The castaway is back....
Flipping the pages of my calendar, I mumble out loud, "How long has it been?" (actually there were as I recall expletives in there someplace but I'm trying to keep this PG-13)
What's a guy to do when his source for Random neuron firing, lame philosophy, literary pontificating, movies, sex, clothes & other femme stuff dries up completely for eight days. I mean there are other interesting things to read and ponder... but after a while even the Jim Side begins to look like a motion picture.
So... Michaela Cooper is going away for a few days. You figure you can tough it out. HA! Define few Ms. Cooper... pleasssse. (grin) Have you no regard for your blog reading public?
Enough of the chastisement... Evidently the girl was suffering some serious posterious shock syndrome and thought she was just a couple of consonants away from Mika Boorem. Come to think of it, she is!
I had hoped for a smashing review of How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art, by Kathleen Meyer - but would have settled for Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills: Naked into the Wilderness, by John McPherson, Geri McPherson. I guess the story of the electrothermolysis was close enough.
Next time, you must warn your fans that a few days is more like a flipping week!
Whew... I'm winded! (smile)
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Monday, September 15, 2003
Vando - News Shoes and an Old Flame
The other day, I mentioned a local Kansas City poet Gloria Vando. There was a specific poem she did that I really find fun. I was mistaken when I said that it was no longer on her site... I simply missed it. (duh!)
Anyway, here it is...
New Shoes and an Old Fame
It was tucked away on her poetry in motion page. Enjoy it, I do.
Anyway, here it is...
New Shoes and an Old Fame
It was tucked away on her poetry in motion page. Enjoy it, I do.
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Why We Write? - continued
picking up where I left off last night/early morning...
If it were fame or fortune, that caused (or inspired) me to write, someone please hit me with a brick! I suspect that the motivation of a great many are not dependent on either money or notoriety. Otherwise, a great many people remain quite optimistic about their future wealth or fame.
Actually, a good many writers of fine poetry bask in a fair amount of obscurity. Really, far more then they deserve for their efforts. You see, I am convinced that poetry, while often rewarding on some level, is seldom providing monetary reward or acknowledgement compensatory to the work itself.
In thinking about this question on a personal level, I suppose there are a couple things that I believe are driving forces for me. One is that issue of immortality. Create something that lives on, past your own mortal limits. This is a strong issue with me. I suspect it I am not alone in this regard.
Another factor is simply having something to say. I believe many an individual is starving to say something that matters. To be heard. Writing offers that outlet and poetry is a wonderful vehicle. But writing is only a beginning. If we write will it really matter unless it is read? The cultural advent of blogs begs this be answered perhaps more than the poetic community at large. On some scale, being heard matters. It matters a lot. Still, I think in this day and age not being silenced is even the most basic important aspect. While saying and be heard is like having cake and eating it too... saying it period has value. So for me, I write first - for myself. Second, to and for the benefit of others.
There is much cynicism in poetry today on every level. Many young people don't see much value in the poetry of past generations and some don't even find more modern poetry to offer them much relevance. But the cynic of the craft is even found in many publishing houses where consideration of poetry is often discarded in favor of the bottom line. Oscar Wilde, the Irish born writer, humorist and poet once remarked, a cynic is a "man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Poetry knows many such people.
Still, it survives. Poetry lives. Even in the raging battle between mainstream poetry and post-post modernism. It evolves and adapts. It is a "culture creature." That is, it lives on the very evolutionary model that thrives as people evolve. What is sad, at least from my own perspective, is that there is a good deal of poetry from each generation or period that has significance as though it were a DNA sample of that place and time. We should be delighted at the opportunity to read it, hear it, examine it. Experience it in a way that gives us back something as a part of that understanding. I'm not saying we have to take all poetry as "good" writing.... but I think each period of history must surly have something that adds value to our own life experience.
So it is.... I have managed to drift afar from the initial question of why I, or anyone for that matter writes? However, if we can agree that poetry allows us to experience something of value... then writing, reading, sharing poetry contributes to the wholeness of ourselves and perhaps others as well. We can lament those who push it aside for what they miss but we must never let the cynicism that abounds for poetry deprive us or silence us.
If it were fame or fortune, that caused (or inspired) me to write, someone please hit me with a brick! I suspect that the motivation of a great many are not dependent on either money or notoriety. Otherwise, a great many people remain quite optimistic about their future wealth or fame.
Actually, a good many writers of fine poetry bask in a fair amount of obscurity. Really, far more then they deserve for their efforts. You see, I am convinced that poetry, while often rewarding on some level, is seldom providing monetary reward or acknowledgement compensatory to the work itself.
In thinking about this question on a personal level, I suppose there are a couple things that I believe are driving forces for me. One is that issue of immortality. Create something that lives on, past your own mortal limits. This is a strong issue with me. I suspect it I am not alone in this regard.
Another factor is simply having something to say. I believe many an individual is starving to say something that matters. To be heard. Writing offers that outlet and poetry is a wonderful vehicle. But writing is only a beginning. If we write will it really matter unless it is read? The cultural advent of blogs begs this be answered perhaps more than the poetic community at large. On some scale, being heard matters. It matters a lot. Still, I think in this day and age not being silenced is even the most basic important aspect. While saying and be heard is like having cake and eating it too... saying it period has value. So for me, I write first - for myself. Second, to and for the benefit of others.
There is much cynicism in poetry today on every level. Many young people don't see much value in the poetry of past generations and some don't even find more modern poetry to offer them much relevance. But the cynic of the craft is even found in many publishing houses where consideration of poetry is often discarded in favor of the bottom line. Oscar Wilde, the Irish born writer, humorist and poet once remarked, a cynic is a "man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Poetry knows many such people.
Still, it survives. Poetry lives. Even in the raging battle between mainstream poetry and post-post modernism. It evolves and adapts. It is a "culture creature." That is, it lives on the very evolutionary model that thrives as people evolve. What is sad, at least from my own perspective, is that there is a good deal of poetry from each generation or period that has significance as though it were a DNA sample of that place and time. We should be delighted at the opportunity to read it, hear it, examine it. Experience it in a way that gives us back something as a part of that understanding. I'm not saying we have to take all poetry as "good" writing.... but I think each period of history must surly have something that adds value to our own life experience.
So it is.... I have managed to drift afar from the initial question of why I, or anyone for that matter writes? However, if we can agree that poetry allows us to experience something of value... then writing, reading, sharing poetry contributes to the wholeness of ourselves and perhaps others as well. We can lament those who push it aside for what they miss but we must never let the cynicism that abounds for poetry deprive us or silence us.
Who Do We Write For?
I'm sure many if not most of you who currently are engaged in writing poetey have at some point thought about this question. Actually, it can be applied to any writing. Yes, including blogging.
Perhaps the question as it applies to poetry and blogging are very similar. Unlike novels and other more extensive written works, the market for poetry is much more limited. I've heard it argued, poetry is the most pure literary work, because the author's motives are seldom driven by money and fame. I'm not sure that purity is the proper value here, but I can accept the concept of its special or unique place in literature. Of course this almost screams for an answer to the question at hand. "Who are we writing for?"
Can we agree that poetry, like blogging is often written with no clear idea who if anyone is going to read the finished work? The cultural similarities are perhaps not totally parallel, still, they are a reasonably close match.
Do we write these to satisfy ourselves? How much is ego a factor in our motivations? Do we need a stage in life to perform on... the printed page and the online blog providing that outlet?
I'm not certain that I have totally satisfied my own responses to these questions... in fact I think this is more of a starting place for my own formulation. Something to sleep on... speaking of which it is now Sunday morning. Good Nite.
Perhaps the question as it applies to poetry and blogging are very similar. Unlike novels and other more extensive written works, the market for poetry is much more limited. I've heard it argued, poetry is the most pure literary work, because the author's motives are seldom driven by money and fame. I'm not sure that purity is the proper value here, but I can accept the concept of its special or unique place in literature. Of course this almost screams for an answer to the question at hand. "Who are we writing for?"
Can we agree that poetry, like blogging is often written with no clear idea who if anyone is going to read the finished work? The cultural similarities are perhaps not totally parallel, still, they are a reasonably close match.
Do we write these to satisfy ourselves? How much is ego a factor in our motivations? Do we need a stage in life to perform on... the printed page and the online blog providing that outlet?
I'm not certain that I have totally satisfied my own responses to these questions... in fact I think this is more of a starting place for my own formulation. Something to sleep on... speaking of which it is now Sunday morning. Good Nite.
Friday, September 12, 2003
Yesterday
I toyed with blogging yesterday... but alas I didn't blog. Somehow being speechless seemed the most appropriate thing I could do.
Basically I stayed clear of the various media recounts of 9/11. So much was lost on that day two years ago... and we are continuing to experience loss linked to it after all the time between.
Today I thought I'd simply make a list of some of the losses.
1. Innocent lives on 9-11-01
2. Innocence
3. Love
4. Trust
5. Lives in the Afghanistan conflict (and continuing)
6. Individual personal civil liberties (continuing to erode)
7. Lives in the Iraqi war (continuing daily)
8. Diplomatic respect for American Policy in the international community
9. Jobs
This is simply a start.... Feel free to add others you can identify.
Basically I stayed clear of the various media recounts of 9/11. So much was lost on that day two years ago... and we are continuing to experience loss linked to it after all the time between.
Today I thought I'd simply make a list of some of the losses.
1. Innocent lives on 9-11-01
2. Innocence
3. Love
4. Trust
5. Lives in the Afghanistan conflict (and continuing)
6. Individual personal civil liberties (continuing to erode)
7. Lives in the Iraqi war (continuing daily)
8. Diplomatic respect for American Policy in the international community
9. Jobs
This is simply a start.... Feel free to add others you can identify.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Bridging Troubled Waters....
Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel Reuniting This Fall
Old Friends is what they will call their North American tour, which will start in Mid October. Simon and Garfunkel who's most notorious works include Bridge Over Troubled Water, Mrs. Robinson, and The Sound Of Silence.
The duo was last on tour in 1982-83. Clearly one of the best of "rock-folk" music. Their music resonated with a poetic quality and seemed to actually bridge generation. I suppose it seems odd to contemplate that these two will turn 62 during this tour, but then I think of my own age and it seems less shocking. This is good because I don't think I need to be dealing with too much shock. Espically after seeing the ticket prices.
I have to say I'm glad to see them make the tour. Their music still holds a special place in my heart. They had a gift - I'm hoping they will still inspire audiences... maybe even some younger ones.
Old Friends is what they will call their North American tour, which will start in Mid October. Simon and Garfunkel who's most notorious works include Bridge Over Troubled Water, Mrs. Robinson, and The Sound Of Silence.
The duo was last on tour in 1982-83. Clearly one of the best of "rock-folk" music. Their music resonated with a poetic quality and seemed to actually bridge generation. I suppose it seems odd to contemplate that these two will turn 62 during this tour, but then I think of my own age and it seems less shocking. This is good because I don't think I need to be dealing with too much shock. Espically after seeing the ticket prices.
I have to say I'm glad to see them make the tour. Their music still holds a special place in my heart. They had a gift - I'm hoping they will still inspire audiences... maybe even some younger ones.
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