Shout-out to Members Who Read Poetry!!
Oct 14, 2009 at 3:53 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 29
catachresis

catachresis

Headphoneus Supremus
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-And shouter-out to everybody who writes and performs poetry!
-And shoutest-out-of-all to everybody who not only writes and performs her/his poetry but who reads other people's poems!!!

Who are yez? Who are you reading? What are you writing? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 4:39 AM Post #3 of 29
I write, read, perform and submit poetry. I am trying to learn the pure form, no Collins or Bokowski for me ( although some of Billy's poetry I think is quite funny). Right now I am reading A.E Housman, as it is his 150th year.
I think my favorite poet must be, has to be Dylan Thomas, but my biggest influence would have to be WCW. I am also really digging Deborah Digges, but she just died this year. Some big literary losses this year, including David Foster Wallace.

I write about everything, although a lot of it is about my father.

So why didn't you post anything about yourself? Are you exempt just because you wrote the topic?
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:09 AM Post #4 of 29
I haven't written poetry, but would not be opposed to a public reading. I have in a few lit classes, but few opportunities otherwise.

I haven't had as much time to read lately as I like, but each week, I try to get in a few by Wallace Stevens and spend some time digesting them. He is my favorite, though I've been planning to reacquaint myself with Ebenezer Cooke and his adventures.
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 10:38 AM Post #5 of 29
I say E. E. Cummings!

and Garcia Lorca if you can read spanish, I havn't found an english writer apart from Shakespeare can touch me like that.
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 1:25 PM Post #6 of 29
Wicked! Thanks to all of you for responding. I hope you continue to, and that others do as well, and that this becomes a pleasant ongoing thread for a while.

@Deus Ex: I haven't read Plath's "Mirror," and I will make it a priority this week to find it.

@Scott_Tarlow: Wah-heigh! All right!-another person who prefers writing in poetic forms! I haven't read A.E. Housman in some years, but maybe you could suggest a few titles for me to find? I like Dylan Thomas (have you read his 'magical mysterious' story, "Story," about going on a Welsh Pub Crawl with his Uncle?), and I like WCW a *very great deal*, though I like him more when he was younger and hadn't become so invested in imagism and everything that "bes" but doesn't necessarily "means." I haven't read Deborah Digges, and I should just go ahead and start making a list.
--As for why I didn't say anything about my stuff, I was nervish and frishky last night, and very pleased to have just gotten a mailed copy of Measure poetry journal with two of my sonnetty things in it. And I'm personally stoked about that, but I didn't just want to toot my own kazoo; I really did want to find out what people were reading and doing.

@Erik: Wallace Steven's earlier poems knock me out, but I tread through the gardens of his later gnomics carefully. Once I go into the snow bank and start to ponder the "Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is." I start screaming for the ski patrol to dig me out. I used to take-the-piss with "The Poem That Took The Place Of A Mountain" in readings, sonorously expostulating its verities with my best Marlboro-man voice, and then I would do that fun pastiche of GW Bush utterances, "Make the Pie Grow Higher." And Ebeneezer Cooke--he's in my period, and I feel sheepish that I didn't really know who the hell he was. I'm gonna fix that.

@radiohlite: I have a warm fuzzy for Lorca like I do for Rilke, but I haven't really read much of either of their poems. Lenny Cohen's Lorca adaptation, "Take This Walz" is wonderful and a wonderful recommendation of Lorca's poetry, so maybe I just need to find a few to dip my toes in. I still have a deep, profound affection for ee cummings because he was such an American original, and he can really belt out a love poem, even if it's one to his favorite little adolescent hooker in Montmarte.

Recently, I saw that former laureate Robert Pinsky, who seems to be getting smarder all the time, did-up a wonderful intro to Christopher Smart, the ecstatic celebrant of his holy and righteous cat Jeoffrey. If you've never looked at this portion of Jubilate Agno, you oughter. In addition, _Slate_'s new weekly poem is "Goose Flesh" by the English poet Tim Liardet. I enjoyed getting tangled up in it--it's a good work--and then reflected that I'd heard of Liardet, and then discovered that he'd done me a kindness once, though he doesn't know me from Adam's shiftless Uncle Larry. I recommend.
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 2:27 PM Post #7 of 29
catachresis, this is where you start with Deborah Digges:


Greeter of Souls

Ponds are spring-fed, lakes run off rivers.
Here souls pass, not one deified,
and sometimes this is terrible to know
three floors below the street, where light drinks the world,
siphoned like music through portals.
How fed, that dark, the octaves framed faceless.
A memory of water.
The trees more beautiful not themselves.
Souls who have passed here, tired, brightening.
Dumpsters of linen, empty
gurneys along corridors to parking garages.
Who wonders, is it morning?
Who washes these blankets?
Can I not be the greeter of souls?
What's to be done with the envelopes of hair?
If the inlets are frozen, can I walk across?
When I look down into myself to see a scattering of birds,
do I put on the new garments?
On which side of the river should I wait?

She is very depressing, but really has an interesting take on these subjects.
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 5:32 PM Post #9 of 29
Excellent read, Justin (should be a commercial success), I value your sharing !
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Many of the noteworthy lyrics we have come to be familiar with were written and performed by poets, of course... Dylan (a prolific writer), Morison to name a few of my generation...
 
Oct 14, 2009 at 9:39 PM Post #11 of 29
I really like the poem, Justin. I especially like that it's direct and forthright. I hope you'll post more of your work.

Robb, I really don't know my way around C. Bukowski. Do you know a sample on the web that would be good for a beginner to look at?
 
Oct 19, 2009 at 1:02 AM Post #13 of 29
I almost have something published - they want more first and I have to get some stuff together, fix some things, etc.

I love ee cummings and Wallace Stevens, also Theodore Roethke, Sylvia, Emily Dickinson of course (love Emily :-D), I like the Eliot Quartets and also Prufrock, Rilke is just too rich for me, but I do like some of the Elegies, the Panther, Death, etc. I also tend to like Neruda, and Wm Carlos Williams.

I just reread "Emperor of Ice Cream" a few weeks ago after Chris Matthews kept referring to it in relation to Ted Kennedy, lol (no political statement :wink:). What a great poem, maybe my favorite of all time, along with Roethke's The Waking ("I hear my being dance from ear to ear" always reminds me of wearing headphones
beyersmile.png
).

I write mostly formal poetry, I love crafting everything down to a T, agonize over ellipses, commas, single words for weeks, etc. This latest thing is an homage to Emily Dickinson, and I also have some villanelles, and some ee cummings and Sylvia Plath inspired poems. Wish there was more time to write, but have to eat and heat. :wink:
 
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