Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Flowers of Evil, what I've been reading

Been "taking" a seminar with Cole Swenson on French poetry which I've decidedly stopped showing up for despite my interest in the subject (fucking with french prosody sucks when you don't know french). Been reading a lot of Charles Baudelaire--poems, biography, history of Paris, etc.

C.B. is one EFFED UP dude---I like him because he fucking loves beauty in misery---in fact, one of my favorite quotes by him is "Joy is Beauty's most vulgar adornment;" there are probably mad variations of it b/c of translations.

Been reading Parisian Scenes from The Flowers of Evil and he writes about old chicks in a poem called "The Little Old Women"---"Have you ever noticed how many caskets of old women are almost as small as a child's?" and in another poem, " "Only the strong are exhalted by the charms of horror."  

Point and case, CB is ill, read some of his misery-laden poems.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Reasons why this blog is awesome

Guys, guys, guys!

First of all, Mere is gay. And no, I don't mean happy and wistful. I mean gay. Gay for Wallace Stevens. But that Wallace Stevens quote is awesome. I am sending it to Kyle and rubbing it all in his face. Oh and PS--your mayor is totally a gay pedophile! Awesome. Also, I still have those...ahem...poems of yours from...ahem...months ago, so if you'd like them back, I scribbled one or two things on them...e-mail me your mailing address again *ahem*.

Secondly, I am totally gay for Ray. Ray! Seriously man, I feel like you are my prodigal brother. Tumbleweed right back at you. I think of you (in a platonic way...okay in a totally gay way) like weekly, at the very least, and have the worst luck calling you. And by have the worst luck, I mean, I have the worst luck at getting the motivation up to call people. But I love you, man, and well, I hope I get to see you soon. And don't mind that Ally is teaching rhetoric. If I've learned one thing teaching, it's that most teachers don't even really understand what it is they're supposed to be teaching. That means especially Ally.

Ally, you are the bee's knees. I don't know if I just like saying that or if it seemed appropriate because you are knee-high, but I love you to death. That Robert Frost poem--which I actually thought was by someone named fwasty nigga for like the first two lines, until the near-rhyme ended--is amazing. Wait, did I just subconsciously link people who self-identify as "niggas" with rhyming poetry? What a racist. I am glad you are out there in Iowa, being super racist, making my petty facetious racism more acceptable. I believe I am still waiting for some poems via e-mail? Hmm? I've got some crap to send you so feel good about it.

Abby, I love you. Write something here. I dare you.

Gordomcgordson, I don't know who you are, but I am guessing you have a big head. What's up, my fellow big-head-clubber?

Hey guys, let's bring back this blog. When it was about poetry I as all like, eh, waaaah, I'm not feeling very poetic, yada yada emo yada. Now I'm like, self-masturbatory? Well I mean isn't that redundant? Awesome! Double masturbation! I am so down. As long as we are only masturbating our brains. It's our brains, right?

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Tumbleweed

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

sonata ex machina

also, i hate to hog the blog (and flog the soggy bog with a frog)

but guys, especially RAY and MERE

please read

Timothy Donnelly's Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit

awesome book of poems i have to read for class, that im not done with, but which are fucking great already. seriously. really.

fwasty pomez

Yo so I'm taking this class on Robert Frost and I really wanna subject you guys to this poem which I think is totally nutso:

"OUT, OUT--"

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood behind them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap--
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Niether refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand,
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. The the boy saw all--
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart--
He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off--
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then--the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little--less--nothing!--and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

thanksgiving

I am thankful for my freinds. here is a poem by robert creeley:

THE CONSPIRACY

You send me your poems,
I'll send you mine.

Things tend to awaken
even through random communication.

Let us suddenly
proclaim spring. And jeer

at the others,
all the others.

I will send you a picture too
if you will send me one of you.



I just like that, its my way of saying, "send me naked pictures," (that means you ian!)
anyway, i posted a comment on ally's thing about music and on ian's piece. i am high and suddenly got self conscious about ally being a rhetoric teacher and my slapdash keystone communication. can't spell neither. Happy thanksgiving (even though i already gave some of you a verbal holiday greeting over the cellular telephone)!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Lyrix

For Ray (or anyone really): What's the difference between writing poems and writing song lyrics?

In terms of process, goals, etc.