Hi Douglas, various gauntlets in your latest post. I pick them up in all
best humour and with best intent:
>I trust my ear entirely when it comes to writing poetry.
I'd like to witness this 'writing'. I'm sure that any part of the body can
be controlled, if need be, for the purpose of writing. As for myself, my
ears are not in isolation.
>But what I am leading up to, and I see it in Fred, is that complicated
>or even simple verse structures detract from the poetry by taking weight
>away from the poetry in the words.
Where does the 'writing' lie? On the page, in a pen, over a keyboard, in
the air, under a book, on a sheet blowing along the street, on a billboard,
from a radio, on the tip of a tongue and so on?
Do you always only write 'in the quiet of the house? What is this quiet?
How is it distinctive? What is being curated there?
>I have the same feeling about
>`performance' where the poetry never reaches me and all I receive
>is the egotism of the poet. I prefer to avoid `performance', unless
>I want to hear the voice of the poet to assist my own private
>reading, which takes place in the quiet of my house.
So you prefer the sound of your own voice, a for(um)m of solipsistic
consumption of product, to the voices of others?
Is the act of 'writing' not itself a 'performance'? If it is, I would
assert that it is, then whose egotism are you receiving when you are
writing?
>In the same way that `performance' detracts from poetry
If writing is 'performance' and yet 'performance' detracts from 'poetry'
what are we left with?
Are your posts to the list not forms of 'performance'?
>In this modern age I feel that the combustion engine and its
>rhythms have removed us from the rhyme and rhythm of our forefathers
>and that we respond to emotion in a less formal way.
>What matters is the poet's ear and you either have it or you
>havent.
What are our ears listening to? What rhythms are we living?
Surely they are many and more various than simplistic notions of the
machine. Do you walk, have you ever been in a car, heard drum and bass from
a high street shop, listened to the flock of conversations in a public
place, been barked at by a dog, discussed melody with a robin, ever
attempted to notate waves brushing up a beach, run a bath, answered the
phone, used a modem - of course you have, probably all and many other
such and other such.
'perfect' - what's that? especially when it comes to 'ears'? Who's
measuring? From what cultural and ideological viewpoints? What is being
edited out? What is being edited in?
love and love
cris
ps. with baited breath
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|