The Language Book

I am so nervous for this weeks poem. After reading every one's blog I would have to say I feel more lost then they do. As I was reading the language assignment for today's class, I felt it was hard to understand what was going on. The poems we read were very abstract which made it hard for me to understand the purpose behind each and every poem in the book.
That being said, that was my first impression. After we had gone over some of the poems, I started to feel a little more at ease. I felt that everyone had the same feeling as I did coming onto class that day. As we all began to discuss the ambiguities found within certain examples I began to appreciate them more. For example, we talked about the ANTI-SHORT STORY. Carry had mentioned the meaning as if it was a poem alluding to a longer story behind this short story. Theo had mentioned the meaning as if it was a poem talking about a scenario, but the purpose was to ignore the beginning and the ending of it, and to just soak in the present moment which was "She's running for her bus."
This just happens to be my current feeling about the language book, but since my opinion has changed once, I'm sure it can happen again. So, who knows if I will actually enjoy writing my own form of Language poetry?

salt lines

so i went to the salt lines workshop since i missed the christain bok one, and it was pretty cool. we listened to each of the poets read some poetry and then we all discussed our feelings about the poems, and other feeligns that they brought up. one of my favorites was a poem one of the speakers read related her inner feminist, she called FIM, to knitting and the progression of hte poem made knitting seem like a common, almost mandatory, female activity at first and in the end it became a unique hobby, and somehow it was badass. it was cool to discuss the concepts of sexuality and gender identity with all of the speakers and each other. after each short discussion we got to do a free write session, being a workshop, and racked up about 5-6 writings total. we were able to share one or two at the end and get everyone, especially the presenters, feedback on our writings. it was ncie to go to a workshop the focused on a specific topic, rather than style of writing because all the feedback and thoughts were put to use over and over in each free writing session

The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E book

I don't know if my last poem would count for this language poetry/sound poetry. From reading the packet, I have gathered how much poetry has been changed to more concrete and deeper meanings than that of sound poets. The tribal sweat bath poem we read in class and just our whole discussion of this language poetry made me kind of understand more of what the purpose of these poems are. This kind of poetry seems to be more about the language/ words used in the poems than the content itself. I find this kind of odd, because I normally start out writing a poem with a certain concept in mind or a meaning I want to come across. I think the actually process of writing a language poem would involve so much effort or more than what I normally put into it, which is why I'm kind of afraid of attempting the assignment due on tuesday, because it is a language poem. I really have no clue how I'm going to go about writing it and I'm hoping we talk about it in class because my mind is not comprehending the possibility of me writing one of these poems. At times, I find myself completely confounded by the art of these poems that I really don't even want to try and write one. But since we have to for class, my best effort will go into the completion of one. I'm really hoping we talk about this in class and are given more examples to go off of. =/

L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E

I was reading the into to the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry handout and I thought that it brought up some really interesting ideas. It reminded me a lot of what Christian Bok said and some of the things Dominique talked about in her post. Bok talked a lot about how he decided never to write a poem about his feelings or own personal life experience, because he felt it made him a mediocre poet. He said he thought his success came primarily from his inventiveness with form and sound rather than writing about himself like the majority of other poets. The language handout seemed to also advocate this kind of abstract poetry that centers more on form and innovative use of language rather than actual content. I think this genre and brand of poetry can be incredibly interesting, but I also feel that poetry is in some ways losing a lot of it's readability and connection to the everyday reader. I feel that a lot of modern poetry can only really be appreciated by poets. In my own opinion I think the n+7 is the perfect example of this. I wrote one for my constraints assignment earlier this year, and I couldn't help but feel like I was playing madlibs and the product was nonsense. I don't feel like someone could just pick up an n+7, not knowing what it is and really appreciate it's linguistic virtue, because seemingly to most people it's just random nonsense. I know in techniques Theo talked a lot about the Oulipo and Dada movements and how a lot of contemporary art is considered art because of the process involved in creating it, rather than for the product created. I think is an interesting take on art, but I also wonder if art is moving towards more value placed upon process than product, eventually won't art only be appreciated by those who understand the process and not those who merely like to enjoy the product?

blog (with two dots over the O)

Of course this is a few days late because I alwaysalwaysalways forgot to post in here... yikes.
Seeing Christian Bok this past week got me thinking about the different genres of poetry and how hard everyone tries to keep breaking boundaries and going to the next extreme and there's gotta be farther we can push our writing and speaking isn't there?
But what is it all for?
I really enjoyed Bok's reading. The guy's pretty out there, and I agree that we need more writing like that. It's interesting, it makes us wonder why we've never thought of that before. And that goes with concrete poetry and poetry that uses words to create shapes and poems using letters solely for their sound. I particularly loved his works using all of the vowels and using only words that had those vowels in them. It really drew me in and had such an interesting sound because the way all the words sounded the same and each vowel gave each section a completely different feel. In conversational language we often forget that words SOUND the way they are meant to be felt... well, not always, but a lot of the time.
But, okay. How is this contributing to the greater writing world? To the world outside poets? Is it accessible? Does that even really matter? Are those writers just writing for other writers?
Trying out the sound poetry for ourselves was pretty fun. It's amazing the way we have to train our mouths to makes shapes they haven't made before. Can using unique sounds from other languages for the English language be made into a poem? How would we even know how to pronounce it?
And gosh I loved his idea of implanting poetry into DNA, although I had trouble wrapping my head around it. And the idea of poetry with Legos is pretty cool too... whose going for k'nex(t)? (That wasn't supposed to come off sarcastically, although it might seem like it.) I think that kind of poetry might be the next step... exhibitionist poetry? Demonstrative poetry? People performing poetry not just through their mouths and words in the streets. Contortionist poetry? Who knows who knows. And then... what's the border between poetry and other types of contemporary art? Are all the lines beginning to blur here? Have they always? What does it mean to be an artist these days anyway?
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

late but great, book

The Rose That Grew From Concrete, by Tupac Shakur

I know this is a bit late but I still wanted to read this book and……Holy shit. It is amazing. I sat down to read it and was left wanting sooo much more after I had read the last poem. Tupacs poetry is so different than his rapping and if you couldn’t tell from his songs, his poems show that his words are truly form the heart and soul. I was blown away after reading some poems and am just motivated to write now. For the lovers of long elaborate poems, Tupac may not satisfy you b.c he works in a short-but-sweet style, but dam he says a lot. Many of the poems are working with somewhat predictable rhyme schemes, because he uses the common AB style in most of his poems giving them a somewhat romantic feel. He does branch out a few times to work with more contemporary styles being free verse or other experimental styles. One of the best parts of this book is its realistic feel. In both the physical sense, and the emotions that he conveys. What I mean by physicality is that every poem in the book has 2 copies, on adjacent pages. One is an exact photocopy of what he wrote in his notebook, and the other is a typed copy of the poems. The photocopy is awesome because you are getting more of the poets personality out of the poem. Tupacs handwriting gives you more information of the kind of man he was, or was at the time. Also he has his own loosely defined key he uses, but never defines, in his poetry. Many times he will replace the word ‘I’ with a small drawn picture of an eye. He also uses a lot of ‘AIM’ lingo we use or used to. 2= to, two, too; a heart= love, heart; U=you etc. the overall feel of reading the poetry seems entirely more authentic then when you see his handwriting and graphics, and doodles and pictures he has drawn within, or around the poem. The other reality is that everything he talks about is somewhat introspective about his life or struggles. Nothing is hollow like so many hip hop songs out there. Theres nothing about money, bitches, or hoes. Its all about the struggle of poverty, his emotions, admitting he cries, his search for his place in the world, what happens if he dies… tupac the poet, is very different, yet linked with, tupac the rapper. I would 100% recommend this book to every poet regardless of who they are, and anyone else for that matter.

Bok Bok!

I really had fun when Christian Bok came to our class. I found him to be very bright and entertaining. I was quite embarrassed when we had to perform. At first I felt like a chicken, but once we warmed up and we participated as a class I began to enjoy sound poetry.
Later on that night, when we had a chance to listen to some of his other work, I found it to be a little weird. I wondered what was he thinking while creating most of his works. I bet he disrupted the entire second floor of Sykes when he performed that monster from the opera Bok was in. No wonder he said that there is not many of his kind left, because no one else would do that!
However, I know what he meant when he said there is no one as good as him in his genre left as he referred to himself as being the "top dog of sound poetry." Knowing this particular case, whether he is acting out a lunatic monster or performing his Mario/Lego poetry, he is never the only one. He might be the best for now, but I definitely agree with Theo when she says, "only until someone else breaks and goes beyond Christian Bok's barrier."

Christian Bok

The friend I was sitting with at Christian Bok's reading HATED his everything. It was funny, while he performed she choked her self with invisible objects, fell asleep, and rushed out without applauding and murmuring, "he's not my style." She noted how pretentious he seemed in a phrase less subtle than "pretentious." I don't agree or disagree, since it was her experience, but it made me wonder what is it about poetry that can make a person sway in their seat? Is it the persona? Her and I have gone to a number of poetry readings just a bizarre and close to experimental as Christian Bok's work and she's more often than not walked out with good vibes jamming between her middle fingers and thumbs. Snap, "I want his autograph." I compared and contrasted the situation to Saul Williams and Urban Vibez (or some name with 'urban' with it the name slips my bill). These are some of the poets that have come to SLU.

These are just some of the things my friend said about the poets:

Saul Williams

Willing to answer questions in the middle of his performance
Did not perform behind a podium or on a stage

Urban Vibes (pending name)

Asked audience members to dance, enjoy
Spoke with the audience

Christian Bok

Talked about his credentials and awards (I would boast too)
Not very inviting (she stressed how "not very inviting" he was)

It seems like, for her at least, a connection between the audience is needed for her to be down with what is going on. But I'm wondering, and I asked her, what if that was the persona he was trying to delve into? She really didn't respond.

I personally like Christian Bok for his newness and screeching. I loved his Ubu. I think he was trying to scratch at the persona, since a) he is a performer, especially if we are thinking about sound b) the man wants to create a poem that will last until the end of time. He has to distance himself from emotion as he said before he doesn't talk about himself, well he means in poetry, and thus I felt some weird sense of 'he's some-type of android.' Not really, but seriously.

Christian Bok

I was also really impressed by Christian Bok's performance. I thought he was a really interesting performer and it was definitely a different kind of poetry than I am used to hearing. Before his visit I had never considered some of his forms of sound poetry as legitimate poetry before and in particular, beat boxing. I never knew that you could write a score for beat boxing and in that sense it could be considered a poem. During our workshop and just knowing how much I struggled to mater one line of sound poetry, i can see now that a lot more work and artistry goes into both creating and performing sound poetry than i ever actually considered. I think it would be really interesting to try and experiment with sound poetry, but after hearing some of it, I am not sure I would even know where to begin? I also thought his excerpts from his book Eunoia were really intriguing and I especially thought his comment that each vowel seemed to have a personality completely unique and different from any other of the vowels was especially interesting. Overall I was really impressed by his visit both from his work and his ability to perform it.

Christian Bök

I guess I'm be the first to say it, but I was totally blown away by Christian Bök's performance on Thursday night. He's obviously talented and a unique artist. He's ability to perform a whole poetic sonata in 10 minutes is crazy! I was amazed at how fast he read through his poetry. At the reading, when he was performing the piece from the Canadian play (that took place on a lake) I sorta lost it. There was something unbelievably funny about that piece, I was in tears because I was laughing so hard. I don't know if it was the screaming or the "scene" I was picturing in my mind, but I found it to be hilarious. I brought my friend Alanna with me, she had absolutely no idea what to expect (which was awesome) and she shot me a look in the middle of the performance that said something like, "what the heck did you bring me to?" I glad others were laughing too, if it had just been me I would have felt pretty awkward. I'm interested to hear how everyone else felt about him. I got one impression of him when he was at workshop, and another when he was performing, and assisting us in performing. All around, I was really happy with his visit, he was a great addition to the visiting writers series here at SLU!

Book Review 1

Reading the poetry book Averno, by Louise Gluck, helped me to realize why this assignment requires us to not simply review an anthology, but a book of singular poems which an author placed in the same text specifically because they mean something more significant together that they could explain apart. The main theme contained by Averno is found in the concept of Greek Mythology; in fact, according to the beginning of Gluck’s book, the work’s title itself comes from the ancient word “Avernus”, the name of a small crater lake near Naples, Italy. The ancient Romans believed this lake was an entrance to the Underworld. That being said, the title of Gluck’s book sets the stage for the rest of its progression, as many of the poems it contains regard the story of Persephone. According to Greek Mythology, Persephone, daughter of the Greek Goddess Demeter, was abducted by the God Hades, and force thereafter to live with him in the Underworld. One of my favorite poem’s in Averno is called Part “October.” Two stanzas in the piece read as follows:

Persephone’s initial
Sojourn in hell continues to be
Pawed over by scholars who dispute
The sensations of the virgin:

Did she cooperate in her rape,
Or was she drugged, violated against her will,
As happens so often now to modern girls.

We learned in class that modernist Ezra Pound is famous for his proclamation, “make it new.” This is one of the qualities great poetry has: the use of language in such a way that shows a subject – be it an object or concept – at an angle rarely considered. It is for this reason that I love the above stanzas; in them, Gluck makes the story of Persephone new. I have only ever heard of the character being kidnapped forcefully by Hades, leaving her mother behind to mourn. “October,” however, brings up the possibility that perhaps a part of Persephone wanted to be abducted. In addition, it compares a story of ancient mythology to the situation of young girls living within a contemporary society; this too is interesting to readers, as it is not a comparison one would usually draw. In short, Gluck provides her readers with a less often told version of Persephone’s tale, creating it from her own imagination as opposed to solely the rumination of scholars.

Although there are some poems within Gluck’s book that seem unrelated to Greek Mythology at first glance, a closer look reveals the inherent connection they have to it. Part 4 of Gluck’s poem, “Prism,” for example, reads:

When you fall in love, my sister said,
it’s like being struck by lightning.

I reminded her that she was repeating exactly
our mother’s formula, which she and I

had discussed in childhood, because we both felt
that what we were looking at in the adults

were the effects not of lightning
but of the electric chair.

Although the above words seem more related to Gluck’s own girlhood than to Greek Mythology, readers must keep in mind the mixed feelings “Prism” contains about love, portraying it at first as a romantic strike of lightning, and later, as an electrically caused death. This theme seems to be to have a lot to do with the mixed feelings Gluck describes Persephone as feeling towards her captor throughout the poet’s various pieces. The relationship between Persephone and the God is also described as both romantic and dangerous; according to Gluck, though Hades violently abducted Persephone, she grew to care for him. My favorite example of this duality is found in the poem “A Myth of Innocence.” The piece reads:


No one understands anymore
How beautiful he was. But Persephone remembers.
Also that he embraced her, right there,
With her uncle watching. She remembers
Sunlight flashing on his bare arms

She stands by the pool saying, from time to time,
I was abducted, but it sounds
Wrong to her, nothing like what she felt.

Reading the above lines makes it easy to understand that Persephone believed Hades to be her abductor, but also as someone beautiful and worth loving. Gluck’s ability to humanize the historically darkly portrayed God is by far my favorite aspect of Averno. I would highly recommend this book of poetry, especially to individuals who enjoy free verse, longer poems, and an elusive tone. I also advise, however, that readers without much knowledge of Greek Mythology do a little research before beginning Gluck’s book; otherwise they might find themselves a little confused and overwhelmed.

Book Review # 2

Hey everyone, I hope you had a wonderful spring break. I went to Florida and got some sun, but I soon found myself back on Long Island getting ready to go back to school. To release some of my nerves upon my return to school I decided to hang out with my little cousin whose in fourth grade. I thought it would be fun to go to the mall for a little because we both love to shop. After we went to a couple of her stores, I dragged her in to Anthropology. I rummaged through the sale and was ready to leave, when suddenly the home section caught my eye. Anthropology always has really cute, vintage gizmo's, so we stopped one more time on our way out to take a look at some of the things. As soon as we looked at the bedding, I noticed the store had added a bunch of fun books to a bunch of corner bookshelves. Most of the books were for children or could have been great coffee table decor, but were intricate pop-up books. I have a bunch of them at my house from over the years, so we looked at some new ones. I was so intrigued by the book section when suddenly I saw a wide variety of poetry books. Some of them were made to look dusty and old, some were full of pop culture images, and some of them were very delicate, yet it was the most simplistic one that grabbed our attention. We sat, and looked at the poems and I pointed out some unique techniques the poet, Pablo Neruda, uses throughout his romantic poems. I liked the book because it was made of poems that were written in Spanish and because my cousin and I found it to be fun for us to read together. (Definitely not for it's plain pink cover and melancholy feeling we got from the cover.)
My cousin found it interesting because both her and I speak a quite a bit of Spanish. When we tried to translate the first poem, we gave up within the first five minutes. I like the set up of this book of poems because it had the same poem on the opposite page, translated word for word. All the poems were Romantic and easy for me to understand. I was able to explain the difficult images and meaning to my 9 year old cousin when it was hard for her to understand. I enjoyed the drastic changes in images that came to mind from poem to poem. All of them discussed love which can be very boring sometimes, but what made this book interesting was the nifty idea when it came to the set up.
When there was two poems that we considered sonnets I started to teach my cousin to count syllables and show her what make a sonnet a sonnet. The translations didn't match up to the fourteen line, iambic pentameter techniques that are found in sonnets, so I figure it was just because the poems were not meant to be written in English. Lauren and I decided to try and count the syllables from the Spanish poems written in fourteen lines, but when we mispronounced words and jumbled the flow of the Spanish sonnets, it didn't sound so pretty.
When we were having trouble and we realized that we had been sitting in corner of the store for almost an hour, we decided to buy the book, titled Love Poems by Pablo Neruda. We figured we could have my housekeeper, Aida, read us the poems aloud so we could see if Neruda follows the rules of a sonnet. We knew the poet didn't follow the rules of a sonnet when two of the three poems translated in English were not in iambic pentameter. As soon as we got to my house we asked Aida to read us the sonnets. We both forgot to count the beats to check for Iambic pentameter because the sound of the words and the flow sounded romantic even when we didn't know what the poem was talking about. When we asked her to read aloud a couple more times, I realized Neruda did follow the rules of a sonnet.
My housekeeper continued to ask what the purpose was of her reading these poems aloud. I told her where and how we had found the book of poems and when she found it flattering how interested Lauren and I were, she continued to tell us some details about writing when it come to writing Spanish poems or songs. She told us that when it comes to choosing a word, a lot of the times it doesn't have to fit in perfectly in order to make sense, most of the time it is the sound and the flow of the rhythm that make a song or poem romantic, funny, or sad.
Once I realized that I had to write a book review and that I found this book before I thought about the assignment, I went back to this book of poems and looked at all the imagery that is in the English translated poems. I found most of the images and meanings to be scary, lonely and unusual. This is when I noticed what my housekeeper was saying was true. I found this to be very interesting because I appreciate Neruda's poems when they are read aloud and not when I learn the real meaning and images that are portrayed in the English Translation. I almost wish I didn't read too much into the meanings. The current feeling I have towards some images like,

"Night crossing: Black coal of dream

that cuts the thread of earthly orbs

with the punctuality of a headlong train

that pulls cold stone and shadow endlessly,"

make me wonder how could people like Aida get beyond the images that are created by the words and just hear the beautiful sound the words create?

Book Review NUMBER one

For my first book review I prowled the literature section of our familiar ODY Library to see what I would happen upon. After leafing through many thin volumes of poetry by various authors I happened upon a couple that I liked, but was most drawn in by a book entitled "How We Sleep on the Nights We Don't Make Love" by E. Ethelbert Miller. The first thing I noticed about this book and author, is that the author doesn't seem to want to make it known whether he/she is a male or female, and because they don't want that to seem apparent I decided to not look it up.

The poems build up as the book goes on in a strange manner. Many poems are addressing the subject of love or the subject of politics, or what happens when the two collide, which they so often do. And the love is not for one particular person; this is known because under the titles of several of the poems in parenthesis it reads (for [insert name here])—it is almost always a new name. The poems have a very conversational feel, which we might find familiar in the New York style poets we just read about, however the tone is softer. A lot of the poems are directed to an unknown “you”. The poems are loosely connected, with some clumped together that are very similar and then others that don’t seem to have as much of a connection, as though this is an early publication of works that are compiled together with some meaning, but not completely thought over. Because of this the poems are never predictable, and at points I was surprised by the content that would arise in the next poem. Many of the poems are written in the perspective of different people, or maybe it is all from the author’s personal perspective—either way would be plausible. All of the poems are written in a free form manner, which is refreshing every time. The vocabulary is “anglo-saxon”, not too much overly complex or flowery language is used. And at the end… well the book does seem to just end, with no over-arching striving to get some message across or anything like that. The book seems to just be continued jumbles of the author’s views on matters and what the author would perceive to be other’s views on matters of importance, but not of grave importance, there is no sense of urgency in the writing. And the book itself is a paper back, 73 pages, and slightly plain but appealing. Something I would definitely recommend picking up, but I did not find in the poetry anywhere a place that stopped me and made me feel as if I wished I had written the words I had just read myself.

Book Review # 1

The book I chose for my review was a volume of poems by Kenneth Koch called "A possible world". The poems seem to be connected by their overarching theme of the world and travel. Koch writes of many places including France, China, Greece, Thailand, and Haiti. Many of his other poems address other worldly subjects such as time zones, movement, and unfinished business. Several of the poems incorporate other languages and as the reader progresses though the book they get the sense of traveling across the world with Koch glimpsing all of the characters he has encountered.

The poem for which the book is titled, "A Possible World" stands out a lot from the other poems in the volume. For the most party the majority of the poems within the book have a consistent structure, they have varying lengths but they are all written in stanzas centered upon the page. The poem " A Possible World" is very different from the other. The text varies in size and in font and is structured very creatively across the page. I had difficulty understanding what the poem was about and it seemed rather confusing to me, but the language had a playful tone and incorporated some surprising rhymes in unexpected places. The poem is several pages long and as it progresses, new voices are brought in that seem to speak to each other and even are structured against one another on either side of the page. Many of Khoch’s word choices are interesting as well. He appears to make up many words and work them into his poems for sound and rhythm. This is particularly evident in the single poem “A Possible World”.

Many of Koch's poems in the volume, including "A Possible New World”, seem to be written in stream of consciousness format. The poems themselves are very surprising and are rather different from one another. Many different characters are introduced quickly, and some of the poems have a narrative story like quality to them because the characters created are not necessarily characters the reader would recognize. This is particularly seen in "Roma non basta una vita" in which the stories of many different characters are introduced and then quickly forgotten as new characters are introduced.

Koch works within the tradition of the School of New York poets. Their influence is evident upon him, and he even mentions some, including Frank O'Hara by name within his poems. His work differs from theirs in that their work was traditionally considered very serious, while Koch is known for his sense of humor and light spirited poetry. In Koch's opinion the New York school was nontraditional and opposed heavy use of symbolism and irony.

Book Review =]

So, I only had a couple of poetry books at home and most of them are collections of poems by many authors or they are written mostly by teens. The only book of poem I have available is Maya Angelou’s selection called Poems. This book is more than 120 pages, but is divided into sections or parts. Because the book is separated by four books….Just give me a cool drink of water ‘fore I diie, Shaker, why don’t you sing, Oh pray my wings are gonna fit me well and And Still I rise, I decided to just read one of these parts. And still I rise is book in itself with three different parts…”Travling,” “Touch me, life, not softly” and “And still I rise”. The travel’s part is about women and relationships…or at least this is how it seems like to me. Phenomenal Woman is a famous poem by Maya and shows the beauty of the female body and sexuality. In this poem, there’s a reframe that shows up at the end of the stanzas. There is a kind of rhyme within the poem, but its lose and changes. At some parts every other line rhymes, but there are those parts that break completely free of this. The section called Traveling, seemed to be about different places, but I don’t know if it was through the poem or just through the titles of the poems. You go from my Arkansas to the woman work. It’s as if you travel through different lives and lifestyles, not just to different places. I thought this part would be predictable in the fact that it only moved through different towns/ places, but I was wrong. I think my favorite part of the section was the one entitled, And still I rise. When I was in highscool, I remember reading the poem with the same name and loving it for its repetitiveness and strength. I found this section more appealing because the poems were really powerful and meant so much then I was looking to find within them. My favorite poem in this section was On aging. I loved the meaning behind the poem and felt there was this universal experience of growing older and the things that go along with it. The rhyme pattern is again distorted but it really flows well the way it is. I think the overall themes are about life in general, but with a really strong tone or voice. I don’t know if younger people could really get into this poetry, but I definitely think an older age group would. I think I would like to emulate her voice, because it is very strong, but I don’t know if it is possible because she was such an amazing poet.

Late Book Review One: 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery'

The book looked cool. . . A thin, tall, and bald woman on the cover and spray paint cursive over head: Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery. I'm not one to write about racism, but I like reading about it. I'm not one of those people who walk up and down exclaiming, "Racism doesn't exist anymore" or "We have an African American president so we can't be racist" types. I'm not the type to think EVERY god damn thing said or done to me IS racist. I say shit like that jokingly to REAL CLOSE friends (friends who know WHEN AND WHERE). I also talk about racism to make people feel awkward, so if I randomly said, "You're racist" or something to that degree I probably didn't want to talk to you. The point of this digression is it resembles the movement racism, sexism, and homophobia has undergone. Our perception about racism and the face behind the current masks' of racism, and all the other 'isms' have altered into subtleties and humor, so I believe that this is the message of Pamela Sneed's 'Imagine being more Afraid of Freedom than Slavery.'

I couldn't put my finger on it before, but after seeing SaltLines I figured out why this book review was hard for me to write. Pamela Sneed's book does not progress. She's in this constant state of anger, which is understandable considering she's:

A. A woman
B. African American
C. A Lesbian

so the odds are against her. But, especially when you're writing lyrically the book almost becomes a very poetic, very short memoir, she continues from angry to angry. . . maybe her anger simmers. In her one poem about "Daddy" (daddy can be interrupted in two ways from my gathering AMERICA or her actual father) the poem should have been a series of curses. It's funny I stopped thinking about the book review until I saw SaltLines because there was a poem about a Daddy and the poet was a lesbian. . . But you see instead of rambling in undertoned curse words as Pamela Sneed did. . . The SaltLines' girl said, "Yes I am angry at you. . . I even hate you at times, but you know what the past is the past and I forgive you." Maybe it's bad for me to compare, but I can't help it.

Face attached to Constraints

I suppose, since I wasn’t as impressed with our visitor as most were, that it takes some real stunts to hold my interest. He was great! , but forgettable. I can’t even remember his name, I just remember the lesson he was attached to, and the Rolodex of songs he played. I don’t remember the lyrics, but I remember they made me giggle. So he did spread good vibes about constraints, which was notable, but I guess his approach on constraints just wasn’t my thing.

He seems to be a natural when it comes to placing limitations on his work, in fact he must be the type of person who need deadlines in order to achieve a goal. Naturals aren't good at explaining the how to's in life. And this is what I was looking for a PROCESS (sit at computer, face computer screen, eat some chocolate . . .); however I do understand it is hard to go into great detail when things come natural to a person. It's automatic. So no real thought goes intothe automatic as Shklovsky points out in his theory of Defamiliarization. I couldn't explain English to this Japanese guy I kept saying, "Because that's how it is." Japanese people did the same to me when I asked about particles; they'd say, "Nihongo kara" (Because it is Japanese).

We don't think in a constrained formats, so I would have liked to have seen some free verse etched out on the board (which has it's own set of rules) and then cut down into traditional, maybe that would have helped me (I'm not sure). I've tried it ! and it's always muck. My sonnet was high shit.

Splatter...Poem?

I have only recently begun experimenting with the placement of words on the page, and, to my surprise, I’m really getting into it. I took a lot of Creative Writing classes in high-school, so I learned early on that someone makes every line break intentional; all these separations add tension and emotion to a poem in different ways, and they all aim to affect the reader emotionally. Even so, I never realized the same can be true for the specific ways in which writers place their words on the page. Ever since I took Introduction to Poetry last semester, I have started experimenting with the idea here and there, but never have I been quite as radical with my arrangement as I was while writing my poem for this week’s workshop. The folks that were in my workshop group the week before last know that the spacing arrangement of my poem entitled “Cassandra” was a freak accident of Microsoft Word, and yet, before they realized this, the spacing was what they all seemed to be most impressed with. That incident has really inspired me to go to the next step with word arrangement, and take it to a whole new level of creativity. My poem for this week is called “Adolescence,” and I am absolutely thrilled with how it worked out visually. The piece has words sprawled out everywhere, some based on the same natural breaks I would have applied otherwise, and a few separations that only sprinkling words here and there on a page can really inspire. Such experimentation made “Adolescence” more interactive in that it is visually engaging in addition to its literary strengths. I do have to say, though, that I’m also pretty happy with the literary quality of my poem, but we’ll see what you all think of that Tuesday, I suppose!

Writer's Block and Printing Presses

So I had a lot of trouble writing my poem for last week. It was the first time this semester that I really felt like I had nothing to write about. I tried experimenting with some constraints, like we did in class when Andrew Huang came in, but I don't know why, I just wasn't really satisfied with anything I came up with. I think one of my problems was that I was not developing specific or creative enough constraints. None of the constraints I thought of really helped me to narrow down my subject matter or to come up with anything I found to be too creative. I ended up writing a poem that was supposed to be like a letter, but looking back I wish I had done more with it, and pushed the constraints a little bit more...maybe I will edit again later on in the semester.
On the other hand I am very excited for the printing project today. I think it should be really interesting, and I am excited to see what my group comes up with for a final product!

Poster Printing

Today my group is going to head over to ODY and start our printing of our poetry poster with Mark and Theo. I'm really excited about this project, my group has been brainstorming some ideas that I think are going to look great on the posters. I think I'm more excited about hanging them up around campus and seeing people's reactions to them. I hope my group members and I can achieve to make a poster that has some sort of impact or powerful effect on those who see it. I've been researching some quotes and sayings for some background info and I'm really amazed at how words can influence and change people's lives. I guess this is just my mental overload of English courses flooding my consciousness, but it's really unbelievable how many famous quotes there are in the world, and how we remember the past and sometimes change the future through the voices of others. “I had a dream….” or “Be the change you want to see in the world” are the types of words, quotes, lectures that have shaped my view of the world and my life. I’m not trying to sound all cliché and philosophical, but I find it so refreshing that I’ve discovered the influence of the written or spoken word. The power of language and in some cases one individual is quite extraordinary if you think about it.