SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

THE WEATHER OF WORDS, by mark strand

ORIGINAL POST 12/21/2006: pg 64/65: then the phone rang. it was my mother calling to ask what i was doing. i told her i was working on a negative narrative poem, one that refuses to begin because beginning is meaningless in an infinite universe, and refuses to end for the same reason. it is all a suppressed middle, an inexhaustible conjunction. "and, mom," i said, "it refuses to mask the essential and universal stillness, and so confines its remarks to what never happens."

and i thought to myself: "what the fuck does that mean?"

and it made me feel better about two things 1) chit-chatting with my mom and 2) not having a formal education when it comes to poetry; just a real life emotional one. and i was just shy of dumping the book, but related quite well to what he had to say on the next page, which is the next chapter also, titled: notes on the craft of poetry.

pg 67: .... each poem demands that i treat it differently from the rest, come to terms with it, seek out its own best beginning and ending.

and not only does that ring true for me; but it sounds english.

in my mind, emotion is to poetry as music is to dance.

i see an irish dancer, watch her arms relax while her legs tap dance all over the place. and i cannot picture as well, this same choreography to say, country, jazz or heavy metal.

or a ballet dancer - and the elegant, graceful and regal movements performed to rap or rag time.

music dictates the dance. and when the two are in artistic harmony you know it.
it's beautiful.

it is emotion (for me), that dictates the poem. when i experiment with fitting my poems, my words, my emotional experiences, inside pre-determined poetic formulas

this feels like to me - putting african dance movements to light classical music. it's interesting but it doesn't work as well.

and then sometimes for me, predictability dillutes the beauty. the real joy always come from complete freedom of expression; the surprise.

like when i taught children's creative dance classes

it was great to listen to a familar song and then create movements to match; but greater still, to create unfamiliar movements first and then compose new music to match.

the organic emotional experience dictating an equally organic poetry form.

and then in keeping this relationship true

i believe fonts are to words as costumes are to dancers. it is so much fun to dress them up, make them fit the part and look pretty.

and page layout, the stage.

~sandra, ttgp

posted by SHE @ 5:09 PM