from Billy Collins “The Trouble with Poetry”…
“I thought to myself/as a cold wave swirled around my feet/and the lighthouse moved its megaphone over the sea,/which is an image I stole directly/from Lawrence Ferlinghetti-/to be perfectly honest for a moment-”
Original post by sfinn2id
So I have to say I was blown away by Baggott’s reading tonight…eeeven though she rebelled against the poetry-reading requests, I thought it was refreshing after reading Complusions to hear her prose writing style from the excerpt from her co-authored novel. I think a lot of it was that I had never really seen a poet reading their own poetry for an audience before…but I was surprised at how human she is, her sense of humor and quick wit, I thought she was quite charming. The whole time she was reading the excerpt from the novel, I was entranced by how very clever and almost rapid-fire her prose writing style is, chock full of specific details. Basically, I’m dying to buy the novel and read the rest of it ASAP!
Anyway, most of this doesn’t really have to do with poetry but I was so excited about enjoying an author’s reading so much that I had to write about it.
Original post by etimberlake
So far julianna baggott’s collection has been one of my favorites. I love the perspective of the poet she gives us. The question and answer poems I feel is one of the most interesting approaches to poetry I have seen in a while. The poem we read in class, “Q and A: How do your children affect your work?” really hit me hard. My seminar poetry group discussed the impact and purity of children. It is amazing how children can create a sense of an epiphany within us. I feel children are the purest of the pure because they have not had society’s impact on them. In this Baggott poem, the pureness of the drawing stands out even though it is just stick figures, which shows something like this doesn’t have to entirely resemble a person. I really appreciate how Baggott opens her mind and heart with poetry and life in general to her readers. She is an excellent example of a writer who creates metapoetry, but in my opinion she goes beyond this to a positive effect.
Original post by sfinn2id
I really appreciated Kathleen’s post “Poets can have boring lives too.” Though I do give credit to experience as a source of “poetic juice”, especially surviving something particularly difficult. I agree that the average person also has something to say and can create and share fantastic art without having a vast sea of experience. This is especially encouraging to student/beginner poets who may be young and not as seasoned as some. Over time, experience is inevitable, and I don’t deny that this will not dramatically add to the effectiveness of a poet. The best thing to do is continue to mature and grow as a poet while not worrying about having seasoned knowledge. That will come in time and besides, “knowledge” is so different for so many people that the likeliness of the world agreeing with your wisdom is impossible anyways. Stay true to your own convictions as a poet yet do not be close minded to others’ views.
Original post by Anika
I loved Julianna Baggotts’ “Q and A: Do you think it helps your poetry if you’ve had a lot of experiences and have seen the world?” My english major friends and I have had the conversation on whether or not you have to experience major suffering or upheaval to be an effective writer, and I am so glad that Baggotts and I agree that the smallest thing (veins) can be enough subject matter to write about. Of course, it is always better in theory; once I try to actually write about a pen cap for some reason it never turns out very creatively. At least the potential exists for something mundane to become fodder for writing. It’s a relief that my ideas do not have to come from suffering through death or loss; I just need to be more perceptive and observant so I can notice that “everything is talking, even the rooted irises tonguing air.” (Q and A: Where do you get your ideas? Answer #1)
Original post by kpacious
Audre Lorde wrote a poem for Till entitled “Afterimages.”
Langston Hughes wrote two poems for Emmett Till, one of which was intended to be a blues song.
(THE) Dylan wrote a song entitled “The Murder of Emmett Till.” This is a photomontage of Emmett’s life, set to Dylan’s song:
James Baldwin wrote a play entitled “Blues for Mr. Charlie” that was loosely based on the Till murder.
Original post by Whitney
I came across this video of a representative from Microsoft talking about a new software called Seadragon, and a phenomena called The Photosynth Experience. It is so interesting, in terms of the future of liberal arts, photography, publishing, etc. Technology ahoy!
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/129
(oh, and I am sharing it with the Mother Blogs of all of my blog-savy classes, because I think it is generally relevant and interesting)
Original post by Whitney
Since we recently read Plath in class, I decided to pick up The Bell Jar from the bookstore last night. The next day, I’m nearly finished. I reccomend this to everyone in the class who wants more of an understanding of Sylvia Plath.
After Plath died, a lot of readers saw her book as “speaking from beyond the grave,” in the cliche used by the book’s publisher. I know we can’t use her novel to determine why she committed suicide or other questions about her life, but even so, the book has definately helped me understand her poetry.
For example, “Two Views of a Cadaver Room” is illuminated when you find how, in The Bell Jar, the narrator (and potentially Plath) dated a medical student who showed her an operating room of dead bodies, complete with dead babies in jars. She also talks extensivetly in the novel about her father, who died when she was nine. She impliesthat a lot of the suriving family’s money troubles came from her late father’s distrust of life insurance salesmen. This may have contributed towards Plath’s animousity towards her father in her poems. And overall, from reading the book I have found it easier to understand the unique way in which Plath viewed the world.
Original post by lauren
“Found Sonnet”
(excerpts taken from Lia Purpura’s On Looking,
the essay entitled “Glaciology”)
During the thaw we were given to see
whole bodies of bone inclined toward each
other; snow melted into vertebrae,
pocked with dirt, and unlikely in their strength.
Bones, stacked, bent, in the attitude of prayer,
the edges honed, precarious, forms arced
over the sewer. White places layer
in smears that others were trained to read.
What remained were not yet remains. It was
clear how the warmth would eat everything
down. Wind blew the shapes, knife-edged, hunched, to ease
a pain, and pack the snow hard. Frayed covering
with the elbows poking through layered land.
A thing that remained to be found and told.
Original post by Whitney