i sincerely doubt anyone still checks this, but i read the William McGonagall (The World’s Best Worst Poet) on wikipedia and its worth taking a look at:

“A lesser poet would have thought of conveying the shock of the people of Dundee. But only the true master could come up with a couplet like:

And the cry rang out all round the town,

Good heavens! The Tay Bridge has blown down.“

not sure if anyone is using this still…

but i have a memorable quote from my dinner tonight:

on marriage and getting older

“my second wife isn’t even born yet, that’s pretty cool”

-anonymous

on songs and poetry

david’s post on lyrics reminded me of something i realized a little while ago: i think much of my love of music with good lyrics has fed my love of poetry and vice versa.  i think there can be distinctions between what makes good song lyrics and what makes good poetry (koo and i had a convo about this recently) but there is a good bit of overlap.

some lyrics are weak and so need music to compensate, others are strong and are complemented by the music, and yet some are strong but are less appreciated because they are overshadowed by the music.  the final situation i mentioned frustrates me.

i think sometimes song lyrics are oftentimes more explicit in stating things, which i imagine comes, in part, from the need to be catchy.  while song lyric writers have the benefit of the added drama of music, i still think poets have more freedom.  poets are not constrained to a verse - chorus - verse-chorus-refrain format as song writers are.  the main challenge for poets is that there is a higher expectation that their work surprise the reader and/or offer wisdom than for song lyric writers.  people seem to be more content with the familiar and expected in songs than in poetry.

Ecstacy Within Words

Honestly, there are few songs out there that can move you with words alone, without relying on the sound of those words.  There’s something intrinsic to a words that goes beyond the meaning of the word itself.  I believe, the same goes for poetry–where words aren’t simply designators of meaning, but contain at one level an auditory element, and even at another level words are visually meaningful.

Now try and listen to a (great) poem or a song written in another language.  Somehow, that meaning still gets through to you.  I heard a song yesterday and though that it was one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard, written in a totally different language (it doesn’t really matter which one either).  Somehow there’s seems to be more meaning to it because I don’t know the meanings of the words.  Honestly, I don’t really ever care to know the meanings–I’ll just listen.

The song is called “Polegnala e Todora”  by Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares.

I don’t know if this is actually cool or not…

but ive been having a lot of fun with it.

http://www.wordperhect.net/

Ummagumma

So the movie for this past week was pretty f’ing sweet, in my opinion.  It was jampacked with great imagery and cinematography, but I think that the best, or at least the most memorable part, was the legend of how, a long time ago, when someone had a secret that they didn’t want anyone else to know, they would find a tree, carve out a hole, and whisper the secret inside the hole.  Absorb.

A great moment of interiority.

My album for this week is Ummagumma, by Pink Floyd.  With its suspiciously dark green cover-jacket and THC afterglow, this album will not disappoint.  Ummagumma is arguably the most “Pink Floyd” of all of Pink Floyd’s albums.  My personal favorites are “Careful with that Ax Eugene” and “Astronomy Domine”!

Arrested Development Quotes.

I don’t know if anyone is an arrested development fan, but I have been watching and I thought I would post some funny quotes.

 

Lindsay: You’ve had $80,000 worth of cartography lessons. Get us a channel to the ocean.

Buster: Okay, okay, okay.

(Pauses)

Buster: Obviously this blue part here is the land

 

Lucille: Oh, Buster, thank God you’re home. There’s no shame in being a coward.

Buster: I am not a coward. Would a coward have this?

(shows her a stuffed seal)

Lucille: What the hell is that?

Buster: These are my awards, Mother, from Army. The seal is for marksmanship, and the gorilla is for sand racing.

Lucille: You’re doing well?

Buster: I was just dropping these off. Now if you’ll excuse me, they’re putting me in something called Hero Squad.

 

Lindsay: Oh, hi, Mom. I have the afternoon free.

Lucille: Really? Did “nothing” cancel?

 

Car Salesman: Yeah, the Bronco’s been discontinued. We’re trying to shed that whole fugitive on the run thing. This is the Escape.

George, Sr.: What a fun name. May I test drive?

50 Cent weighs in…

On the debate about three poem a year writing (I actually forget the term used right now…) and unfiltered creation:““They think I’m crazy,” 50 told MTV about Eminem and label heads. “Sometimes [Em] misses why I put it out. He goes, ‘Why did you put it out?’ But I can’t be as hot as I’m gonna be if I don’t play around. I gotta spar before I go fight the champ. That’s my concept of it. If I don’t go out and make material and lock in, I’m not gonna make the best possible material for the next [official] project.” I actually agree with Mr. Curtisssss especially with the music.  For example, I make tons of songs I would never consider putting on an album or having anyone listen to.  These songs usually have me rapping about nonsense.  They usually have me conforming to Hip-Hop cliches of women, money, etc:”I stay with a fresh whip like a lion tamer/And I keep that heavy metal just like Iron Maiden”No, I don’t have a fly car or a gun.  But there are a MILLION different terms that people use for these objects, which make them ripe for metaphors.  So I tend to uses these available clever quips to work on my rhyme schemes and metaphor delivery.  No, I would never use lines like those in an album, but they help me create more clever and vivid metaphors and more complex rhyme patterns for an actual album or performed song.  The same thing works for poetry…for instance, I would never consider “Ode to Good Sex” in any sort of selections I would compile as my best or potentially publishable work.  However, it allowed me to improve a few things in terms of flow and whatnot. So I guess I agree with Tyler in that someone can be both.  Write tons of crap that helps you improve your delivery until you work on the gems that take a year or so… The End.  

David Bowie and those F’ing Spiders from Mars!

I have a question: is it possible to write a poem, or any work of literature, without using a narrator?  That is, without using the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person!  Think about the idea for a little bit before your make any final conclusions.  Just think about it as a puzzle: how would you write a text without using a narrator?

This topic came up in my medieval seminar last week when we were reading Piers Plowman (praise and honor be upon him).  It seemed as if the text itself was actually speaking, and that this speech was directed towards the reader as though it were a lecture or a sermon.  To posse a possible answer to my own question (using Piers Plowman as my example): one way to achieve the absence of a clear/definitive narrator in a text is to have an incredible multiplicity of voices speaking in the text so that no single character dominates.  In effect, the text becomes polyphonic to the point that any sense of narration disappears as the text trails off like a diatribe while carrying you (reader) along, helpless.  But this is only one possible solution to the question.

Just some food for thought.  Enjoy!

MUSIC: This weeks album is HUNKY DORY by David Bowie.  Listen to it!  Trust me!  In my opinion it’s one of his best albums.

Mmmm…tastes like burning!

The hookah is an amazing social device.  This week, I give props to the person who invented it.

I just want to take a few brie minutes to go back to our dwellings on the sun, that big yellow center of our pointed discussion last week.  I think that one of the most interesting aspects of writing poems in which the speaker/poet/persona addresses an inanimate object is the way in which you can characterize the inanimate object.  Look at Mayakovsky’s poem “An Extraordinary Adventure Which Befell Vladimir Mayakovsky in a Summer Cottage”—here the sun takes on a personality that parallels some of the attributes commonly ascribed to the sun.  The animation of the inanimate.

‘“You called me? / Give me tea, poet, / spread out, spread out the jam!”’—Sun
‘“Well, sit down then, / luminary!”’—Mayakovsky

Even though the sun has so many other magnificent characteristics , why should it seem magnificent?  Why not shy or silly?  Or have a really dark, macabre personality?  Just something to think about!

On the topic of animating inanimate objects, check out Wislawa Szymborska and the “Conversation with a Stone” it you haven’t already…it’s really impressive.  And if you like, that look at her “Abominable Snowman”.  It is not so much an animation story, but it is very similar to “Conversation with a Stone”—it’s one of those poems you could spend an entire class period talking about.

“Go away,” says the stone.
“I am shut tight.
Even if you break me into pieces,
We’ll all still be closed.
You can grind us to sand,
We still won’t let you in.”
–W. Szymborska, “Conversation with a Stone”

Music–This week I wish to share the brilliant musical harmonies of PET SOUNDS, by The Beach Boys (aka Brain Wilson).  This album is HUGE—and highly underrated.  Just as an impetus, in 1995 MOJO magazine of Great Britain created an independent committee of commercial music critics and asked “what is the greatest album ever made?”  When all the ballots came back, PET SOUNDS was the clear winner.  Seriously, check it out.