the drive back to school from home was not nearly as harrowing as i expected it to be, and the pain of confinement was lessened considerably by riding until the radio waves from my favorite station slowly crackled and crisped into a steady static, at which point i threw on the driving mix i made for the ride. what a difference a soundtrack makes!
i had dinner with my friends, who i missed terribly, and then skipped over to the art museum for "Scene in Herd," a poetry event put on by the Miami University English Department every year (maybe this was the 5th one? my friend Justin Katko started it a few years ago as a spatial intervention, with the idea that the readings themselves would explore space in new ways, but also that they would break down the barrier between spectator/participant. b/c the theme of our class this week was "critical walking"/"spatial exploration"/"critical reconsideration of space" i thought this would be a good event to go to as a class. the readings didn't really fit the original theme as well as past ones have, but i think they made up for it in content).
the readings were exceptional, except for one or two moments that seemed ungenuine, made me suspect the poet was trying too hard to be impressive, and so not really saying anything. there were a few times i felt words were just being tossed around for effect rather than affect, and i thot that reflected poorly on the poet. i think a misplaced conspicuous "fuck" can really ruin a poem for me. it's not that i'm averse to profanity, i just think they're a really cheap way for a writer to sound superficially edgy. and i don't think there's any point to its wanton usage. it's like gratuitous violence in films, there really should be a point to it i think. [ok you could argue that excessive profanity is the point. kinda like satirists and sadists like Michael Haneke torture us with violence to make us understand how sick and perverse we are. but, i don't think that's what was going on. it wasn't that kind of poem (nor that kind of poet)...]
most thrilling was after the readings were over, and i finally got a chance to talk to the guy who builds book presses. as far as Justin or i know, he's the only one who can help me build the press i need to bind my project in April! i was thrilled when he finally agreed to teach me, first by inviting me to help him finish the press he's currently constructing, and then to build another one for my use. i can't wait, i was worried for a while that i may never get the chance to bind my project.
and now, to actually finish it so i have something to bind...
-stephanie
3 comments:
Dang feels like ages since a wrote a poem... did one hiking in the snow in january.
But hey, I got my cat on ustream right now, so poetry in motion (:
Know any cats with a webcam inerested ?
cheers jing
oh man, i can't remember the last time i wrote a poem either. too stuck on prose now, man.
but i can still critique it right? (or does that make me an asshole?)
-stef
11:25
You are so TOTALY asking the wrong wanker. I guess like if you say the poet was playcating - like using the n-word - I would critique: if you are going to adress cliche, have an angle. IOW, if I am al high on using f-bomb, what can I do with the word that hasnt been done? Otherwise = that masturbationy thing.
Otherhand. Is one critqueing the poet and not the poetry? My ex'es 2nd exhusband and neighbour and teenage drug budy was big on ginsberg, I was al 'buroughs is god and fuck everyone'. So it was AG was the poet, WB was the writer. WB 'kinda suckt' at writing poetry to my budy ole pal, context. I disagreed, but was just geting more into AG when he passed.
I think that it is a question of art and that stanza with english word stuck in is not automaticaly art at al. I think that there is a crapload of refuse pasing itself off as poetry sheikh. But it is a reflection of the stuningly egregious debt load economy caries. Art either sufers with censored production or with uncritical overproduction (the latter being very much web2.0).
Did my overcritization seem arogant enough to make you feel less and "asshole"? (-:
Put it to ya this way. If ur one, then me an asshole for comenting on half your blog posts!
[whistling dixie]
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