CoPo

So I don’t know about you guys, but I found it unsettling and strangely appropriate to have the lovely Pro-Lifers giving us some free speech today on campus, just after we read “the mother.” Now, personally, I’m pro-life, but I was grossed out and offended. I especially did not like the part with the man in a T-shirt that said “Trust Jesus,” because I get really frustrated when the name of Christianity (something I would like to associate myself with) gets put on something that is designed to invoke terror. (”Planned Parenthood Planned Murder”… so… “Trust Jesus”??) There’s some found poetry for ya.

On the other hand, I’m relieved while reading “the mother” because it seems like an agenda-free portrait of the emotions associated with abortion. This is not to say that art should never have an agenda… just maybe that, on occasion, I like it better without.

Original post by jowens

I composed this poem as a mash-up of the stuff written on pill bottles and the OED’s list of definitions for the noun “prescription,” which appear in italics.

“PreSCRIPTion”

montuewedthufrisatsun
Rx only manufactured in Germany
uninterrupted use or possession from time immemorial
may cause drowsiness
may cause dizziness
alcohol intensifies effect
use care
using machines
limitation or restriction of the time within
which an action or claim can be raised
setting down something
beforehand
Rx only do not use if pregnant or suspect you are pregnant take or use this exactly as directed, do not skip doses or discontinue
instruction composition use of medicine treatment
alleviate remedy solution restriction
date filled: discard after:
this is a RED-BROWN, ROUND-shaped, TABLET
imprinted with 9 3 on the front and 7207 on the back
caution: federal law prohibits the transfer of this drug to any person other than the patient for whom it was prescribed.

prescriptionary.
open–> push & turn

Original post by Whitney

This is not fully flushed out, of course (hence it’s on the blog and not the thesis of a paper), but I promised this blog would be a place of interconnectivity between my various classes this semester, and I am about to keep that promise in a big way.  I have been meditating extensively on the role of madness or insanity in literature.  It seems a central theme from Shakespeare to Ginsberg, and beyond.  Obviously, scientific knowledge and social attitudes have changed over the centuries, but madness continues to appear as a meta-metaphor in poetry everywhere.  I have broken down Madness’ functions as metaphors into three general categories:

1. Madness as preferable to sanity because it provides a relief from suffering through an absence of clarity about one’s surroundings.
2. Madness as preferable to sanity because it provides a higher understanding that is misunderstood by the “sane” populace at large.
3. Madness as the privelege of the artist/poet.

In sifting these theories out, I have been turning to the text, obviously, but also to the web for general cultural thoughts on what madness is and how it functions in society, or not.  I found a website dedicated to Mark Twain quotes about madness, complete with a picture of the novelist looking a little crazed himself.

Original post by Whitney

Here is a recording, on my personal blog, of myself reading a pair of Audre Lorde poems entitled “Memorial.”

Enjoy!

Original post by Whitney

maybe it’s lame to have song lyrics stuck in your head and fall in love with them like a poem, but here’s some of the music/lyrics that have been running through my head all day:

[note: these are partial lyrics]

Intuition - Feist

And in came a heatwave
A merciful save
And you choose, you chose
Poetry over prose

A map is more unreal
Than where you’ve been
Or how you feel

Original post by emcla6ep

Going over the New York poets and trying to make some comparisons to the other poet genres we have discussed. My group went into more detail about O’hara and felt that he was similar to the confessional poets because some of his poems have the narrative tone as if he was just telling us his daily routine or his emotions about his life. Confessional poets do have more intense emotional subject matters, which the New York poets have more of a process over product angle to their works. O’Hara’s writing in particular has more of a stream of consciousness flow, with no punctuation and steady constant rhythm. I’m just wondering if the New York poets ever really broke the boundary of their writing and confessional poet’s writing and went more in depth with their inner relationships and emotions?

Original post by sfinn2id

This may be a little late but….what is going on with Sylvia Plath’s repetition? I hadn’t read much Plath before this class but everywhere I look there is a “daddy, daddy” and a “marry it, marry it, marry it” and a “do, do, do” and an “acted, acted, acted”. All I know is that I am beginning to repeat, repeat my internal monologues, and I can’t stop it from happening!

Original post by kpacious

I meant to post this about Ginsberg a while ago, but here it is now.

The interaction between “Lord Lord Lord” and “caw caw caw” that we discussed the other day made me think about this short video I saw a while ago. I looked for it on YouTube but I could only find clips that weren’t the part of it that I wanted. Anyway, the guy in the video talks about how every living thing is filled and animated by the breath of God, and God made the breathing of each creature to sound like his own name. Weird, but stay with me for a second. The Hebrew name for God is “Yahweh,” or “YHWH,” and the video talks about how with each breath, we make the sounds of these letters: (breathe in) “yo” (breathe out) “ha” (breathe in) “weh” (breathe out) “ha” and so on.

I thought that was a cool idea and I was reminded of it when we were talking about that particular poem - what if “caw,” the only word the crows can say, is the same as “Lord” for us, and with every breath, all we do is cry to whoever we believe God is - in terror, or joy, or disillusionment, or in hopes that he’ll show himself?

Original post by jowens

so i was watching The Upside of Anger, which actually, isn’t a great movie, but it did contain one moment that made me laugh.  the mother is trying to encourage her college-bound daughter to help with dinner, and the mother threatens to her, “maybe you’ll catch me in time to pull my head of the oven.”  for any non-english or poet majors who had been watching, the mother explains to her daughter in the next scene or two that she wanted to study poetry.  like i said, it’s not really any category we have, but i thought people might get a chuckle out of it.

Original post by emcla6ep

(this was actually written Sept.27, but i had some difficulty getting to this window — sorry!) 

“I think clarity is the real risk in poetry because you are exposed. You’re out in the open field. You’re actually saying things that are comprehensible, and it’s easy to criticize something you can understand.” – Billy Collins

I think Billy Collins sums up the courage of the confessional poets in this brief quote he gives (it’s the feature quote on the poets.org website).  Collins expresses that truth is more dangerous than to lie, and beyond truth, writing it in such a way that even the common reader can understand the intensity of what’s written.  Not that other poets lie, but confessional poets put out there a deepness of truth and honesty of themselves that we don’t always see, and in such a form that is accessible and smart without being erudite.    

Original post by emcla6ep