David Bromige writes: 'the mass accumulation of a different application
that open up or in your (Stephen Pain's)mind or that of Alan Halsey slackens
(the definition of 'lyric'')). I think Stephen and Alan have argued the
point excellently and I side with them. So the 'mass accumulation' is
issuing forth from a couple of mailbasers (Alison and Billy) which I suppose
would give them a victory if they were after being the Labour Mayor of
London.
The only almost definite we've got from this so far is that a
lyric poem is short. Well I call that a 'short poem' this is not 'purist'
it is self explanatory and serves its purpose without being didactic and
surely that is the greatest irony of all, by seeking to define so much as
'lyric' the term at best becomes redundant but at worst becomes
prescriptive. It snatches away the writer's right not to be closed in and
shut down by inappropriate terminology. We have spent so much time trying
to rid ourselves of junk labels (i.e. labels which tie our creative
adventuring by insisting that it is something that it isn't) why are some of
us clamouring to reinstate them?
As for music well yes anything can be put to music. I've mixed my
work with musicians for years but that doesn't make my poems 'lyrics' or
suddenly transform me into a lyric poet. Apart from a couple of maybes i.e.
'short' poems it just ain't and I will willing eat hay with a scabby donkey
if anyone can convince me otherwise.
As a coda think on this oh ye compulsive labellers. At a party,
which of course means well-oiled in someone's kitchen, I picked up a
shopping list on the table and proceeded to read/sing it and gave one of the
best performances of my life.
Would you elevate that shopping list to a. a performance poem.
b. a
lyric poem
c. a
sound poem
d. a
performance text
e. a
shopping list
Answers on a postcard.
Geraldine
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|