Here’s a nice poem put to video. I like how the video creator, Andrew Kamp, let the sounds bleed through to Tracy K. Smith’s poem so that both became part of the other. Some poetry videos tend to be words laid on top of video with no real interaction.
Well done.
Earlier today a friend, and fellow poet, Thom Ingram posted a tweet on Twitter that said:
“You Can” for @WillBrown at http://poetguru.com“
Rightfully intrigued, I followed the link and found a poem entitled “You Can” for Will Brown.
It was a short poem that I interpret to mean that you should always be ready to receive inspiration. Not only that, but to somehow capture the thought, the seed, and save it for later. For a time when you can be alone and plant that thought again in your mind.
But that was not the important part.
The greater realization came from the fact that Thom reached out to inspire a fellow poet.
As poets, in order to be effectively inspired, we must link arms with other poets. Friends that, whenever you have any contact with them, ask you if you are writing. Gordon Buss asked me this very question a couple of days ago in an email. I was inspired then as well.
But inspiration can only go so far. As Thom says in the last lines of the poem: “Your pen before ink runs dry. Sins to just think.”
Image CreditYou can’t change your entire life.
You can only change your next action.
—
You can’t change a relationship with a loved one.
You can only change your next interaction.
—
You can’t change your entire job.
You can only change your next task.
—
You can’t change your body composition.
You can only change your next meal.
—
You can’t change your fitness level.
You can only start moving.
—
You can’t declutter your entire life.
You can only get choose to get rid of one thing, right now.
—
You can’t eliminate your entire debt.
You can only make one payment, or buy one less unnecessary item.
—
You can’t change the past, or control the future.
You can only change what you’re doing right now.
—
You can’t change everything.
You can only change one, small thing.
And that’s all it takes.
Reprinted from mnmlistA humorous sketch from the BBC comedy “A Bit of Fry and Laurie“, which I never heard of until Simon from Slam Idol interviewed Stephen Fry a few years ago about his book “The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
” (aff). I still need to purchase that. American fans may recognize Hugh Laurie from his role in the current television show “House“.
Enjoy:
Much has been said about the coming of Apple’s iPad as the time-stamp for the impending death of Amazon’s Kindle. Point and counter-point have been given across the web, in print, and new and old media.
I, for one, I believe that the two can both peacefully coexist in the fast moving market of e-readers. In fact, I now own both devices and am equally pleased with both when it comes to the purpose that they serve.
Len Edgerly in his latest podcast episode of The Kindle Chronicles mentioned that he distinguished between the two users by the term “serious readers”; a term that just makes sense when it comes to discerning which device works best for each individual person. Serious readers are people who like to read books for an extended period of time. They make time to separate themselves from the world by immersing themselves into the world that they are holding in their hands.
On the other side, the casual reader is perfectly content to read just a few pages at a time whenever the moment hits them. The things that bother serious readers about the iPad are not a factor for casual readers. Screen glare, the iPad’s weight, and eye-strain are things that will rarely affect someone who only picks up the iPad for short bursts of reading.
This is where the poetry consumer comes in.
People that read poetry typically don’t sit with one book of poetry for long periods of time. Our readings tend to come in bursts. Have you ever sat down and read dozens of poems in one sitting?
For me, the battle between the e-readers purely from the poetry reading perspective is not a battle at all. It is as simply a choice of which medium is available for me to use at the moment I decide to read. The choice could be paper, a magazine, a blog, my computer, my iPad, or my Kindle.
Currently, poetry publishers are deciding that for us. Most poetry is being published traditionally (magazines, journals, books, blogs, and web), but a few publishers are riding the technological wave with their poets. Electronic delivery, currently primarily by PDF, is giving great opportunities for some. However, the selection on both the iPad and Kindle seem limited. In some cases it is because the publisher isn’t getting the books into the digital marketplace and in others it is the technological constraints of the market itself that provides a hurdle the the individual author must first overcome.
Here’s what I foresee in the very near future for the digital market. Application developers will pair with poetry publishers, both publishing houses and individuals, to create applications that dismantle such hurdles. Look to digital providers such as LuLu.com and others to lead from the front.
So, in the end, which device is better for the poetry consumer. Either. It depends on what your other reading habits are. Serious readers will prefer the Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s Nook. Casual readers will prefer the iPad or one of the other potential tablet computers coming down the stream.
I am concerned with the poet who is seeking a means of delivery. I hope you consider all avenues to share your works.
There are some spoken word artists who absolutely stun you with their performance. Kate Tempest is one on those artists.
Her presence is pure emotion when she is on stage and her words pierce your soul and intertwine with your emotions as she speaks. Amazing.
Listen to her poem “End Times” in this video and tell me what you think.
I found this video over at Viral Verse –another great site for quality poetry videos. Be sure to stop by, check out their videos, and subscribe!
Saudi Arabian poet Hissa Hilal recently took part in a poetry competition for an Abu Dhabi TV show called “Million’s Poet“. The name comes from the fact that the top poet receives a one million dollar prize. I could go into a five paragraph post on that alone, and perhaps I will eventually, but the most remarkable part of this story is that she performed at all.
Hissa received death threats as the result of her appearances on the show and for the words she spoke. She didn’t just speak poems of love and nature, but she chose the opportunity to speak about issues of women’s equality in a region where the phrase is scoffed at and demeaned. Her courage in this competition earned her and the women of the region more than that one million dollars could have ever purchased.
Every time we speak out what we as poets believe, we speak for those who have the same thoughts and words, but don’t have the means to share them. We have our open mics, blogs, podcasts, books, and magazines to speak truth as we know it. We have the opportunity to reach more people than some will ever reach in their entire lives.
Embrace that, poet.
Here’s a video from ABC Nightly News where Hissa Hilal is featured as the Person of the Week. I hope it inspires you.
Here’s an article from ABC as well, in case the video is regionalized by ABC: Person of the Week: Poet Hissa Hilal
I recently wrote a post about the lack of good video poetry available to viewers and how we sometimes have to search through multiple videos before we actually find a good one. Well, poet Dave Bonta of Moving Poems has done most of the hard work for you.
Moving Poems scours the web for great examples of poetry put to video and video worked around poetry. Dave decided to start the site “in part to learn how to make better video poetry”.
What I like best about the site is that he doesn’t just post the video, but he gives good insight on why he likes it and even interesting tidbits about the video.
A good example is the information he provided about a couple of Walt Whitman poems that were recently featured in televised advertisements here in the states. I had seen the Levis commercial featuring “Pioneers! O Pioneers”, but wasn’t aware of all the discussion taking place about it on the web and media. I definitely recommend taking a look at the full article.
Here is the Levis ad that was mentioned:
Let me know if you come across a good video that you think others here would enjoy. I’d love to share it!
Let me know in the comments or via Twitter!
Cloudy Day Art listener Paul Badger recently turned me on to a relatively new poetry community site called Hello Poetry.
I’ve seen my share of sites that prompted poets to come online, share their poetry, and interact amongst the community. Some have been good and some have been bad. What separates the good from the bad, in my opinion, comes down to how the site founder handles a small set of criteria (in top of my head order):
Hello Poetry does a great job in all these areas. Lets hit each of these specifically to explain further.
I know. This can’t be the most important thing to look at when reviewing a poetry site. But it is very important. You consciously evaluate whether a web site is good or bad with the first few seconds of the home page loading. It’s a fact.
The web design crew at Hello Poetry have succeeded in creating a beautifully minimalist web design devoid of heavy graphics, banner ads, and the gaudy colors that we see on many poetry community sites (I’m guilty at times, too). The first thing you see center page is a short description of the site with an immediate call to action to read a featured, random poem. Nice.
Click on the “Community” link at the top of the page and you are taken to a page split into a few different sections:
All these areas practically beg the reader to explore, comment, and contribute to the site without being too overbearing.
Hello Poetry has enabled an automatic background process they call “Exposure” to promote poets and poets throughout the site. Here’s how they define it on a recent blog post:
Keep in mind that even though exposure is now handled automatically, the same ideas apply as before. Your work will be exposed more often if you read and give thoughtful reactions to poems, and do other positive interactions on Hello Poetry. This keeps everyone on a level playing field and gives something in return to those contributing the most to the community.
So, the more you are involved in the site, the greater your chance of poetry being exposed. I have read discussions both pro and con of this technique, but it seems to work overall.
This goes hand in hand with their “Exposure” algorithm. That along with creating a very good user experience and generally open and encouraging community of poetry lovers, seems to be keeping the site updated with fresh and interesting reading.
I do have some concerns as the discussion forum that I thought was there a month or so ago seems to have disappeared. This could be because the creators thought it took away from the pure poetry aspect or because of some of the grumblings I saw as some of the new features were being implemented. Or both.
All in all, I would recommend Hello Poetry to poets as a place to share their poetry and to read and encourage other poets.
I’m listed there. I only have one poem up, but I hope to increase that soon.
What do you think about Hello Poetry?
I came across this video while doing one of my periodic searches for poetry on Twitter. Poet Austin Kleon came up with a creative way to pen poetry.
He takes an article from a newspaper, looks for key words that inspire him, then blacks out all the rest. It’s a different take on those magnetic poetry or refrigerator poetry kits you can by online, but it is a cool idea none the less. He’s also releasing a book of poetry based on his creations. Check out this video report:
I could see this as a great exercise to try when you think you are running into a creative brick wall. The words are already written for you. You just have to get rid of the unnecessary ones.
Today The Huffington Post posted an article titled “National Poetry Month: Breeding Hyperlinks Out of the Dead Land” by Travis Nichols. Travis begins the article talking about how newspapers and sites across the internet are “shining a spotlight on the art form they normally ignore, mangle, or treat with derision”.
This is a very true statement, though spoken partially in jest. In fact, this is somewhat what I’m doing here at Cloudy Day Art. Posting 30 blog post over 30 days. I don’t think I’ve written thirty blog posts on this site over the five years of it’s existence!
But is that so wrong? I would rather have mainstream media cover poetry and its associated events this one time of year than not at all.
It is our jobs as poetry bloggers, podcasters, and journalists to keep the art in the minds of our listeners and readers the other 335 days. Some say that we don’t have the large outreach that a USA Today has, but collectively we can reach millions by sharing one verse with your friends on Facebook. By sharing on link to a spoken word performance to your followers on Twitter. By sharing one podcast with your listeners.
Thirty days isn’t much time for poetry to be in the spotlight. Let’s show them how we do it.
Image credit