and compelling or startling images come into play both in well-designed commercials and well-written poetry. The idea that certain words can come together to form a line that "sinks" or "deepens" or is punchy or magical (fill in your favorite word for great poetry here) also helps commercial designers come up with slogans people will remember. What is poetry but a creative arrangement of words that works to reflect, unmask, discover or otherwise reveal something about the humanity of the moment. So do commercials. Creepy, yes but also interesting I think.

For some examples of "commercial poetry" check out the Awful Dynne link.

Salutations and Explanations

"I am KAKOFONOUS A. DISCHORD, DOCTOR OF DISSONANCE..."
"What does the 'A' stand for?"
"AS LOUD AS POSSIBLE,..."
"But who would want all those terrible noises?" asked Milo.
"Everybody does. They're very popular today. Why I'm so busy I
can hardly fill the orders for the noise pills, racket lotion,
clamor salve, and hubbub tonic. That's all people seem to want
these days.
"Business wasn't always so good," the doctor continued. "Years ago,
everyone wanted pleasant sounds and, except for a few orders during
wars and earthquakes, things were very bad. But then the big cities
were built and there was a great need for honking horns, screeching
trains, clanging bells, deafening shouts, piercing shrieks, gurgling
drains, and all the rest of those wonderfully unpleasant sounds we
use so much of today..."
"This is my assistant, the awful DYNNE," said Dr. Dischord.
"What is a DYNNE?" asked Milo...
"You mean you've never met the awful DYNNE before?" said Dr.
Dischord in a surprised tone. "Why, I thought everyone had. When
you're playing in your room and making a great amount of noise, what
do they tell you to stop?"
"That awful din," admitted Milo.
"When the neighbors are playing their radio too loud, late at
night, what do you wish they'd turn down?"
"The awful din," answered Tock.
"When the street on your block is being repaired and the pneumatic
drills are working all day, what does everyone complain of?"
"The dreadful row," volunteered the Humbug brightly.
"The dreadful RAUW,' cried the anguished DYNNE, "was my
grandfather. He perished in the great silence epidemic of 1712”
– “The Phantom Tollbooth”

If you have read the abovementioned book you will have no doubt noted both the title of this blog and the signature I have adopted are characters from the work. If you haven’t read the book, I chose to “borrow” because the theme is relevant to the purpose of this blog and because I really think it’s an amazing book and I wanted to give it some publicity. Like the main character in “Tollbooth” I am interested in finding ways to keep things interesting, staying out of the Doldrums so to speak, especially in regards to poetry. Hopefully I can provide some compelling and catalyzing information and insight regarding poetry as a genre and its role in today’s very un-poetic society. I really want to open up the conversation and let other, perhaps less traditional voices speak about poetic imagery, form, language and function. So check out the links, argue, agree, rave, rant and otherwise comment on the posts and try some interesting forms of poetry yourself on the site!