Dear Ken,
I think films about poetry would be sensational. I have two ideas to suggest.
Firstly, I've noticed that many programmes now, especially comedies and soap
operas, reflect on the nature of television by satirizing classic programs,
or by showing how television influences the lives of their characters.
It would be compelling to create for television poems which explore the
conventions of the medium and engage its language. I remember that for the
Poets' News series about six years ago Roger McGough read a poem comparing
the weather report and the human body while standing in front of a outlined map
of
a man's body and pointing to symbols for wind and moisture. It was the most
effective poem in the week of Poet's News programmes.
The second approach I thought of is films involving poems that reflect
on the new millennium in various manners: poems that address new ages,
beginnings, changes in lives, or starting over. I don't mean that the films
should only involve new poems or poems written especially for them --
classic or well known poems could be included. That said,
I would love to see contemporary poems and poets on TV.
I liked very much the themes of "Killing Time" which was shown on the first of
January: people travelling throughout the country and examining communities
while pondering the turn of the century and the meaning of time. I think your
idea of reading a classic poem while showing montages of cities and towns today
would be very moving. I also believe that it would be terrific to
show poets who have not previously appeared in the media.
Yours,
Ivy Garlitz
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