tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37618186369195136192024-03-14T03:03:47.979-05:00Commercial PoetryA place for the discussion of poetry intended for an audience beyond poets.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger408125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-89928342802670760412021-08-13T11:19:00.005-05:002021-08-13T11:19:31.647-05:00Ta-Da!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqCbAg-DTJSJpEUhjs7dz0ii2OAP0JaxQqdTiRStUCw07TciJVBTMSYrix84fvM8QDtKIFU75QFgZ3Brp4rsfKO6_lGVpyAaT_pdciltDVgtodR3_fIXJ2dihUftT_FvrNFEDpgqCwMyg/s491/EtSLoP107.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="491" data-original-width="445" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSqCbAg-DTJSJpEUhjs7dz0ii2OAP0JaxQqdTiRStUCw07TciJVBTMSYrix84fvM8QDtKIFU75QFgZ3Brp4rsfKO6_lGVpyAaT_pdciltDVgtodR3_fIXJ2dihUftT_FvrNFEDpgqCwMyg/s320/EtSLoP107.gif" width="290" /></a></div><br /> When British troops landed in India the residents, who spoke unstressed tongues, noticed a similarity between the "Left! Right!" marching cadence and the binary stresses of the English language. We accept the alternating stresses but why do we describe our speech as iambic as opposed to trochaic?<br /><br /> Part of the reason is in the effect of pronouns and articles on our subject-verb-object pattern:<br /><br />"She <u><b>saw</b></u> | the <u><b>boy</b></u>."<br /><br /> Another reason is that ending on an accented syllable sounds more momentous, decisive or conclusive. Trailing off seems tentative, wistful, or uncertain. Thus, our poetry is iambic (de-DUM) or, occasionally, anapestic (de-de-DUM), and very rarely trochaic (DEM-de), dactyllic (DUM-de-de), or amphibrachic (de-DUM-de).<br /><br /> What do we do when we want to finish with a flourish? In sonnets we go from ending lines with distant/alternating rhymes to a couplet. Typical would be the ababcc scheme in this sestet:<br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OPDwLiy6fDk" width="320" youtube-src-id="OPDwLiy6fDk"></iframe></div><br /><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPDwLiy6fDk" target="_blank">Prairie Prayer</a></h3><p><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">Come autumn, combines comb the <span style="color: #990000;">fields</span><br />to harvest gold canola <span style="color: #38761d;">oil</span><br />for toast before November <span style="color: #cc0000;">yields</span><br />its cold. Like whitened coffee, <span style="color: #38761d;">soil</span><br />beneath integument snow ex<span style="color: #800180;">tols</span><br />the blood and bone of remnant <span style="color: #800180;">souls</span>.</span> <br /><br /> A less formal approach is to use extra stresses. In iambic work this creates a "Ta-Da!" effect, often as part of a double iamb. For example, we note the last line of "<a href="https://youtu.be/_d--DZ5CKEw" target="_blank">Kemla's Aloha</a>":</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_d--DZ5CKEw" width="320" youtube-src-id="_d--DZ5CKEw"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://youtu.be/_d--DZ5CKEw" target="_blank">Kemla's Aloha</a> </h3><p>You showed me home is a person not a place.<br />I watch as time collapses in your wake,<br />as every story, fully told, can trace <br />a common path, each stream to the same lake.<br /><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.poeticbyway.com/gl-d.html#diaeresis" target="_blank">Classical Diaeresis</a> </h3><p> A more elaborate technique is classical diaeresis, ending a poem with a word in the verse's cadence. For example, the first stanza of the iambic pentameter "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJBiVwRRRVc" target="_blank">Beans</a>" ends with an iamb; all previous disyllabic words are trochaic.<br /><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: courier;">September came like winter's ailing child, <br />but left us viewing Valparaiso's pride. <br />Your face was always saddest when you smiled. <br />You smiled as every doctored moment lied. <br />You <b>lie</b> with <b>orph</b>ans' <b>par</b>ents, <b>long</b> re<b>viled</b>.</span></span><br /><br /> Hand this text to someone and have them read it aloud. Notice how "reviled" sounds like a finale? This parallels the finality of the parents' death. By contrast, the second stanza uses the spondaic approach, creating a sense of lingering consequence.<br /><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: courier;">As close as coppers, yellow beans still line <br />Mapocho's banks. It leads them to the sea; <br />entwined on rocks and saplings each new vine <br />recalls that dawn in nineteen seventy three <br />when <b>ev</b>ery choking <b>bas</b>tard <b>weed grew wild</b>.</span></span><br /><br /> The stanza contains two iambs, "entwined" and "recalls", but that final line begins with, arguably, three pounding iambs ("ev'ry choking bastard"), setting up another instance of diaeresis, but the slightly less conclusive spondee, "grew wild", leaves on a more ominous note.<br /><br /> The first thing we should learn about any technique is when not to use it. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-25687368487946580432021-02-08T12:12:00.003-06:002021-02-08T12:12:51.819-06:00The Remains of the Clay<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCTzEWb7i8JfgF_27CysCC4uTaAucrDhS8YJgo4tnWv0jeTKN6FamEq7IZmgIPA3myopEkrsg8gk7xY4n0_T2oXY9wqUrdP1Nsceb5hXz18JlLUW-BT7cTcJD2JGcGCfncghFk1Lo7lsp/s1200/EtSLoP155b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCTzEWb7i8JfgF_27CysCC4uTaAucrDhS8YJgo4tnWv0jeTKN6FamEq7IZmgIPA3myopEkrsg8gk7xY4n0_T2oXY9wqUrdP1Nsceb5hXz18JlLUW-BT7cTcJD2JGcGCfncghFk1Lo7lsp/s320/EtSLoP155b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><blockquote><i>"The further a society drifts from the truth the more it will hate those who speak it."</i></blockquote><p></p><blockquote> - George Orwell</blockquote><br /><a href=" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rhetoric" target="_blank">Definition of rhetoric</a><p></p><p><br />1 : the art of speaking or writing effectively: such as<br />a : the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times<br />b : the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion<br />2a : skill in the effective use of speech<br />b : a type or mode of language or speech also : insincere or grandiloquent language<br />3 : verbal communication : discourse<br /><br /><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prose" target="_blank">Definition of prose </a></p><p>1a : the ordinary language people use in speaking or writing<br />b : a literary medium distinguished from poetry especially by its greater irregularity and variety of rhythm and its closer correspondence to the patterns of everyday speech<br />2 : a dull or ordinary style, quality, or condition<br /><br /><a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">Definition of poetry</a> </p><p>1 : verbatim speech</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnCnspncsZhR6TjS074iW5ktLeIMZaENzxL5Qa2H1ZY86mGaba-d5BCdbCzTzljTELJPC5Lo-HcBdg6cmHUPSZv_pbzptSCh-McOFfwLy1azgLYbZFOqFJX_5m2-VnEtl-NganSU55xah/s500/EtSLoP112.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="390" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUnCnspncsZhR6TjS074iW5ktLeIMZaENzxL5Qa2H1ZY86mGaba-d5BCdbCzTzljTELJPC5Lo-HcBdg6cmHUPSZv_pbzptSCh-McOFfwLy1azgLYbZFOqFJX_5m2-VnEtl-NganSU55xah/s320/EtSLoP112.jpg" /></a></div><br /> The average North American doesn't attend poetry readings or slams and it certainly doesn't buy volumes of contemporary poetry. We have been exposed to what Leonard Cohen would describe as "other forms of boredom advertised as poetry":<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLBnFk-OFc&t=19s" target="_blank">Inaugural Poem: "Praise Song for the Day"</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkSRy8SGTEE&t=28s" target="_blank">Watch Poet Richard Blanco Read the Inaugural Poem</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp9pyMqnBzk" target="_blank">Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman delivers a poem at Joe Biden's inauguration</a><br /><br /> And now we see this:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ejbSCjg2qo" target="_blank">Amanda Gorman Recites 'Chorus of the Captains' at Super Bowl LV</a><br /><br /><span style="color: #274e13;"> Today we honor our three captains for their actions and impact in a time of uncertainty and need.<br /><br /> They have taken the lead, exceeding all expectations and limitations, uplifting their communities and nation as leaders, healers, and educators. <br /><br /> James has felt the wounds of warfare but this warrior still shares his home with at-risk kids. During COVID he's even lent a hand, live-streaming football for family and fans.<br /><br /> Trimaine is an educator who works non-stop providing his community with hot spots, laptops, and tech workshops, so his students have all the tools they need to succeed in life and in school. <br /><br /> Susie is the ICU nurse manager at a Tampa hospital. Her chronicles prove that even in tragedy, hope is possible. She lost her grandmothers to the pandemic, and fights to save other lives in the ICU battle zone defining the front line heroes risking their lives for our own. <br /><br /> Let us walk with these warriors, charge on with these champions, and carry forth the call of our captains. We celebrate them by acting with courage and compassion, by doing what is right and just. <br /><br /> For while we honor them today, it is they who every day honor us.</span><br /><br /> That is it. Those are the only four 21st century "poems" that a sizeable minority, if not a majority, of North Americans have witnessed. (For what it's worth, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ecWterxtq0" target="_blank">Maya Angelou's poem from Clinton's 1993 inauguration</a> was significantly better.)<br /><br /> Whether this is prose or rhetoric and whether or not we appreciate the heartfelt sentiments, it is not being memorized and performed--"covered"--the way songs are, the way poetry was when it was alive. These pieces aren't quoted at all, let alone from memory. By our inaction you, I, and everyone else--including the author--have spoken: "None of this is poetry." The lack of mnemonics (other that some overconsonance at Biden's inauguration) shows a lack of effort and/or intent to create poetry.<br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgldSxQZc22GzXX_w58tfebII8QKR0c1Ml2XEs3POmZ__r__7PrRFGTNLGYfAqr67b6ltNWPhMtUY3fc5dhqgetJB-0JOmw1MrSIoQCVytMDURmj8JxRYtUk6M0Emea1n9jRtcxJe_0OKMD/s640/EtSLoP53.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgldSxQZc22GzXX_w58tfebII8QKR0c1Ml2XEs3POmZ__r__7PrRFGTNLGYfAqr67b6ltNWPhMtUY3fc5dhqgetJB-0JOmw1MrSIoQCVytMDURmj8JxRYtUk6M0Emea1n9jRtcxJe_0OKMD/s320/EtSLoP53.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> "But what is the harm?" one might ask of this misapprehension.<br /><br /> The next time someone tries to define poetry by its content, demanding that poetry be thought provoking or poignant, ask the person what prose authors they read. Suggesting that poetry has some monopoly on and obligation to limit itself to philosophy or romance, aside from being laughably easy to disprove, does a disservice to all of our communication. It delegitimizes the bulk of our canon: humor, biography, bawdiness, commentary, narrative, history, description, etc.<br /></p><blockquote>"Only ignorance is fatal."</blockquote><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgROAylLZM3zyhKeC4K7F7m9Xv5XvL0faimlt6hvzlx95IIPp2xdwrCqDMgGtRqd7gmEs5T9x8afU3lWpqF1qX_FjTCgpHhCgXufztcmIFhTMIdXRl2pzBdHQOVtvH20FblVlOWW8pEgGmS/s700/EtSLoP25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgROAylLZM3zyhKeC4K7F7m9Xv5XvL0faimlt6hvzlx95IIPp2xdwrCqDMgGtRqd7gmEs5T9x8afU3lWpqF1qX_FjTCgpHhCgXufztcmIFhTMIdXRl2pzBdHQOVtvH20FblVlOWW8pEgGmS/s320/EtSLoP25.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> On<a href="https://chicagocrusader.com/what-happened-on-january-6-2021/" target="_blank"> January 6th, 2021</a>, the world saw what happens when deliberate misrepresentation becomes widespread. The only defense is education and reflection, preferably in that order.<br /><br /> Find <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-preface.html" target="_blank">some words worth memorizing</a>. Carry them with you, using spare moments to learn them. Practice in a mirror. Make a video. Go to an open mic and perform them. Carry them with you for the rest of your life.<br /><br /> That is poetry.<br /><br /> The rest is wind. <br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYpgT8EwNVtCaLyfddXCpwOo1QSP13DIxjfQ__DYQoAwKSEvFOQ8uLRgG18e-N7hr0-Zcd0lyCjlQ-9VNBki2xINVYfoY2oCm-DWMCUMxyW5H4crPJCSnkptSbslEguE0DTDFWr8AOQS8x/s576/EtSLoP200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="576" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYpgT8EwNVtCaLyfddXCpwOo1QSP13DIxjfQ__DYQoAwKSEvFOQ8uLRgG18e-N7hr0-Zcd0lyCjlQ-9VNBki2xINVYfoY2oCm-DWMCUMxyW5H4crPJCSnkptSbslEguE0DTDFWr8AOQS8x/s320/EtSLoP200.jpg" /></a></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-34864273646448030402021-01-21T01:31:00.011-06:002021-01-21T10:58:11.850-06:00Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman - "The Hill We Climb"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LZ055ilIiN4" width="320" youtube-src-id="LZ055ilIiN4"></iframe></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AHJan5yEPTtGU8iAmw4DRFXg4cZ-lQAITXOzr_BugoQHvk6nuQcoiLFe8sBocXM32VITq-wkO_SZ4J1yNVD8hjhq5hrktlsA68tfGATG4ravuSN_HfHezloGn6pgcU3jUReEONtjMW8x/s500/EtSLoP112.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="390" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AHJan5yEPTtGU8iAmw4DRFXg4cZ-lQAITXOzr_BugoQHvk6nuQcoiLFe8sBocXM32VITq-wkO_SZ4J1yNVD8hjhq5hrktlsA68tfGATG4ravuSN_HfHezloGn6pgcU3jUReEONtjMW8x/s320/EtSLoP112.jpg" /></a></div><br /> 22 year old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Gorman" target="_blank">Los Angeles aspiring poet Amanda Gorman</a> was Joe Biden's choice for inaugural poet. How did she do?<br /><br /> Well, it depends on your filter. We bear in mind that, during the art form's struggle to exist during these last 50 years, the anglophone world has experienced only three poems together: "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLBnFk-OFc" target="_blank">Praise Song for the Day</a>", "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJQeBgfzVgg" target="_blank">One Today</a>", and now, ironically, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI1c-Lbd4Bw" target="_blank">The Hill We Climb</a>". To be sure, Ms. Gorman is no <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/07/grasshopper.html" target="_blank">Margaret Ann Griffiths</a>. If you're looking for performance it would be at the midpoint of your local slam, well out of the Winners' Circle but significantly better than the average print world author's reading. Amanda had practiced her delivery but still relied on text at the lectern and on teleprompters. This wasn't a random sampling of her collection. It was written for this auspicious occasion. The fact that Amanda Gorman didn't bother to memorize it speaks volumes.<br /><br /> On the one hand, it didn't work as poetry but, on the other hand, it was infinitely better than the cringeworthy efforts--if that's the right word--of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vLBnFk-OFc" target="_blank">Elizabeth Alexander</a> and <a href=" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkSRy8SGTEE" target="_blank">Richard Blanco</a>. It did contain a little word play but, all in all, it was unremarkable except for one overused (e.g. "...<span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><b>c</b>ompose a <b>c</b>ountry <b>c</b>ommitted to all <b>c</b>ultures, <b>c</b>olors, <b>c</b>haracters and <b>c</b>onditions</span>") </span>technique. At this rate we can hope that by 2040 the caliber of verse will have reached the level of [c]rap lyrics and by 2100 it could pass as a first draft on <a href="http://www.firesides.ca/onlinepoetryworkshops.htm" target="_blank">Gazebo</a>.<br /><p></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe;">When day comes we ask ourselves,<br />Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?<br />The loss we carry,<br />a sea we must wade<br />We braved the belly of the beast<br />We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace<br />And the norms and notions<br />of what just is<br />Isn’t always just-ice.<br />And yet the dawn is ours<br />before we knew it<br />Somehow we do it<br />Somehow we weathered and witnessed<br />a nation that isn’t broken<br />but simply unfinished<br />We the successors of a country and a time<br />Where a skinny black girl<br />Descended from slaves and raised by a single mother<br />Can dream of becoming president<br />Only to find herself reciting for one.<br />And yes we are far from polished<br />far from pristine<br />But that doesn’t mean that we are<br />striving to form a union that is perfect.<br />We are striving to forge our union with purpose<br />To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and<br />conditions of man.<br />And so we lift our gaze not to what stands between us<br />but what stands before us<br />We close the divide because we know to put our future first<br />We must first put our differences aside<br />We lay down our arms<br />So we can reach out our arms<br />To one another.<br />We seek harm to none and harmony for all.<br />Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:<br />That even as we grieved, we grew<br />That even as we hurt, we hoped<br />That even as we tired, we tried.<br />That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.<br />Not because we will never again know defeat<br />But because we will never again sow division.<br />Scripture tells us to envision<br />That everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree<br />And no one shall make them afraid.<br />If we’re to live up to our own time<br />Then victory won’t lie in the blade<br />But in all the bridges we’ve made<br />That is the promise to glade<br />The hill we climb<br />If only we dare.<br />Because being American is more than a pride we inherit<br />It’s the past we step into<br />And how we repair it.<br />We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation<br />Rather than share it<br />Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.<br />And this effort very nearly succeeded.<br />But while democracy can be periodically delayed,<br />it can never be permanently defeated.<br />In this truth,<br />in this faith we trust<br />For while we have our eyes on the future,<br />history has its eyes on us.<br />This is the era of just redemption.<br />We feared at its inception<br />We did not feel prepared to be the heirs<br />of such a terrifying hour<br />but within it we found the power<br />to author a new chapter.<br />To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.<br />So while we once we asked,<br />how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?,<br />Now we assert<br />How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?<br />We will not march back to what was<br />but move to what shall be.<br />A country that is bruised but whole,<br />benevolent but bold,<br />fierce and free.<br />We will not be turned around<br />or interrupted by intimidation<br />because we know our inaction and inertia<br />will be the inheritance of the next generation.<br />Our blunders become their burdens.<br />But one thing is certain;<br />If we merge mercy with might,<br />and might with right,<br />then love becomes our legacy<br />and change our children’s birthright.<br />So let us leave behind a country<br />better than the one we were left with.<br />Every breath from my bronze pounded chest,<br />we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.<br />We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,<br />We will rise from the windswept northeast<br />where our forefathers first realized revolution.<br />We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,<br />we will rise from the sunbaked south.<br />We will rebuild, reconcile and recover<br />and every known nook of our nation and<br />every corner called our country,<br />our people diverse and beautiful will emerge<br />battered and beautiful.<br />When day comes we step out of the shade,<br />aflame and unafraid,<br />The new dawn blooms as we free it.<br />For there is always light,<br />if only we’re brave enough to see it.<br />If only we’re brave enough to be it.</span><br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitotmm4cMvxfwq5WNFVYUQfw1g4tN101TMlzOAtB7kiL4JVrPGmyHqKwGwGa4MCwaT-RnfUS3pVynngsnJsHbHGIcwaUXCVYeeDhyphenhyphenKDrI0s9sP7p5BATn3gJKBa4o_jn_TXNBpXG5q8Ors/s920/EtSLoP24.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitotmm4cMvxfwq5WNFVYUQfw1g4tN101TMlzOAtB7kiL4JVrPGmyHqKwGwGa4MCwaT-RnfUS3pVynngsnJsHbHGIcwaUXCVYeeDhyphenhyphenKDrI0s9sP7p5BATn3gJKBa4o_jn_TXNBpXG5q8Ors/s320/EtSLoP24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Obviously, it needs to be cut down to about 1/8th of its length. In its current form it is rambling, self-absorbed, turgid, cliché-festooned droning with some random rhyming. It was as if Amanda had attended the class on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GzX_53e9uY" target="_blank">sonics</a> (e.g. alliteration, consonance, assonance) but skipped all of the other lectures (e.g.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yXA4OqdYLY" target="_blank"> definition</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzI946BxLGk" target="_blank">performance</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffZGNwBnXeE" target="_blank">meter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj9QEpyPr7M" target="_blank">free verse</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KJlaCYFJbM" target="_blank">rhyme schemes</a>, compression, etc.). It was a vessel for an abbreviated voyage along poetry's surface. Yes, it was Shakespeare compared to her two predecessors but that isn't saying much. It did nothing to revive any long dead interest in poetry, even--if not especially--within Amanda Gorman herself. The sudden fame won't encourage her to learn the rest of the craft.<br /><p></p><p> Mind you, it didn't clear the crowds, as Ms. Alexander's flat prose did in 2008. So there's that.<br /><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-44173453782310614212020-12-22T12:31:00.008-06:002020-12-23T02:06:12.958-06:00Melody Is Memory<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftZShD1IlnR_-6EakfNQZs2Iz-V4p2velbhg1egS4ElxPXlu-jm8ob9N3so5hiyJ3_l4amd9MzaXSffLJ6K_N3-7tQeN0_cnUtr9gWQ9XG4_g-KsXpG5RijMxSbxnZVqfQMSi1SNrBYdp/s1600/Ferron4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhftZShD1IlnR_-6EakfNQZs2Iz-V4p2velbhg1egS4ElxPXlu-jm8ob9N3so5hiyJ3_l4amd9MzaXSffLJ6K_N3-7tQeN0_cnUtr9gWQ9XG4_g-KsXpG5RijMxSbxnZVqfQMSi1SNrBYdp/s320/Ferron4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> All of us understand that poetry is a mode of speech defined by memorable words. Prosody is the science of making verses easier to recall, either through concision or repetition. Even if one were to argue that "forgettable poetry" is not an oxymoron a tautological question of relevance arises: <i>"If no one cares then who cares? If a tree falls in the forest does anybody give a damn?"</i><br /><br /> As with all speech, poetry requires an audience. The vast majority of people today cannot recite a stanza written in this millennium but can sing thousands of contemporary lyrics. As a practical matter, poetry is less a mode of speech than singing. Those concerned about adding the medium of music will bear in mind that long before the 20th century disappearance of spoken verse its most successful example was Shakespeare's theater.<br /><br /> What aspect of song penetrates our memories most efficiently? A drum beat might meet with blank stares. A chord progression might not be identified but two or three notes can spark recognition and many to sing along. Verse being a participation sport, this defines modern poetry just as "verbatim" has defined it from its inception.<br /><br /> Technically challenged poets speak vaguely of "musicality", a term that provokes cringing and eye rolls from geeks. The truth is that poetry needs more than facsimile; it requires actual music to attract an audience. (And, perhaps, a readership. Royalties from all contemporary poetry books combined wouldn't add up to those from one Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan lyric collection.) <br /><br /> Content regents and corazoners will insist that the profound and poignant will attract attention [sooner or later]. All the evidence points to a very different conclusion. Melody is everything in song and, thus, verse. Allow us to demonstrate with two piercing examples:<br /><br /><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooGZDQYbUfY" width="320" youtube-src-id="ooGZDQYbUfY"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> As with so many of her songs, "Ain't Life a Brook" (1980)
is thought provoking and heart rending. This song includes one of the
greatest throwaway phrases of the last half century. However, the rambling
melody and accentual dimeter is not something you will sing in the shower. Or remember at length.<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="color: #2b00fe;">I watch you reading a book<br />I get to thinking our love's a polished stone<br />You give me a long drawn look<br />I know pretty soon you're going to leave our home<br />And of course I mind<br />Especially when I'm thinking from my heart<br />But life don't clickety-clack down a straight line track<br />It comes together and it comes apart<br />You say you hope I'm not the kind<br />To make you feel obliged<br />To go ticking through your time<br />With a pained look in your eyes<br />You give me the furniture, we'll divide the photographs<br />Go out to dinner one more time<br />Have ourselves a bottle of wine<br />And a couple of laughs<br />And when first you left<br />I stayed so sad I wouldn't sleep<br />I know that love's a gift, I thought yours was mine<br />And something that I could keep<br />Now I realize that <b>time is not the only compromise</b><br />But a bird in the hand could be an all night stand<br />Between a blazing fire and a pocket of skies<br />So I hope I'm not the kind<br />To make you feel obliged<br />To go ticking through your time<br />With a pained look in your eyes<br />I covered the furniture, I framed the photographs<br />Went out to dinner one more time<br />Had myself a bottle of wine<br />and a couple of laughs<br />And just the other day<br />I got your letter in the mail<br />I'm happy for you, its been so long<br />You've been wanting a cabin and a backwoods trail<br />And I think that's great<br />I seem to find myself in school<br />It's all okay, I just want to say<br />I'm so relieved we didn't do it cruel<br />But ain't life a brook<br />Just when I get to feeling like a polished stone<br />I give me along drawn look<br />It's kind of a drag to find yourself alone<br />And sometimes I mind<br />Especially when I'm waiting on your heart<br />But life don't clickety-clack down a straight line track<br />It comes together and it comes apart<br />'Cause I know you're not the kind<br />To make me feel obliged<br />To go ticking through my time with a pained look<br />In my eyes<br />I sold the furniture, I put away the photographs<br />Went out to dinner one more time<br />Had myself a bottle of wine<br />Had a couple of laughs<br />And wasn't it fine</span></blockquote>
Contrast this with John Prine's child-like, tragicomic "Christmas in
Prison" (or almost any other Prine song), published in 1973:<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/00Ig33jctXs" width="320" youtube-src-id="00Ig33jctXs"></iframe></div><p></p><p><br /><br />
Prine's trademark trinaries underscore the melody, creating an
earworm. His lyrics, while evocative and moving, are not near
Ferron's in depth but we, individually and collectively, carry them into
the future far more readily and easily than Ferron's work.<br /><br /></p><blockquote><span style="color: #2b00fe;">It was Christmas in prison<br />And the food was real good<br />We had turkey and pistols<br />Carved out of wood<br />And I dream of her always<br />Even when I don't dream<br />Her name's on my tongue<br />And her blood's in my stream<br />Wait awhile eternity<br />Old mother nature's got nothing on me<br />Come to me<br />Run to me<br />Come to me, now<br />We're rolling<br />My sweetheart<br />We're flowing<br />By God<br />She reminds me of a chess game<br />With someone I admire<br />Or a picnic in the rain<br />After a prairie fire<br />Her heart is as big<br />As this whole goddamn jail<br />And she's sweeter than saccharine<br />At a drug store sale<br />Wait awhile eternity<br />Old mother nature's got nothing on me<br />Come to me<br />Run to me<br />Come to me, now<br />We're rolling<br />My sweetheart<br />We're flowing<br />By God<br />The search light in the big yard<br />Swings round with the gun<br />And spotlights the snowflakes<br />Like the dust in the sun<br />It's Christmas in prison<br />There'll be music tonight<br />I'll probably get homesick<br />I love you<br />Goodnight<br />Wait awhile eternity<br />Old mother nature's got nothing on me<br />Come to me<br />Run to me<br />Come to me, now<br />We're rolling<br />My sweetheart<br />We're flowing<br />By God</span></blockquote><p><br /> Again, the difference is prosody, yes, but mostly melody. So what can we do with this?</p><p><span style="color: #ffa400;">To be continued.</span><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-70434464171490946042020-07-27T12:43:00.004-05:002021-01-28T12:19:04.039-06:00Poetry in Three Minutes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPD3-MdRsClhHKO_DwLvHPfv6uWSgTOuVI946xU0CEi7M_wzP0t0bX_aD-vH3xa8T3sG3RU-HZDvWKl2qOVfWCsIdh7M_IaNCUAQPrYEFIt8eGQ7t8spPUnZqgs06R1BI6y8hRpD6F2jW6/s1600/EtSLoP183.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="500" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPD3-MdRsClhHKO_DwLvHPfv6uWSgTOuVI946xU0CEi7M_wzP0t0bX_aD-vH3xa8T3sG3RU-HZDvWKl2qOVfWCsIdh7M_IaNCUAQPrYEFIt8eGQ7t8spPUnZqgs06R1BI6y8hRpD6F2jW6/s200/EtSLoP183.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
This is a quick and dirty introduction to poetry basics. A slightly more comprehensive approach is "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">What You Need To Know About Poetry</a>".<br />
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You may want to pause the video in places and review each one a few times.<br />
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By clicking on the titles ("<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">Definition</a>", "<a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/07/scansion-for-beginners_31.html" target="_blank">Basic Scansion</a>", "<a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/03/sonics.html" target="_blank">Sonics</a>", "<a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/performing-poetry.html" target="_blank">Performing</a>") you can read the underlying articles for each topic. <br />
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If you have questions please feel free to post them below.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 1. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">Definition</a></h3>
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The first three minute video establishes the one word definition for poetry, regardless of epoch, culture, language, theme, genre, or form.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 2. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/07/scansion-for-beginners_31.html" target="_blank">Basic Scansion</a></h3>
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Here, one is introduced to the elements of meter.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 3. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/03/sonics.html" target="_blank">Sonics</a></h3>
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At the root of poetry is sound.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 4. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/performing-poetry.html" target="_blank">Performing</a></h3>
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The whole point of this mode of speech is performance.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 5: <a href="https://youtu.be/Gj9QEpyPr7M" target="_blank">Free Verse</a></h3>
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Free verse (not to be confused with prose poetry or prose qua poetry) and its niche.<br />
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Learning Poetry - 6. <a href="https://youtu.be/3KJlaCYFJbM" target="_blank">Rhyme</a></h3>
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The repetition of sounds in related positions. <br />
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We hope you enjoy this series and find it helpful.<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Earl Gray, Esquirrel</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-55346824408979768322020-07-09T10:55:00.000-05:002020-07-09T10:57:23.686-05:00Contexts<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfXFO6Vv1cZsKKeO242T3SckwCZ-qJ74ADxKouifnnwIsp547y5j4sidmEzeQmfhOsWEO9U-EV9X-0jRaBzQ5M0M_bGpqWEU088xoFP729SCAmrVac_O6Z5Qa19u7_fuo5RUVizAdeUXK/s1600/EtSLoP72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfXFO6Vv1cZsKKeO242T3SckwCZ-qJ74ADxKouifnnwIsp547y5j4sidmEzeQmfhOsWEO9U-EV9X-0jRaBzQ5M0M_bGpqWEU088xoFP729SCAmrVac_O6Z5Qa19u7_fuo5RUVizAdeUXK/s320/EtSLoP72.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Law of Poetry #72</td></tr>
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Even when English language poetry was alive it benefited from context. Shakespeare used plays not to change the English language, which he certainly accomplished, but to attract and entertain an audience. Contemporary dramatic poetry isn't "a thing" but there are other ways one can find listeners. In order of current and potential success these would include:<br />
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1. <span style="color: blue;">Song Lyrics</span><br />
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2. <span style="color: blue;">Humor/Parody</span><br />
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3. <span style="color: blue;">Narrational Poetry</span><br />
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4. <span style="color: blue;">Embedded Poetry</span><br />
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5. <span style="color: blue;">Occasional Poetry</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFyiB0XK0qrnJDzS_Y4O9ylRyryyhj1I71jKqfyT3HVcmzxpnXMezKtQbqQTGInKXxwqr2McJjfUrf0tNP_ZTnvYWYMvkO9Ex4rgxgXV_wMD8-UZAu28p4ZYTRjan4VbB5F2_p7ygt4LVo/s1600/EtSLoP171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFyiB0XK0qrnJDzS_Y4O9ylRyryyhj1I71jKqfyT3HVcmzxpnXMezKtQbqQTGInKXxwqr2McJjfUrf0tNP_ZTnvYWYMvkO9Ex4rgxgXV_wMD8-UZAu28p4ZYTRjan4VbB5F2_p7ygt4LVo/s200/EtSLoP171.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Law of Poetry #171</td></tr>
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If you have social media accounts, ask yourself: "How often have I Shared [on Facebook] or Retweeted [on Twitter] a stranger's contemporary poem with my [non-poet] friends?" Other than songs and jokes, that is.<br />
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We asked readers in four different active forums--novice, expert, blog, and social media--to imagine a serious poem (not song) that they might pass on to friends. No response. Not only could people not write an interesting poem, they couldn't even imagine one. This is to say that not only is English language poetry dead, but we can't envision it being alive. (N.B.: In non-anglophone demographics people cannot fathom a society where poetry is dead, a country where few can recite a stanza written this century.)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Law of Poetry #141</td></tr>
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Just as it is failed artisans who blame their tools, only failed poets will blame their audience. It is especially absurd when that audience doesn't exist. If poetry is to revive, there needs to be well crafted verses <i><b>of interest.</b></i> More than that, though, it needs to overcome the negative stereotype of what Leonard Cohen called "other forms of poetry advertised as poetry": artless ranters, corazoners, linebreakers, cryptocrappers, et cetera.<br />
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Novelists, playwrights, and journalists do not present their work as "prose". Similarly, poets need to categorize their work by genre (e.g. comedy, drama, news, political commentary, romance, sports, horror, etc.), not mode of speech (i.e. prose versus poetry).<br />
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In the coming days we hope to address ways to use context to attract--or at least to not alienate--an audience.<br />
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<h3>
What about readership?</h3>
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Poetry is a mode of speech, predating the advent of writing by millennia. People read poems with a view toward quoting, if not performing, them--in their imaginations, at the very least. Listening and reading were a chicken-and-egg scenario, but in this case hearing came first, anthropologically at the macrocosmic level and chronologically in microcosm. Reading a poem allowed us to, among other things, examine why it worked so well when we heard it.<br />
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Put simply, if there is no audience, how can their be a readership? Why would anyone want to study failure? Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-35011623893471017022020-07-04T00:33:00.001-05:002020-07-04T11:19:14.171-05:00Timely Versus Timeless<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 153rd Law</td></tr>
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Most poets keep their art and their politics separate. We have different blogs for each. Recently, a critic demanded to know why we pursue pressing issues in prose but not in poetry. It's a fair question, at least until we consider the difference between those two modes of communication. One spreads out in two dimensions, going viral as it spreads from one venue to the next. The other spreads in four dimensions, as it ascends into listener's memory and is carried verbatim into the future.<br />
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Without degrading professional standards we can write a news article in the morning, post it, and see it picked up by social or print media immediately. It is part of that 24- or 36-hour news cycle. <br />
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Prose is timely. You can get up the next morning and start all over.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 42nd Law.</td></tr>
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To write a poem worthy of the name may take, on average, a month. Find <i>le mot juste,</i> satisfying demands of sound, sense, cadence and form. Performing it may require weeks of additional practice and film editing before uploading it to, say, YouTube. Once presented, it needs to build an audience, one who can quote it on appropriate occasions. Were poetry alive, this may take another month. Given current reality, it may take a generation or more before enough listeners can inspire enough other listeners to hear and absorb your verses. Once they do, you will have a demographic affected by your words, one that might pass them on to future generations.<br />
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In any event, a poem about the current state of public affairs won't have an impact until well after the next election, if ever. If it does, though, it can cease and go on preventing inequities forever.<br />
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Poetry is timeless, even though its effect might not begin until long after your final sunrise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-79614836738212114502020-06-29T12:17:00.001-05:002020-06-29T12:22:28.380-05:00Anti-Aesthetics<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you've ever turned on a television or radio you will know that beauty sells, regardless of whether it has significant content or not. If you add up the successes of prose with linebreaks--all none of them--you will see that even the most profound thought disguised as poetry fools no one. One might think this would be self-evident: those bright enough to appreciate the subtleties of meaning would certainly be clever enough to know that these can be obtained elsewhere with infinitely more artistry. Thus, there is no audience (not only due to the lack of rhythm or sonic appeal) and readership is limited to those trying to <i>sell,</i> not necessarily <i>buy,</i> musings of similar "quality". <br />
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Even with $253,000,000+ behind them, the Poetry Foundation, established in 2003, hasn't produced a single poem that you, I, or others have found memorable--certainly not one with any performance appeal. You can't buy readers, let alone listeners. How many times have you seen anyone quote from a poem in Poetry Magazine this century?<br />
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There is a Goth aspect to <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2015/04/postmodernism.html" target="_blank">postmodernism</a>. It isn't merely devoid of aesthetic merit, as one expects from anyone too lazy to study prosody. It is <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/05/convenient-poetics.html" target="_blank">Convenient Poetics</a> on steroids. Incapable of beauty, the purveyors of cryptocrap become imbued with a puritanical fervor against it.<br />
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It is as if envy became a virtue, failure a sacrament.<br />
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Very strange.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-25400843181836171652020-06-26T11:27:00.001-05:002020-06-30T14:34:29.849-05:00The Boring and the Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Traditionally, one way to mock a poem was to read it (often in what we now call "poet voice") aloud. This was a way of saying that the words were neither memorizable nor worthy of memorization--in short, that they didn't constitute poetry <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">by any useful definition</a>. Today, parody has met practice as poets are caught on camera, in public, reading their own work. To be clear, these are not works in process. These weren't handed to the poet minutes before going onstage. And the poets didn't all suffer some catastrophic illness or accident that deprived them of short term memory. We're talking laziness and lack of craft. This being poetry's "norm" is proof of morbidity. Audiences don't object because there are no audiences.<br />
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Naturally, poetry editors, publishers and promoters can't accept this truth, even to the point of denying it. After all, it undermines everything they're trying to do. However, we can hardly cooperate in reanimating something without acknowledging that it is, in fact, dead. (We'll discuss how page poets and outlets will benefit from stage poets in future posts.)<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: red;">Consider this albeit perverse view</span></h3>
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You don't need to be a gardener to know that annuals die each winter. Perhaps this was an Ice Age for poetry. Can this be spring? For an individual, this could be a "glass half full" opportunity. The few great poets are retired and/or unknown to the public, the few that are recognized aren't poets, and virtually no one, least of all the authors themselves, can perform the stuff. The path is wide open for anyone who knows the craft and can do <i>or network with those who can do</i> the three P's: Performance, Presentation (e.g. videos), and Promotion. Note that, with the Internet in general, YouTube in particular, we have a facility humankind has never had: the ease of individuals to find a global reception not just for text and still pictures (e.g. photos, paintings, graphics) but for video as well. <b>We can <i>talk</i> to the world!</b><br />
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It being a mode of speech, poetry needs to be performed. Not read. Would you watch a movie where the characters read from scripts? Or woodenly from prompters? And, no, we're not talking about equally unmodulated slammers screaming and gesticulating wildly for three solid minutes. We're talking performance, something so rare that we have to re-use the same examples over and over again.<br />
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To illustrate, compare Andy Garcia's performance of "The Goring and the Death" from Federico Garcia Lorca's "Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" to <a href="https://www.cityartsmagazine.com/stop-using-poet-voice/" target="_blank">the dreaded "poet voice"</a> we know all to well: <br />
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Brace yourself for Gregory Orr reading "Gathering the Bones":<br />
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William Ernest Henley's "Invictus", written in 1875, published in "Book of Verses" under "Life and Death (Echoes)", 1888:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Out of the night that covers me,<br /> Black as the pit from pole to pole,<br />I thank whatever gods may be<br /> For my unconquerable soul.<br /><br />In the fell clutch of circumstance<br /> I have not winced nor cried aloud.<br />Under the bludgeonings of chance<br /> My head is bloody, but unbowed.<br /><br />Beyond this place of wrath and tears<br /> Looms but the Horror of the shade,<br />And yet the menace of the years<br /> Finds and shall find me unafraid.<br /><br />It matters not how strait the gate,<br /> How charged with punishments the scroll,<br />I am the master of my fate,<br /> I am the captain of my soul.</span><br />
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Consider this appearance by Morgan Freeman on the Charlie Rose show when they discuss Nelson Mandala.<br />
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Rewind a few hundred times over the moment at the :38 second mark where Morgan laughs and gives a doleful look at Charlie Rose's offer of the poem's text. Note how incredulous the host is that a person--an award winning professional actor, no less--can actually [gasp!] recite a classic 16 line poem from memory.<br />
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Charlie shows us how dead English poetry is.<br />
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Morgan shows us how it can be reincarnated.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-13660083624124625962020-06-21T16:14:00.002-05:002020-06-30T14:55:25.194-05:00The State of the Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We begin by apologizing to Divya Victor for singling out "<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/153532/locution-location" target="_blank">Locution/Location</a>" from all the other vacuous dreck being put out today. We choose this sample because even its preface is pretensious nonsense:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This is what writing is: I one language, I another language, and between the two, the line that makes them vibrate; writing? forms a passageway between two shores.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
—Hélène Cixous, “Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing”</blockquote>
This one seems to be about the weighty issue surrounding the pronunciation of the letter "H". We won't need more than the first strophe to make our point:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">She sings the letters<br />to my daughter, strings them<br />marigolds into garlands<br />in the order of the alphabet<br />E, F, G, she<br />tugs the haitch, taut and long<br />far from the breast, a letter<br />the length of a coast, the width<br />of a gull’s caw, she now carries<br />the haitch like I will carry the gurney<br />later, weightless<br />hammer<br />of feather<br />the letters swim with the orange petals<br />around & around<br />her, child & crone<br />milkflesh holme, mouthly<br />smelling of talc and gooseberry</span><br />
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No one, least of all the author, would bother to memorize this word salad, let alone perform it. Were anyone to do so the audience would look at them like pigs in "The Commissar's Report", as if to ask "Why are you inflicting this on us?" One would look like a jackass. Hence the "poetry reading", which doesn't involve the presenter looking listeners in the eye. It is, in every sense, the antipodal opposite of poetry.<br />
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Contrast <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfcYxK2e-WE" target="_blank">the typical poetry reading</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFEodlb1xJQ" target="_blank">Christopher Plummer's performance of "Brown Penny"</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats" target="_blank">William Butler Yeats</a>.<br />
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What is the upshot of this lack of exposure to good performance, let alone good contemporary writing?<br />
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Recently, we posted this challenge here, in a [novice] showcase group, and in a gathering of most of the world's top poets and editors:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Describe a poem that Facebookers would Share.</b> </blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
No one could visualize such a thing. Not only could they not recall a time they Shared or Retweeted any verse themselves, they could not envision what such a piece would look like. </blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thus, not only is poetry dead, but none of us can imagine it being alive.</blockquote>
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Think about that for a while.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-64880096598856705572020-06-14T12:43:00.002-05:002020-06-14T13:11:21.598-05:00How Long Does Poetry Take?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5pVR0OgvK5_vIujXLCYOM-jpr166a5lXabr0tjXN6dfZyaPSki0w192JLfcXFr24rDg91Dob9s074rDc0_cSSkVA4eqT1fI1A3K8xjBSaa1LWgKRSUi_wV42dn3Oc7G7hJGBTMvssCBJ/s1600/ConvenientPoetics13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5pVR0OgvK5_vIujXLCYOM-jpr166a5lXabr0tjXN6dfZyaPSki0w192JLfcXFr24rDg91Dob9s074rDc0_cSSkVA4eqT1fI1A3K8xjBSaa1LWgKRSUi_wV42dn3Oc7G7hJGBTMvssCBJ/s320/ConvenientPoetics13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
How long does brain surgery take if you know absolutely nothing about medicine? Use a club to knock the patient unconscious, drill through the skull, root around until you find something that looks out of place, rip it out, close the wound, and you're done! As is the patient, but no one said anything about <i>successful</i> brain surgery, right?<br />
<br />
Newcomers often ask how long it takes to write a poem. It can take forever but, generally speaking, the answer depends on how good the poet and poem are. Poor poets produce dreck at breakneck speeds. Their process involves far fewer steps.<br />
<br />
Jotting down an outline can take minutes. A newcomer may now say: "Voilà! We're done!" First thought, best though, right? Time to find an unsuspecting reader... <br />
<br />
A slightly less raw neophyte might take the rest of the day to produce a draft. (Note we didn't write "a first draft".) Then they're done.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVuTIyQxqxUYZTSe_3_LxXhP-zktvDkk7YLxNe3K8dOP5iGBVTG7oWL3JHuGhM6MSnURYZEaedEDi1fnnrZ0R4Q1i3vT8ESYXV2fhvwKzC4Z8T3sf2r-K6pdWKPGMoowGuTSM1gAHM4PpQ/s1600/EtSLoP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="851" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVuTIyQxqxUYZTSe_3_LxXhP-zktvDkk7YLxNe3K8dOP5iGBVTG7oWL3JHuGhM6MSnURYZEaedEDi1fnnrZ0R4Q1i3vT8ESYXV2fhvwKzC4Z8T3sf2r-K6pdWKPGMoowGuTSM1gAHM4PpQ/s320/EtSLoP2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
If writing for the "publish or perish" academic crowd the journey is a little longer. One has to inject some clever, original phrases. <a href="https://www.youngwriterssociety.com/poem_firstline.php" target="_blank">A random text generator</a> can help find the perfectly baffling modifier or metaphor. One or two of these per poem should suffice. Thus, we can finish in a weekend and ship the end product off to Poetry magazine or our university press. <br />
<br />
Because it has to have objective merit, technical verse will take weeks--a month if free verse. There is a trick to this: <b>Do the sonics before the rhythm.</b> Choose soft sounds for reflection, harsh ones for drama, and repeat them (as assonance, consonance, alliteration, or rhyme) as appropriate. Attend to cadence last, either in meter or in rhythm strings (which distinguish free verse from prose [poetry]).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhue-7n1x1MW_aAtWMYxNuXd2a1QHTLsl5SCGsZJtaLbHSLX09-S5oQzmxNyXURVrVNzAsLsxp4eQZTjmNoTHZYkNZXySjgiwPs43dykYgY-VHsKTT-AAyO6RaWlyG9knOXMMxq1C4fCMMa/s1600/EtSLoP154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="460" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhue-7n1x1MW_aAtWMYxNuXd2a1QHTLsl5SCGsZJtaLbHSLX09-S5oQzmxNyXURVrVNzAsLsxp4eQZTjmNoTHZYkNZXySjgiwPs43dykYgY-VHsKTT-AAyO6RaWlyG9knOXMMxq1C4fCMMa/s320/EtSLoP154.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
At this point, what you have might <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Nemerov_Sonnet_Award" target="_blank">win a Nemerov</a> but it won't draw a crowd. Why not? Because we've forgotten that poetry is a mode of <b><i>speech.</i></b> We need to gear it for an audience, not a readership. We must perform it (or find someone who can and will). This usually means memorizing it and practicing our presentation. We have to sound natural, performing rather than reciting. And certainly <i><b>not reading.</b></i><br />
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At no point onstage can we look up and to the right, a telltale sign than we're trying to recall something. This is vital, since our eyes must be free to search the audience for hints of waxing or waning interest. If the people at an open mic are leaning forward and shushing those around them, we have them. (This, incidentally, is the greatest feeling in human experience.) If, on the other hand, we see them slouching backward and whispering to each other we have work to do.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXKZgIvwUHN2ufG_zy1heiWZ6n9pNyPCKFebewKOFVGMYtYpeFFAP5xsUHb408Y55G5-LSvqxaxFFvFaiaRHDjv1H5OdhSCNElPrdHj4GKxoTclfgWqvqrA_MEGD-sg2ZR_0BneGBzmiq/s1600/Authors1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="616" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinXKZgIvwUHN2ufG_zy1heiWZ6n9pNyPCKFebewKOFVGMYtYpeFFAP5xsUHb408Y55G5-LSvqxaxFFvFaiaRHDjv1H5OdhSCNElPrdHj4GKxoTclfgWqvqrA_MEGD-sg2ZR_0BneGBzmiq/s320/Authors1.jpeg" width="319" /></a></div>
Once we have something worth showing the world the final step is to create a video and post it to a public forum such as YouTube or Vimeo. We will address the basics of this process in a subsequent blog. <br />
<br />
With talent, education, practice, inspiration, and some luck, an actual poet can often finish a work in two months.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-12225027192307366902020-06-12T11:59:00.002-05:002020-06-12T12:07:32.361-05:00Poetry, Politics, and Money<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkIhbC4NpfKZSOuuqu7R-2G_MMrZUunt9IEctu8Algw-IApTsamOj3tOPJXQxgIb-BrOqOifW6DXQdki6X9SrDb-0p_lzoqHnaC7nCzWml8PXisP_At-QS73r2wEUlRTTnzOZRoINepR-/s1600/EtSLoP171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOkIhbC4NpfKZSOuuqu7R-2G_MMrZUunt9IEctu8Algw-IApTsamOj3tOPJXQxgIb-BrOqOifW6DXQdki6X9SrDb-0p_lzoqHnaC7nCzWml8PXisP_At-QS73r2wEUlRTTnzOZRoINepR-/s320/EtSLoP171.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Multiculturalism is vital to poetry because it is virtually impossible for an anglophone to imagine a world where poetry is alive, just as others cannot envision a world where it isn't." - EG</blockquote>
Contemporary English language poetry is a cautionary tale.<br />
<br />
On June 10th, 2020, Chicago Tribune writer Jennifer Day reported: "<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/ct-books-poetry-foundation-resignations-0610-20200610-275aaxe26fctbczxhdvx7jizg4-story.html" target="_blank">Poetry Foundation president, board chair resign after open letter demands more in wake of Black Lives Matter protests</a>."<br />
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The Republican dominated Poetry Foundation put out <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/press/153832/a-message-to-our-community-contributors" target="_blank">a statement in sympathy with the Black Lives Matter protests</a>:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Poetry Foundation and Poetry magazine stand in solidarity with the Black community, and denounce injustice and systemic racism.<br />
<br />
As an organization we recognize that there is much work to be done, and we are committed to engaging in this work to eradicate institutional racism. We acknowledge that real change takes time and dedication, and we are committed to making this a priority. <br />
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We believe in the strength and power of poetry to uplift in times of despair, and to empower and amplify the voices of this time, this moment.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12B9cYm8vmX9FH1NoAWm1NVw7NMeJlog_0N8nyRKXedgZOJx9khcO9MHX76VjdNTMPZcih3YxwAnuRBs05etGVW9-N3MtUxdvth76-Ewu09lhU_qWD3aFmhlZgM-ogWDCCUIXzKSry0pa/s1600/EtSLoP149.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="600" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12B9cYm8vmX9FH1NoAWm1NVw7NMeJlog_0N8nyRKXedgZOJx9khcO9MHX76VjdNTMPZcih3YxwAnuRBs05etGVW9-N3MtUxdvth76-Ewu09lhU_qWD3aFmhlZgM-ogWDCCUIXzKSry0pa/s320/EtSLoP149.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Hardly inflammatory. Nevertheless, these words were treated as tepid crocodile tears by just about every linebreaker who'd ever contributed to Poetry Magazine: <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4u5Ns8Blz0gutuanOHF6I026Xi0dE9lT36HQtg5pDKeT5uQ/viewform" target="_blank">Letter to the Poetry Foundation from Fellows + Programmatic Partners</a><br />
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This sentence was of particular interest to us:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Ultimately, we dream of a world in which there are more sustainable ways for poets to support themselves</b> that do not require them to engage with institutions that may not share their values.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIGUIxBOi4VrWbSfbT_Fkotn9Pyckmx3yjMJQYHor_ONJREGc2txey2zLXY-tWVYUgLXWcATLJjbDpl57r62dnp0NNz5ni3VrBxb28G_l_xF3cQjOyQtoMFDw4ojcDE0xfoKRwDaGdw3c/s1600/EtSLoP149b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="575" data-original-width="767" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIGUIxBOi4VrWbSfbT_Fkotn9Pyckmx3yjMJQYHor_ONJREGc2txey2zLXY-tWVYUgLXWcATLJjbDpl57r62dnp0NNz5ni3VrBxb28G_l_xF3cQjOyQtoMFDw4ojcDE0xfoKRwDaGdw3c/s320/EtSLoP149b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We could have lived without the politicalization after "themselves". Why should viable artists have to engage with any institution?<br />
<br />
Other than co-sponsoring "<a href="https://www.poetryoutloud.org/https://www.poetryoutloud.org/" target="_blank">Poetry Out Loud</a>", which the Foundation seeds with poems that have zero performance value, it's hard to see what interest these people have in promoting this mode of speech. The letter continues:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Ultimately, we dream of a world in which the massive wealth hoarding that underlies the Foundation’s work would be replaced by the redistribution of every cent to those</b> whose labor amassed those funds.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikLzLbg5q6tTW3N8jk4tpfKcMwB6JfW6hPsr8mDF-vrmwfg88y5J56cDYRW6MY86JAKwovJrzd6szKRLxvPiTbBPlIesPnykJnm7EQl6N9XxDdj42dTYaePdQDCsoNPfZmW_JTWPNgY21I/s1600/EtSLoP139.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikLzLbg5q6tTW3N8jk4tpfKcMwB6JfW6hPsr8mDF-vrmwfg88y5J56cDYRW6MY86JAKwovJrzd6szKRLxvPiTbBPlIesPnykJnm7EQl6N9XxDdj42dTYaePdQDCsoNPfZmW_JTWPNgY21I/s320/EtSLoP139.jpg" width="238" /></a></div>
They had me until the last five words. If only they had finished with "<b>dedicated to poetry promotion and education</b>." That the Foundation is still financially stable is not a problem. (What should we expect from an organization run by a banker?)<br />
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An educator would put a poetry primer into the hands of every student in America. A promoter would insinuate poetry into movies, television shows, and bars from the Keys to the Aleutians. A networker would create discussions among poets, actors, songwriters, musicians, playwrights, web designers, governments, venue owners, and all other associated entities.<br />
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$253,000,000?<br />
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The mind boggles.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-69683190094996603332020-06-08T22:25:00.002-05:002020-07-31T15:19:04.725-05:00So, You Want to be Published<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJq3RVc31bMyhvv_8FYJSod-O-wMwNcyOP3vtpbGjMo2JO8co5EGK08ueIFzUKd51l372mrSzJv2viOS5915pk41oIU1XQDhVC3rmS4jloQtasomm1IJ5Y3igHj4cyzvWY5hMDQpUOI8_1/s1600/EtSLoP18.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="724" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJq3RVc31bMyhvv_8FYJSod-O-wMwNcyOP3vtpbGjMo2JO8co5EGK08ueIFzUKd51l372mrSzJv2viOS5915pk41oIU1XQDhVC3rmS4jloQtasomm1IJ5Y3igHj4cyzvWY5hMDQpUOI8_1/s320/EtSLoP18.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
Rule #1: Don't!</h3>
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It is like a Catch-22. The fact that you're reading about how to go get published proves that it is too early for you.<br />
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It is important to understand that there is little or no recompense involved here. Glory? The only people reading your words will be others curious about what kind of stuff they have to write in order to be published there themselves. Bear in mind, too, that there are thousands of poetry magazines and webzines sharing very few readers. <br />
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There is also the small matter of poetry's condition. How many living poets can you name? More to the point, how many do you think even 1% of the population can name?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpEMCgZ1z5EK66Jpy3Gw7p4jxVLTPoXFx5x_ceBMsZtI7mu5s8wHUBZHT_tYqw8Y6UuZwxNN0eifbVnUFHq6BUCe2p1TBLe7nOKABtkPBojLbg2vsppmZjm6eE15Ra0BjO8Th5kR4w5uZ/s1600/EtSLoP35.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1314" data-original-width="1500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpEMCgZ1z5EK66Jpy3Gw7p4jxVLTPoXFx5x_ceBMsZtI7mu5s8wHUBZHT_tYqw8Y6UuZwxNN0eifbVnUFHq6BUCe2p1TBLe7nOKABtkPBojLbg2vsppmZjm6eE15Ra0BjO8Th5kR4w5uZ/s320/EtSLoP35.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
With neither fortune nor fame in the mix, is there a downside to being published? Certainly! Editors almost always want "first serial rights", such that, while it might be used in a future collection, future magazine editors are unlikely to want that work. Worse yet, if you were foolish enough to use your real name, publications could cause problems for you in the future. As you improve, you might get more and more ambitious in your submissions. Your chances won't be enhanced by future editors web searching your name and finding your rawest pieces. Meanwhile, prospective employers and other business contacts might not like what they see when they Google you in the future.<br />
<br />
"Okay, then I'll publish a book."<br />
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See Rule #1. If you self-publish you will, at least, retain distributional control. This is to say that you can bury the product later, when you have produced better offerings. After foisting a few dozen copies on friends and family, the lesson shouldn't cost you more than a few thousand dollars--less if you use LuLu.<br />
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Planning a book is not just wrong, it's exactly wrong. As they say, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Instead of trying to fill a volume with, say, fifty mediocre poems, try to produce one stunning critically acclaimed masterpiece. Think quality, not quantity. Bear in mind that, aside from the players' parents, no one wants to watch Pop Warner football when they could be watching the NFL. You will be competing against the best poets in the world. It is important to view this as challenging more than daunting.<br />
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<br />
<h3>
How to Produce a Stunning Critically Acclaimed Masterpiece</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWQwFolz0geoWYwGl8DU3geHwdzjntnIR4yXkR6BvTV7OvtF3cmaH0ieXThCyPeWWsO_21Szm4IC60g8wJkIgSExZVSqENe4-1wA8WzWlxdxflyJ5Gg0p-1FCz6ALZ4-0Bu6mPIbly52Aa/s1600/EtSLoP28.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="544" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWQwFolz0geoWYwGl8DU3geHwdzjntnIR4yXkR6BvTV7OvtF3cmaH0ieXThCyPeWWsO_21Szm4IC60g8wJkIgSExZVSqENe4-1wA8WzWlxdxflyJ5Gg0p-1FCz6ALZ4-0Bu6mPIbly52Aa/s320/EtSLoP28.jpeg" width="304" /></a></div>
<br />
1. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">Learn the craft.</a><br />
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You don't make it into the National Hockey League by skating on your ankles. Craft might not help so much with editors, few of whom have studied it themselves, but it will capture the attention of geeks--any one of whom can create a buzz for you if suitably impressed--and listeners.<br />
<br />
2. Respect the craft.<br />
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If you don't <b>know</b> whether "The Red Wheel Barrow" is free verse or metrical you can learn. Start now.<br />
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If you don't <i><b>care</b></i> whether "The Red Wheel Barrow" is free verse or metrical you can't learn. Stop now.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
3. Poetry is a mode of speech.<br />
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Not writing. Never, ever let anyone see you reading poetry--especially your own--aloud from a script. That would be tantamount to announcing that nothing you write should be taken seriously, even by you.<br />
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It follows that you must either perform it or attract the attention of those who can.<br />
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<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/phaIklEphSM/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/phaIklEphSM?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
4. Say what you need to say.<br />
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And nothing more. Ideally, it should be something small that could unfold to something different, something bigger. Avoid clichés and well-worn themes. Use original language to conjure up something interesting.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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5. Never, ever describe what you're doing as "poetry". <br />
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The idea is to attract listeners, not to repel them. Choose words that people will not only want to hear, but to remember. Verbatim. Let the audience decide what to call and how to treat your offerings.<br />
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6. We need to develop performance, multimedia and social media skills or network with those who have them.<br />
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By far, the most likely way for an individual to reach a large audience is to have a YouTube video go viral. Here is where technique can mean everything.<br />
<br />
7. Avoid any mention of hearts, souls, the abyss, or other overwrought abstractions. <br />
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And shards. <br />
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Especially shards.<br />
<br />
8. Know that you have "arrived" when strangers quote you.<br />
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9. Avoid Seinfeldian ("So what?") poems. <br />
<br />
<h3>
If You Insist</h3>
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<br />
If impatient or overconfident, here are some pointers:<br />
<br />
Do a web search of outlets or go to "<a href="https://www.pw.org/literary_magazines" target="_blank">Poets & Writers - Literary Magazines</a>". Look for what seems a suitable venue and then research it. Make sure the outlet is still in operation. Check out their reading period.<br />
<br />
<br />
What kind of content do they like? As long as it isn't a diary entry, one can wow editors with succinct plotlines that end with an intriguing twist. If not too self-conscious, a clever turn of phrase can help. Humor always sells. Avoid propaganda unless willing to severely limit your options. <br />
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Academia is a different market entirely. University presses are a slam dunk if you can claim to be an alumnus and/or can fit in enough literary allusions to keep scholars annotating for hours on end, along with enough dead ends to keep interpreters guessing for decades.<br />
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Whatever your expectations are, lower them.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-1245876808555089572020-05-27T13:49:00.002-05:002020-05-27T14:10:36.484-05:00A Third Mode of Speech Discovered!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the beginning there was prose. Its purpose was to convey information: either truth and/or useful fiction (e.g. sagas, myths, fables, et cetera). Argument and opinion soon followed.<br />
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Later, poetry was developed to preserve words in memory.<br />
<br />
Not until this century did a third mode of speech appear.<br />
<br />
<h3>
LieJacking</h3>
<br />
This new meta-category is the opposite of both previous modes. It is used exclusively for diversion and obfuscation, if not outright mendacity, and/or for useless blather. Even as it is being uttered, both speaker and listeners seem to be putting in considerable effort to forget it. <br />
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The intent is not to follow a subject, or even to change it, but to kidnap the conversation away from any modicum of coherence or relevance. It is not merely some nascent form of <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-rise-of-cryptocrap.html" target="_blank">cryptocrap</a>. It is not just the illiterati's attempt at postmodernism. It is the verbal equivalent of anti-matter.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"...you've neglected the basic need of making sense."<br />
<br />
- Margaret Ann Griffiths (Eratosphere, 09-21-2007)</blockquote>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-46122829201528170262020-05-26T21:56:00.003-05:002020-05-27T12:05:36.198-05:00Great Audiences<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"To have great poets, there must be great audiences."</blockquote>
Walt Whitman said a mouthful here. This has been true for as long as humankind has had language, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language" target="_blank">100,000 years by conservative estimates</a>. In preliterate societies audiences defined poetry itself as being whatever was preserved verbatim; that which was left behind was prose.<br />
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Because of this, audiences developed mnemonics to help the tribe preserve its culture in poetry. Indeed, prosody might be humanity's first science.<br />
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Skipping forward to today, a novice on a showcase site wondered if it were possible for an unschooled individual to create a noteworthy poem. This is a variation on the venerated question:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Can 100 monkeys on 100 typewriters for 100 years produce Shakespeare?"</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
The answer is "Yes" but, by my calculation, someone who doesn't know an anapest from Budapest or diaeresis from diarrhea will win two lotteries before producing a remarkable poem. Even if they could, another classic cliché raises its head:<br />
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"If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?"<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/13KUZ53NWq0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/13KUZ53NWq0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
Without one of those great audience members Whitman spoke about, the answer will be "No". Without these "bird dogs", the few efforts worth preserving may be overlooked. For example, two of the great poems of this century were created by newcomers. When "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-how-aimee.html" target="_blank">How Aimée remembers Jaguar</a>" was posted to a critical forum one critic said: "Change nothing." Years later, when an editor asked if that critic could help him out of a dry spell the latter pulled a well worn hardcopy of that poem out of his back pocket.<br />
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As fortuitous as that was, "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-there-are.html" target="_blank">There are Sunflowers in Italy</a>" only drew attention after it was translated into English. Without that, we might never have seen one of the century's great sentences (describing the poetry mentor languishing in prison before, it seems, his execution):<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">You wrote your verses<br />with your veins,<br />cold against the wall.</span><br />
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Something to remember the next time we're tempted to complain about critics!<br />
<br />
<br />
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We end on a stark note: There can be no "great audiences" in print, or in a population that doesn't learn <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">the rudiments of poetry</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-46157590953272367242020-05-24T11:17:00.002-05:002020-05-27T00:55:40.524-05:00The Rise of CryptoCrap<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHkAmV10l653tj0xpA5aLy0FjXb9sM3D5Ux_ZA7AtJXKsGK1IOS3ky1FOLEk1tpaVci4pL9tzH_XvdX18t28jaVsjZ50IVrpKorX3EUefI4BE8EKa2MRJVJWwuCzQy4OFZfcbnpzC4_zB/s1600/EtSLoP2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="851" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOHkAmV10l653tj0xpA5aLy0FjXb9sM3D5Ux_ZA7AtJXKsGK1IOS3ky1FOLEk1tpaVci4pL9tzH_XvdX18t28jaVsjZ50IVrpKorX3EUefI4BE8EKa2MRJVJWwuCzQy4OFZfcbnpzC4_zB/s200/EtSLoP2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 2nd Law</td></tr>
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Half a century ago grade six students were taught basic scansion, meaning that they understood the elements of poetry better than most English PhDs today. Because these college graduates cannot speak, let alone authoritatively, about the rudiments of verse, they need to focus on interpretation instead of intrinsic merit.<br />
<br />
This gave us obscure texts which professors could waste entire semesters "analyzing". It has become a co-dependency, a causation spiral of incoherence and tenuous inference. It spawned two generations of "experts" with no knowledge of or interest in learning <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">the definition</a>, let alone <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">the elements</a>, of poetry. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 77th Law.</td></tr>
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CryptoCrap was born out of the ashes of poetry's funeral pyre. It was the perfect solution: easy to produce, easy to find, impossible to define. One could, for example, use software to translate it back and forth into foreign languages until the syntax was sufficient distorted to call it "postmodern poetry". The fact that it had no artistic, entertainment, technical, performance, or educative value didn't seem a problem. That no one, including the author, bothered to perform it was lost on prose mongers, as was the existence of poetry as a mode of speech. Magazines and English teachers had an infinite, ready supply of word puzzles to ponder, disseminate, and discuss. It was easy for pseudointellectuals too lazy to learn whether "The Red Wheelbarrow" is <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">free verse or metrical</a> to "philosophize" endlessly about its meaning. (<b>Hint:</b> It is not "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Wheelbarrow" target="_blank">written in a brief, haiku-like free-verse form</a>.") This passed for "literary criticism": an absurd notion that arid brain droppings are inherently superior to adolescent heart farts.<br />
<br />
Disinterested readers saw through this pretense and gave up on poetry (other than song lyrics). Yes, the majority of poetry geeks are still academics but they are an endangered subspecies of literary scholars. In truth, the average English teacher or professor today probably couldn't conduct a lesson without descending into annotation. (<b>Pro Tip:</b> Get your students involved by scanning their favorite songs.)<br />
<br />
As always, the antidotes to gaslighting remain <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/01/ten-steps-to-writing-poetry.html#comment-form" target="_blank">education and reason</a>.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl's 186th Law.</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-24860847206220109542020-05-17T22:35:00.000-05:002020-05-18T13:41:11.161-05:00"Why don't people read or 'Like' my poetry?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3>
<span style="color: red;">Terminal Diaeresis</span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSaA7qwfxh7FDricsPzliSOkxEyc06UbKAQerJ36JrgRG_alqDJAldcdKPg_aekqGHip0nNAJwcJkPBfQLT7ujqKcLipYJ5UMbAN1FhwX_p32POHWUZZxBn-7Q7l6bxyTrxDlYeyb_tIb/s1600/EtSLoP183.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="500" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbSaA7qwfxh7FDricsPzliSOkxEyc06UbKAQerJ36JrgRG_alqDJAldcdKPg_aekqGHip0nNAJwcJkPBfQLT7ujqKcLipYJ5UMbAN1FhwX_p32POHWUZZxBn-7Q7l6bxyTrxDlYeyb_tIb/s320/EtSLoP183.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Newcomers often ask: "Why don't people read or 'Like' my poetry?"<br />
<br />
It's not like others are every bit as fascinated by the autobiographies, diary entries, and yearnings of strangers as you are. Or aren't interested in chatting and being sociable. Or that poems and poets could focus on something more distant than our navels. Heresy! <br />
<br />
It's not like you are asking for a significant investment on the part of a reader. They skim a few lines, say something appreciative and encouraging, then they move on. What's the problem?<br />
<br />
"So why are people ignoring my posts? It's not like there is a competition going on here, right?"<br />
<br />
There may be any number of reasons unrelated to the work itself. Everyone has their favorites, preferring them to unknowns. Power politics may be in play, with others flattering those they feel may be able to help them. There may be a quid pro quo playing out, with pairs trading favorable evaluations. Styles may form alliances, with contributors of like mind supporting a group philosophy or aesthetic.<br />
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Aside from these human foibles, there is a good chance that some of the contributors are using tricks. Dirty, underhanded tricks! And not even new ones! Some of these go back centuries or millennia--even to the beginnings of language!<br />
<br />
These sneaky subterfuges come in two categories: brevity (no wasted words!) and repetition. The latter can involve anything from whole choruses and lines ("repetends") to sounds (e.g. rhyme, assonance, consonance, alliteration) and rhythms (e.g. iambs: de DUM de DUM; the beats of a song, etc.). It's as if these people are trying to get people to not only <i>notice</i> their words but to <i>remember</i> them as well. Weird.<br />
<br />
To show what extent these bastards will go to, let us look at an extreme, admittedly obscure example. Hand this stanza from DPK's "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-beans.html" target="_blank">Beans</a>" to someone and ask them to read it aloud to you:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO_L2qsYQzfCwD6qReXBr-e6FX0d46yvk9O56EabSJh-pFEWAdLAACGy1fcXDnybPZHJkPJVI5LcpKR_afnMAg5aeSQrHPTsmxSXZvlzaGZ7vn53YZf47kc0msL6r_axa_HFoE4k64zhiS/s1600/EtSLoP151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="536" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO_L2qsYQzfCwD6qReXBr-e6FX0d46yvk9O56EabSJh-pFEWAdLAACGy1fcXDnybPZHJkPJVI5LcpKR_afnMAg5aeSQrHPTsmxSXZvlzaGZ7vn53YZf47kc0msL6r_axa_HFoE4k64zhiS/s320/EtSLoP151.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: blue;">September came like winter's<br />ailing child but<br />left us<br />viewing Valparaiso's pride. Your face was<br />always saddest when you smiled. You smiled as every<br />doctored moment lied. You lie with<br />orphans' parents, long<br />reviled.</span><br />
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Listen to the rhythm of those stressed syllables. Ask them to read it to you a second time.<br />
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Do you hear how final that last word seems? How it sounds like a triumphant "Ta Da!" at the end of a performance?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiay0LMlNRDO9Ec6joqXps5HwBe7NElKJdoHVN9gElHkHSUQ3pjk_QCeLsWhR6f4SS7M2QjPygwXoW_U8L6nAW3ILmkZm7_nh6E5DUFHdkctMshpQl0Shro36Gh9g9oU9mtQ4DU4B5HR8F4/s1600/EtSLoP173.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="717" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiay0LMlNRDO9Ec6joqXps5HwBe7NElKJdoHVN9gElHkHSUQ3pjk_QCeLsWhR6f4SS7M2QjPygwXoW_U8L6nAW3ILmkZm7_nh6E5DUFHdkctMshpQl0Shro36Gh9g9oU9mtQ4DU4B5HR8F4/s320/EtSLoP173.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Diaeresis is an ancient stunt usually relating to a break in the middle of a line. Here we have terminal diaeresis, which is more esoteric still. The magic effect comes from ending an iambic (de DUM) passage with an iambic word ("reVILED"); all previous two-syllable words were trochaic (DUM-de, i.e. "WINters", "AILing", "VIEWing", "ALways", "SADdest", "EV'ry", "DOCtor'd", "MOMent", "ORPHans", "PARents"). <br />
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Over 99.9% of poets wouldn't know diaeresis from diarrhea. It's that rare.<br />
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How long has this stuff been going on? Terminal diaeresis wasn't new when Shakespeare developed it in his sonnets, circa 1600. Thus, today's poets are so desperate for attention that they are pulling 400 year old rabbits out of their butts! Worse yet, there are sites and articles dedicated to proliferating these dark arts, this being one of them.<br />
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<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-poetry.html" target="_blank">What You Need To Know About Poetry</a><br />
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This is but one of the <a href="https://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html" target="_blank">thousands of options in the hypermodern poet's bag of tricks</a>. <i>Thousands!</i><br />
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How are you going to compete with that?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-17430981573640312342020-05-11T16:20:00.001-05:002021-01-28T12:23:09.841-06:00What You Need To Know About Poetry<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglP13D6XtmWs3DPFIQqdr0xl_IiyqMHYqqTsHKsIPvlGy_SesugRjO7Z16VRtfIwV0dg50o8Ob3hnDZ7mY864atJNJL11EqNJ3Imu8qEsE1V2CZZneA5ptcRzyKyzXmeI7hvCg36n1sDAx/s1600/EtSLoP56.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="641" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglP13D6XtmWs3DPFIQqdr0xl_IiyqMHYqqTsHKsIPvlGy_SesugRjO7Z16VRtfIwV0dg50o8Ob3hnDZ7mY864atJNJL11EqNJ3Imu8qEsE1V2CZZneA5ptcRzyKyzXmeI7hvCg36n1sDAx/s320/EtSLoP56.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><p>
1. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/brief-definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">Definition of Poetry</a><br />
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2a. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/07/scansion-for-beginners_31.html" target="_blank">Scansion for Beginners</a><br />
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2b. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/10/scansion-for-intermediates_20.html" target="_blank">Scansion for Intermediates</a><br />
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2c. <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/11/scansion-for-experts.html" target="_blank">Scansion for Experts</a><br />
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3. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/03/sonics.html" target="_blank">Sonics</a><br />
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4. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/05/performing-poetry.html" target="_blank">Performance</a><br />
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5. <a href="https://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html" target="_blank">Terminology</a><br />
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6. <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-preface.html" target="_blank">Examples</a></p><p> An even quicker approach would be "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2020/07/poetry-in-three-minutes.html" target="_blank">Poetry in Three Minutes</a>".</p><p> <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-7182455701529114062020-05-11T16:06:00.001-05:002020-07-27T12:05:07.689-05:00Performing Poetry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJk3vvbNZiwTh4DqYWzAiyDlo5pbsotqV_jLCH4P1An3VE8dpVKxR1OkfeVlUk1YsM_vrzjRFOUYuZ3tjew-th0Qa00R1LDt1XJrVDwuUbXYx_k-hMG5GNYwpZQWYkDyeqCIPynRzTAtZp/s1600/EtSLoP106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1249" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJk3vvbNZiwTh4DqYWzAiyDlo5pbsotqV_jLCH4P1An3VE8dpVKxR1OkfeVlUk1YsM_vrzjRFOUYuZ3tjew-th0Qa00R1LDt1XJrVDwuUbXYx_k-hMG5GNYwpZQWYkDyeqCIPynRzTAtZp/s200/EtSLoP106.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
One of the many symptoms of poetry's death was the disappearance of contemporary poetry performance. Indeed, apart from Shakespearean plays and some hurried readings by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnn9468vhwI" target="_blank">Dylan Thomas</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNsPhKlucY" target="_blank">Anthony Hopkins</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEFMVIfl2UY" target="_blank">Michael Caine</a>, the world is bereft of convincing performances as opposed to readings, recitations, and overwrought original bleatings. (If you have found one please let us know below.) This has become an arcane art.<br />
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<h3>
1. Memorize the words.</h3>
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You wouldn't want to see actors reading from scripts on Broadway. The presenter needs to see--or seem to see, in the case of cameras--the audience and their reactions. <br />
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<h3>
2. Forget that you memorized the words.</h3>
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The language has to be natural and believable, as if the speaker were formulating each thought before expressing it.<br />
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<h3>
3. Practice until it seems unpracticed. </h3>
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Cliché Alert</b></span>: "Make the words your own."<br />
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Practice until it seems like normal speech (if appropriately impassioned in places). Use a mirror or, better yet, a camera [phone] to record yourself.<br />
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Use your down time. Carry a copy of a poem with you to the bathroom, into waiting rooms, onto buses, while walking the dog, etc. Don't worry what your neighbors will say. They already think you're crazy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HOA5Hraxic4tQNqfrWinTWdV7Bkj_ZtYELKJKaGSetXk5SznPF3q5j3Ht01N3reO23yOY54j8kDHtaS0LGfg1IY2rp77YpZJ4SsSZ4dvnsj6arYxR-vMaPTsRR04WJ6TzZNyVPnfR5Oe/s1600/EtSLoP182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="940" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3HOA5Hraxic4tQNqfrWinTWdV7Bkj_ZtYELKJKaGSetXk5SznPF3q5j3Ht01N3reO23yOY54j8kDHtaS0LGfg1IY2rp77YpZJ4SsSZ4dvnsj6arYxR-vMaPTsRR04WJ6TzZNyVPnfR5Oe/s320/EtSLoP182.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<h3>
4. Go to open mic events. Participate once you're comfortable doing so.</h3>
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If you are too shy, find a friend who has some acting chops. Form a partnership. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John" target="_blank">Elton John</a> to your <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Taupin" target="_blank">Bernie Taupin</a>.<br />
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As an exercise, consider starting with one of the two finest poems of this century, "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-studying.html" target="_blank">Studying Savonarola</a>", written by the greatest poet of our time, the late <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._A._Griffiths" target="_blank">Margaret A. Griffiths</a>. This is a piece that, in the hands of an inspired performer, works much better on the stage than the page. (Its counterpart, "<a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-beans.html" target="_blank">Beans</a>", may be too difficult for anyone but a seasoned actress.) Given the lack of competition, if you can nail this you could make history.<br />
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<b>A final tip</b>: One of the very few editors who appreciates the performance aspect of poetry is John Amen of <a href="https://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/introduction-by-john-amen/" target="_blank">Pedestal Magazine</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFFCoxJU0Gc" target="_blank">This is the closest we can come to an example of performance</a>, which is evident even if we don't speak Spanish:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MFFCoxJU0Gc/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MFFCoxJU0Gc?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://www.poesi.as/index228uk.htm" target="_blank">THE GORING AND THE DEATH</a><br />
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At five in the afternoon.<br />
It was just five in the afternoon.<br />
A boy brought the white sheet<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
A basket of lime made ready<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
The rest was death and only death<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
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The wind blew the cotton wool away<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
And oxide scattered nickel and glass<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Now the dove and the leopard fight<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
And a thigh with a desolate horn<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
The bass-pipe sound began<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
The bells of arsenic, the smoke<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Silent crowds on corners<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
And only the bull with risen heart!<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
When the snow-sweat appeared<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
when the arena was splashed with iodine<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
death laid its eggs in the wound<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
At five in the afternoon.<br />
At just five in the afternoon.<br />
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A coffin on wheels for his bed<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Bones and flutes sound in his ear<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Now the bull bellows on his brow<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
The room glows with agony<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Now out of distance gangrene comes<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Trumpets of lilies for the green groin<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
Wounds burning like suns<br />
at five in the afternoon,<br />
and the people smashing windows<br />
at five in the afternoon.<br />
At five in the afternoon.<br />
Ay, what a fearful five in the afternoon!<br />
It was five on every clock!<br />
It was five of a dark afternoon!<br />
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<h3>
Learning Poetry - 4. Performance (in three minutes)</h3>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kzI946BxLGk/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kzI946BxLGk?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-8007883605909386792020-01-08T14:04:00.004-06:002020-05-15T09:32:27.848-05:00Ten Steps to Writing Poetry<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8WC6z6hcI_LEYzlXIaSv5Ln3L6Dx3lA9oEaFIkSngiflPbSGlM5Rd1wIbeYORDYbLRiI0F78l_w3liPS7aganB65mDOzHlJ_ZUmdQ2Sq6hmd5igjT66zMI8YwtoE_SCReMyAZAc2ntmef/s1600/EtSLoP104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1000" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8WC6z6hcI_LEYzlXIaSv5Ln3L6Dx3lA9oEaFIkSngiflPbSGlM5Rd1wIbeYORDYbLRiI0F78l_w3liPS7aganB65mDOzHlJ_ZUmdQ2Sq6hmd5igjT66zMI8YwtoE_SCReMyAZAc2ntmef/s320/EtSLoP104.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 104th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: red;">Q1.</span> Why don't people read my poetry?<br />
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This one is easy:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Reason #1</span>: <br />
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People don't read your poetry because poetry is a form of speech, not writing. It is meant to be performed. Aloud. Not read. Not read aloud.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBkVECNS_rhpi_GJbX0N7Lf6UQs-cW-FCnY1fLbTE3jxU8n9IwpR3Wu0QvKbj8qWp521ZMFeEKe6q71k6eVDLUaCyEKzWEHHTWlixxJ6QBlAr0hDyXeh__prtp4fTB34lUuCwuB8-D4nW/s1600/EtSLoP154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="460" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNBkVECNS_rhpi_GJbX0N7Lf6UQs-cW-FCnY1fLbTE3jxU8n9IwpR3Wu0QvKbj8qWp521ZMFeEKe6q71k6eVDLUaCyEKzWEHHTWlixxJ6QBlAr0hDyXeh__prtp4fTB34lUuCwuB8-D4nW/s320/EtSLoP154.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 154th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: blue;">Reason #2</span>: <br />
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People don't read your poetry for the same reason you don't read theirs. Or anyone else's. No, it's not tit-for-tat or quid pro quo. 99% of golfers are duffers. 99% of chessplayers are patzers. 99% of bridgeplayers are palookas. As in most avocations, 99% of poets are untrained and unskilled. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAx3QGcAVICxE-t9NsfPZyJZQmON1aC1oCLzZqxT-aheJwJGNOLaJPjakIZXM74jI5JKDOLc6kg0-GT8aOOzNqj6dt5z-4-_BwClMmLs7QSoZJC2pxoWUUZWOrMzjv5ZU8e30Pc2U3Onqg/s1600/EtSLoP35.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1314" data-original-width="1500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAx3QGcAVICxE-t9NsfPZyJZQmON1aC1oCLzZqxT-aheJwJGNOLaJPjakIZXM74jI5JKDOLc6kg0-GT8aOOzNqj6dt5z-4-_BwClMmLs7QSoZJC2pxoWUUZWOrMzjv5ZU8e30Pc2U3Onqg/s320/EtSLoP35.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 35th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: red;">Q2</span>. How can I get critics to read my poetry?<br />
<br />
Serious critics are few--there may be 200 worldwide--and extremely busy. You'd have to master the basics and show determination before attracting such help. Unless you are self-motivating, it is a Catch-22, like trying to get a job without experience...or experience without a job. Lurk for a year on critical forums such as <a href="http://www.everypoet.org/pffa/index.php" target="_blank">Poetry Free-For-All</a> or <a href="https://www.ablemuse.com/erato/" target="_blank">Eratosphere</a> before posting there.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NtsLyhU-LHCpR3AL1GWWPBpfH_pHWWwfA9wqoX-EzWNAEShgvp8nBfwmpXtwQZbNrCCCIkN4vqsZMkojBAaX6ZA72Asmp2taOj7d-6kpyOntiLXq9PyZdP_HWeozcguemKiRoYcBxhcn/s1600/EtSLoP56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="641" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7NtsLyhU-LHCpR3AL1GWWPBpfH_pHWWwfA9wqoX-EzWNAEShgvp8nBfwmpXtwQZbNrCCCIkN4vqsZMkojBAaX6ZA72Asmp2taOj7d-6kpyOntiLXq9PyZdP_HWeozcguemKiRoYcBxhcn/s320/EtSLoP56.jpg" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 56th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Q3</span>. So what do I need to learn?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: blue;">#1</span>: Humility. Observe Scavella's Mantra: "I'm not as good as I think I am." <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvdAVdrYpB8ubyp3al62W9dv9182RTDyc7dENoe8lhbhqCxxyrUYiuJICl5eiA44yDUDD5p4kQ2bMRZBdP9JmiBzBklM2bppK6_AItAy8kEYX9HbjuDlq2EnEBt0Ps5JnXZ_kmViOZlen/s1600/EtSLoP109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="600" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhvdAVdrYpB8ubyp3al62W9dv9182RTDyc7dENoe8lhbhqCxxyrUYiuJICl5eiA44yDUDD5p4kQ2bMRZBdP9JmiBzBklM2bppK6_AItAy8kEYX9HbjuDlq2EnEBt0Ps5JnXZ_kmViOZlen/s320/EtSLoP109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 109th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#2</span>: Be teachable. Tutor's motto: "We can work with the clueless but not the clueproof." <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgABlmrLb-H9u5JJowvxSynIJhaWT32JPVgFMJWYlNaLD97gXUK9KdV-02L-_Xafqj8f68TOq1-pML7YwL5IAieAZXhk4AURZ29cCd5uqsmc76FqfICjmxd1VRXHZZeq3fKt1B6KUp3W6oL/s1600/EtSLoP44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="619" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgABlmrLb-H9u5JJowvxSynIJhaWT32JPVgFMJWYlNaLD97gXUK9KdV-02L-_Xafqj8f68TOq1-pML7YwL5IAieAZXhk4AURZ29cCd5uqsmc76FqfICjmxd1VRXHZZeq3fKt1B6KUp3W6oL/s320/EtSLoP44.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 44th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#3</span>: Respect the art form. Avoid <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/05/convenient-poetics.htmlhttps://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/05/convenient-poetics.html" target="_blank">the Convenient Poetics trap</a>. Learn why you will remember phrases from <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-preface.html" target="_blank">the great poems of the 21st century</a> long after you forget everything else you read this month.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXh8beqji0T7Tfvof4E1DbPNhSO_va4UE2-0T80oLnGAcDVKzJFgBfEtsukl4AirFZkSuJEJs9WwKPY0AEKTEr-Wl0TuspdjVp-SuidgYwFZsUjDuXGjhHJkJsu5hU8ig9jwLl46UEdJnQ/s1600/EtSLoP76.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1336" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXh8beqji0T7Tfvof4E1DbPNhSO_va4UE2-0T80oLnGAcDVKzJFgBfEtsukl4AirFZkSuJEJs9WwKPY0AEKTEr-Wl0TuspdjVp-SuidgYwFZsUjDuXGjhHJkJsu5hU8ig9jwLl46UEdJnQ/s320/EtSLoP76.jpg" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 76th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#4</span>: Start with a useful definition: <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/brief-definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">Poetry is verbatim</a>. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbxXVZSZr6adEj5-RJl-GOrGLEmtuYGRh2HIOdVGxYGEPz8EOWXcBE7gaNsILve7vduToZA8TdDMKWTnt2qzFzG_bOCWSNyHEGRphzjN3HggLt3Qmtx7B1jWkzoXCLs9PAT2CaQWiumk-/s1600/EtSLoP67.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbxXVZSZr6adEj5-RJl-GOrGLEmtuYGRh2HIOdVGxYGEPz8EOWXcBE7gaNsILve7vduToZA8TdDMKWTnt2qzFzG_bOCWSNyHEGRphzjN3HggLt3Qmtx7B1jWkzoXCLs9PAT2CaQWiumk-/s1600/EtSLoP67.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 67th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;"> #5</span>: Learn <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/07/scansion-for-beginners_31.html" target="_blank">basic scansion</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45Bjz_5lWfqTC2btKTTFrQ-X6l0mY6nu6K3jf9b5gCBRuK5hx5U1KQL-6J8o59Xq2Gzp9ZtxwhyphenhyphenkK1GqeMwgietLjTdqK3smF1ELfAK3IoIUiRlh20yFeet1AMGR0n_fh0f2FVcnUbPM3/s1600/EtSLoP31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="864" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg45Bjz_5lWfqTC2btKTTFrQ-X6l0mY6nu6K3jf9b5gCBRuK5hx5U1KQL-6J8o59Xq2Gzp9ZtxwhyphenhyphenkK1GqeMwgietLjTdqK3smF1ELfAK3IoIUiRlh20yFeet1AMGR0n_fh0f2FVcnUbPM3/s320/EtSLoP31.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 31st Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#6</span>. In five years, consider free verse (which doesn't mean what you think it means).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILvPeGud2MLTicQaFv0avh1DkkSQd-0CtDkqwHyadKBkyXGf47XX2IMRtktp-1q2jDO9tbssfowCsTJOx0fwGuh4daQBoVBynRbpoCGHf0fmxVQfiMuZZi9yuQuvHsxXZ3qXID3pIQATS/s1600/EtSLoP11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="510" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILvPeGud2MLTicQaFv0avh1DkkSQd-0CtDkqwHyadKBkyXGf47XX2IMRtktp-1q2jDO9tbssfowCsTJOx0fwGuh4daQBoVBynRbpoCGHf0fmxVQfiMuZZi9yuQuvHsxXZ3qXID3pIQATS/s320/EtSLoP11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 11th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#7</span>: Learn <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/03/sonics.html" target="_blank">sonics</a>. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuzdnlHVtB2jq7NErTpLD5Hc1tllnmBR2s0ewS8DSO-YnNsAXDrcd3o4vq2v8XBfYehO73P6HUCOTinGOU0NCTOKyiC3cJAEBknaBHKAsd6RXx1KdSqhAQTUqLwUSUenOR1vtw2MxE_X1A/s1600/EtSLoP13.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="500" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuzdnlHVtB2jq7NErTpLD5Hc1tllnmBR2s0ewS8DSO-YnNsAXDrcd3o4vq2v8XBfYehO73P6HUCOTinGOU0NCTOKyiC3cJAEBknaBHKAsd6RXx1KdSqhAQTUqLwUSUenOR1vtw2MxE_X1A/s320/EtSLoP13.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 11th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: blue;"> #8</span>: Learn the difference between voice (which varies from poem to poem) and style (a usually unfortunate consistency between poems). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9DacPAH4stlCFBc09DIYCz7-hModtslaQczG5wu_YQObPJYATr1AYXlTvDzQSSmc-Yw12kgom-fDaFp1CJzwGOrUB-pJhYQM0R_3cpPcjiKa1GZL6K_w3UHcfcTa5hGyhggi1a57UIc7/s1600/EtSLoP19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="514" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9DacPAH4stlCFBc09DIYCz7-hModtslaQczG5wu_YQObPJYATr1AYXlTvDzQSSmc-Yw12kgom-fDaFp1CJzwGOrUB-pJhYQM0R_3cpPcjiKa1GZL6K_w3UHcfcTa5hGyhggi1a57UIc7/s320/EtSLoP19.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 19th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2UcGquOycUSf50-H1QqQ6R23W2na7iQwI2CGcp39zBq8t_m-0ZoUjFKPftqqxuNFl9h4gAjaKsMi_9Qy9S3hVMUZ01V7_kX8LvoSZHy5L7JfImKQvMVIdBbw0jGbNOk3AxPa0t65OsXA/s1600/EtSLoP79.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="500" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_2UcGquOycUSf50-H1QqQ6R23W2na7iQwI2CGcp39zBq8t_m-0ZoUjFKPftqqxuNFl9h4gAjaKsMi_9Qy9S3hVMUZ01V7_kX8LvoSZHy5L7JfImKQvMVIdBbw0jGbNOk3AxPa0t65OsXA/s320/EtSLoP79.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 79th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: blue;">#9</span>: Practice performing in front of mirrors, then open mic crowds.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfNju8_LqI82YeJKPCzZpKFqciSEmHq6IxBmUfHpcCS7FHfQ-Dv42anFhieEYETR6vPXpPrq86s1li1RQkCR_DLv15c1xRLCrLo10pCE0RjC147nk8nN_-ezK7dA-e8oU8VZCAU_g27K4/s1600/EtSLoP84.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1050" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfNju8_LqI82YeJKPCzZpKFqciSEmHq6IxBmUfHpcCS7FHfQ-Dv42anFhieEYETR6vPXpPrq86s1li1RQkCR_DLv15c1xRLCrLo10pCE0RjC147nk8nN_-ezK7dA-e8oU8VZCAU_g27K4/s320/EtSLoP84.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 84th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
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<span style="color: blue;">#10</span>: Post your finished performances online (e.g. YouTube). Include that link whenever you submit text.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbRuipzR4rollvkwaAl6groDjm4TWUDd_6c1krY7g8JneAnwPUNwCLYGCCC1xBYbt0rkVqHfJdoyVIJlY0rkmtphwQBHn7zUA96xh3zDClzlGL46wq023aGx6OETuKZyjsJiu6iGsdQYC/s1600/EtSLoP106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1249" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPbRuipzR4rollvkwaAl6groDjm4TWUDd_6c1krY7g8JneAnwPUNwCLYGCCC1xBYbt0rkVqHfJdoyVIJlY0rkmtphwQBHn7zUA96xh3zDClzlGL46wq023aGx6OETuKZyjsJiu6iGsdQYC/s320/EtSLoP106.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 106th Law of Poetry</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: red;">Q4</span>: This sounds daunting, doesn't it?<br />
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Actually, no. It can be the ride of your life. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NWjpIF8xrJnBGyrPXvXfvzmQo_AlOqbBBKxTNMDKtVUMXrtBuWjeE4HJLSTUPbAiaJBzM8XxZzhdXmyYGV_44JH3TyXI49ZiRXsE9w-iKvtJ1jQIBSVpUxCG2I8tMIWxpREndne5fF2g/s1600/EtSLoP57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9NWjpIF8xrJnBGyrPXvXfvzmQo_AlOqbBBKxTNMDKtVUMXrtBuWjeE4HJLSTUPbAiaJBzM8XxZzhdXmyYGV_44JH3TyXI49ZiRXsE9w-iKvtJ1jQIBSVpUxCG2I8tMIWxpREndne5fF2g/s320/EtSLoP57.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 57th Law of Poetry - Pearl's 1st Paradox</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: red;"> Q5</span>: Can you give me a definition of poetry more involved than "verbatim" or "memorable"?<br />
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Sure. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIb8EABHX3pf3fPOLxRLBcASZIEY-E7f3Lzduc9ByTk4s8sWwa7b8cV14iSf0ccnE1E5L3rgQrtFHHjnbGSAsUBzEcdbvN8ztxxYmbSpouKfUuQmzMGSaH43-m2GMpZtGC_ouEjI3VFjUQ/s1600/EtSLoP182.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="940" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIb8EABHX3pf3fPOLxRLBcASZIEY-E7f3Lzduc9ByTk4s8sWwa7b8cV14iSf0ccnE1E5L3rgQrtFHHjnbGSAsUBzEcdbvN8ztxxYmbSpouKfUuQmzMGSaH43-m2GMpZtGC_ouEjI3VFjUQ/s320/EtSLoP182.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earl Gray's 182nd Law of Poetry - Pearl's 4th Paradox</td></tr>
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Any other questions?<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-52553710452358593662019-10-17T12:10:00.000-05:002019-12-26T13:47:11.447-06:00Can Poetry Revive?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZMRfof60ED-TL8eI-RVxicXz7ajvkKLuD_spYGjscVmZhaTvXFra02EcNAYoYHTzCYDFkZmKMytZYE5AW4M58SZPjL-L4LnCb1SXt0_3P8gs3BHL_C9us4XRgVKlDyNKflaqmfrbP2q2/s1600/EtSLoP35.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1314" data-original-width="1500" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZMRfof60ED-TL8eI-RVxicXz7ajvkKLuD_spYGjscVmZhaTvXFra02EcNAYoYHTzCYDFkZmKMytZYE5AW4M58SZPjL-L4LnCb1SXt0_3P8gs3BHL_C9us4XRgVKlDyNKflaqmfrbP2q2/s320/EtSLoP35.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: red;">Seen on Facebook:</span> <br />
<br />
"Even today, native languages in Africa are comprised of more than 100 sounds ("phonemes"), many of them originally fashioned from noises in nature ("onomatopoeia"). As humankind migrated outwards many of these were lost and not replaced. Mandarin has 67 such phonemes, English has 44, Proto-Algonquin 23, Hawaian only 13.<br />
<br />
"Thus, when you and I speak we use the sounds of African wildlife species, some of which may have been extinct for eons."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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Aside from communication, the purpose of language [as a whole] is preservation. The purpose of poetry is to preserve [specific] language. Hence, poetry distinguishes itself from prose in that it is <a href="https://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2014/03/definition-of-poetry.html" target="_blank">verbatim or, if you prefer, memorable speech</a>. Not writing. <i>Speech.</i> Shakespeare's plays weren't recorded for posterity on behalf of English professors; they were committed to paper from memory as scripts for the benefit of other actors and producers.<br />
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The expression "poetry book" or "poetry magazine" is something of an oxymoron. Yes, both have existed even before the printing press but, unlike today, they had readers, not just writers hoping to see their names in indices, and those readers were interested in importing that language <i>into their speech.</i> Yes, archiving poetry as literature is vital but not if it has no appeal to audiences, contemporary or future. Not readers. <i>Audiences.</i><br />
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Flash forward four centuries and the most widely quoted poet is Leonard Cohen. This is a man who authored three "best-selling" volumes of poetry before picking up a guitar, but more than 99% of the time he is quoted from memory it involves one of his lyrics, not his books. Thus, poetry already survives, but only in song. Most people know thousands of lyrics but can't recite eight consecutive lines of a poem written during their lifetimes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW9bMSNcSTVn9j4G-0egsQioqiaAITKu2fHnYnHa-0YAhzxMHzx3ZB06gK5bJryUnJPwC2rDzmgqhgyBZM_nu0jRL0yf1rKqPbCouRaKCVCbJkosw0X80TK7hDVNtp4JlDA5qukA6f6f8/s1600/EtSLoP195.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhW9bMSNcSTVn9j4G-0egsQioqiaAITKu2fHnYnHa-0YAhzxMHzx3ZB06gK5bJryUnJPwC2rDzmgqhgyBZM_nu0jRL0yf1rKqPbCouRaKCVCbJkosw0X80TK7hDVNtp4JlDA5qukA6f6f8/s320/EtSLoP195.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Thus, if we understand what poetry is--verbatim <b>speech</b>--we understand how to revive it. Speak it! To be clear, insofar as modern work is concerned, it isn't the <i>presence</i> of poetry writing [or the concomitant lack of reading] that has killed the art form; it is the <i>absence</i> of poetry performance. <br />
<br />
Ergo, reviving poetry is a simple matter of encouraging people to perform it, most conveniently and economically on social media. Offer prizes for the best videos of <a href="http://commercialpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/03/great-poems-of-our-time-preface.html" target="_blank">selected stageworthy masterpieces</a> (after obtaining the necessary permissions) et voilà! Problem solved.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-42578387182211112782018-07-01T15:47:00.002-05:002018-07-01T15:49:21.338-05:00This is not a eulogy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXIZpp9jcPD0LKuGPcTUqEEBau1o_nM9BkOZx4pBmQO89Pjcem3IiANo4AJBGgykUPPX4eE6O73m8IJhV95h_BU6GqX_x3-X_kmiW45ScUnbRUyiUda4b9TAB2iE5f-6DDChGhaEesoTK1/s1600/TimothyMurphy1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="620" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXIZpp9jcPD0LKuGPcTUqEEBau1o_nM9BkOZx4pBmQO89Pjcem3IiANo4AJBGgykUPPX4eE6O73m8IJhV95h_BU6GqX_x3-X_kmiW45ScUnbRUyiUda4b9TAB2iE5f-6DDChGhaEesoTK1/s320/TimothyMurphy1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">North Dakota poet Timothy Murphy (1951-2018).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The erbsenzähler will not mourn. As a group of writers, they will continue to count and measure success by publishing credits in unread venues. "Published is perfect" is their motto...for their own work, at least. To them, being concerned about objective merit is to wonder about the tree falling in the forest. As long as editors put out words and sponsors/subscribers still pay to see theirs in print, who cares about quality? It's not like anyone is going to memorize, perform, remember or quote any of these verbal collages, right?<br />
<br />
Poet and critic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Murphy_(poet)" target="_blank">Timothy Murphy</a> was one of the very few people who gave a damn about whether a poem had artistic merit or not. He died yesterday. We will miss him, whether we know it or not.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-90548284327350878412016-10-17T16:47:00.000-05:002016-10-17T17:39:03.354-05:00Bob Dylan not a writer?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsigaibRXoQ9AtJR6kILZQbX5EEMbEfkQ-wnmMKTMC6PdRkkHvTPAULtiU-BSlCxN212yqPtC5rTcHouGCx_BlIDtrrzRlgihWrc28a8VJBijWD2KQO2W-c7nCzF3CdPCU5Wk-cB7OPDc/s1600/GerardIanLewis1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsigaibRXoQ9AtJR6kILZQbX5EEMbEfkQ-wnmMKTMC6PdRkkHvTPAULtiU-BSlCxN212yqPtC5rTcHouGCx_BlIDtrrzRlgihWrc28a8VJBijWD2KQO2W-c7nCzF3CdPCU5Wk-cB7OPDc/s320/GerardIanLewis1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/opinion/why-bob-dylan-shouldnt-have-gotten-a-nobel.html?src=me" target="_blank">Why Bob Dylan Shouldn't Have Gotten a Nobel</a>" one "Anna North" opined that Bob Dylan is not a writer. At least, we think that is what she was arguing but, given the level of coherence, we may wonder if this was the first article ever written in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROT13" target="_blank">rot-13</a>.<br />
<br />
"Words have meaning," a critiquer might say to Ms. North, "even if yours don't."<br />
<br />
Gerard Ian Lewis could be even less generous.<br />
<br />
Partisans use words like hand grenades. To Ms. North, they are land mines. She steps on one almost immediately, speaking about Bob Dylan:<br />
<br />
"He is a wonderful musician..."<br />
<br />
Learning nothing from that catastrophe, she repeats the mistake two paragraphs later:<br />
<br />
"He is great because he is a great musician..."<br />
<br />
No, nor is he being honored for his skill at composing or performing music (despite some lovely instrumentals). He is being fêted for his <i>songs:</i> lyrics<i> and</i> music, with special attention to the former. For reference and contrast, this is a great music performer:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rvAU8RZnA0A" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
...and, within the context of songwriters, this is a great music composer:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k0rVNQw1DQM" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Dylan is neither of those.<br />
<br />
"Yes, it is possible to analyze his lyrics as poetry. But Mr. Dylan’s writing is inseparable from his music."<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglq8HfdphLB3OksG8kxtsdx7zeyNhTV6obUZuIM0sxDYSLhmqoIQ9b67BGMC4vP4-dI1hONkAPwym44ZDS2R8bQDo4J4ECJbhk2oGdkZIS0B62hXwvRI-bnqu_hx7iyoof51MVMm7RW20X/s1600/BobDylan3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglq8HfdphLB3OksG8kxtsdx7zeyNhTV6obUZuIM0sxDYSLhmqoIQ9b67BGMC4vP4-dI1hONkAPwym44ZDS2R8bQDo4J4ECJbhk2oGdkZIS0B62hXwvRI-bnqu_hx7iyoof51MVMm7RW20X/s320/BobDylan3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Unless one is aiming for paradox or humor, it's rarely a good idea to contradict oneself in consecutive sentences. At best, this is a distinction without a difference. If lyrics aren't poetry which of the two modes of speech are they? Prose?<br />
<br />
"But more than that, awarding the Nobel to a novelist or a poet is a way of affirming that fiction and poetry still matter..."<br />
<br />
...until and unless the poetry is set to music, we suppose [as the Iliad and Odyssey were]. By this same "reasoning", is Shakespeare's blank verse not poetry or literature because it was presented in theatrical performances?<br />
<br />
"...when the Nobel committee gives the literature prize to a musician, it misses the opportunity to honor a writer."<br />
<br />
Are these two things mutually exclusive? What did you imagine a song is? <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNhEfrVHQsrGKZi1aDaArt0GOHBZV-6QN0HRKiCK8ys-BaK1FojbhHS75vOanNmBO7T_rVV9sSpYasWkAKEcmNPTAiLhXgQkRQX4kpWnhAr4hh-d2ZKWnXUwnjOHSBDTE2Lj6FERoGH82/s1600/BobDylan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWNhEfrVHQsrGKZi1aDaArt0GOHBZV-6QN0HRKiCK8ys-BaK1FojbhHS75vOanNmBO7T_rVV9sSpYasWkAKEcmNPTAiLhXgQkRQX4kpWnhAr4hh-d2ZKWnXUwnjOHSBDTE2Lj6FERoGH82/s320/BobDylan2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Dylan isn't a writer? Leaving aside his prose and prose poetry efforts, his lyrics weren't written on album sleeves? They can't be read in any of a thousand web sites by entering the song title and "lyrics" into a search engine? They aren't studied in universities, among other places? They haven't already survived for generations?<br />
<br />
"By honoring a musical icon, the committee members may have wanted to bring new cultural currency to the prize and make it feel relevant to a younger generation."<br />
<br />
Younger than what? Seventy?<br />
<br />
At this point we leave Ms. North to her misadventures with the English language. It is one thing to step into a mine field, quite another to dance in one.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-76103353144635573592016-10-13T14:24:00.000-05:002016-10-13T14:24:04.182-05:00Bob Dylan's Nobel Peace Prize<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Verse is Verse</b></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_f2mEpfejEo9xbFXnICUPRhmCYKzdEb2s1Ih6ewGtxW1DUxqACadiZqusENkdj7vTvhQ4dw4cGoXmfV1V_FEz4tpJrP9dOGu-zXIuk8GnpQjd-pIWRnbPk3FtNxznxp9_lePK72QruwES/s1600/BobDylan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_f2mEpfejEo9xbFXnICUPRhmCYKzdEb2s1Ih6ewGtxW1DUxqACadiZqusENkdj7vTvhQ4dw4cGoXmfV1V_FEz4tpJrP9dOGu-zXIuk8GnpQjd-pIWRnbPk3FtNxznxp9_lePK72QruwES/s200/BobDylan1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In case you haven't heard, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-awarded-nobel-prize-in-literature-w444709">Bob Dylan won the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature</a>. We would have preferred the more qualified Leonard Cohen but we salute the long overdue recognition of poets. That's right. Unless someone wants to argue that rhyming metrical compositions are prose, song lyrics are poetry. <br />
<br />
The contention that poetry is defined by quality is easy to disprove. Is "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tay_Bridge_Disaster" target="_blank">The Tay Bridge Disaster</a>" prose? Let's face it: bad poetry exists. It's not a oxymoron. In fact, it's everywhere. Whole institutions and myriad publications are dedicated to the presentation, if not the preservation, of bad poetry.<br />
<br />
And, no, it doesn't matter which is written first, the music or the words. To wit, the music to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80-kp6RDl94">this song</a> was composed centuries after the words:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/80-kp6RDl94" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the lyrics were not added to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kQZHYbZkLs">this old folk tune</a> until 1971:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QqJvqMeaDtU" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Nor does it matter if the same person is writing both music and lyrics, even if at different times, as was the case with "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOhefCsSlVo">Suzanne</a>", published as textual verse in 1964/1965 and not performed as a song until 1966 (and not by its author until 1967).<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XOhefCsSlVo" width="560"></iframe><br />
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b><br />Literature</b></span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYIdFSd5deXtFKsyyVvBE2x_QJewzXGyijQIiisq4NkJlCItHokJHhlRbXfuFFqU2qqckIrr9UX9juEUTyyWu0EDndayxhSM1xBF8RVApdvgqFJHQQAn5fLM9MG_wIk46MMNj4l8uFxCI/s1600/LeonardCohen13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYIdFSd5deXtFKsyyVvBE2x_QJewzXGyijQIiisq4NkJlCItHokJHhlRbXfuFFqU2qqckIrr9UX9juEUTyyWu0EDndayxhSM1xBF8RVApdvgqFJHQQAn5fLM9MG_wIk46MMNj4l8uFxCI/s320/LeonardCohen13.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leonard Cohen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyone who wishes to mention that very few songs rise to the level of literature should check the [.000] batting average of written poetry over the last four decades. Not one line of text-only verse has penetrated the ranks of the poetry communities themselves, let alone the public at large. Put simply, every line of poetry--that thing deemed worth remembering verbatim--written in this century is accompanied by music.<br />
<br />
There are books and courses on Cohen's and Dylan's lyrics, but does literature have to be read? If so, movies and plays are not literature, a thing that most primitive societies could never have produced. Poetry, a thing which is (with rare exceptions) meant to be performed, could not be considered literature. Fortunately, most definitions include the specification "<a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/literature?s=t">work</a><i><a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/literature?s=t"> or production</a></i>". Thus, if Shakespeare is literature, so is Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Ferron, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot and, yes, the St. Exuperian John Prine.<br />
<br />
The idea that adding music somehow precludes verse from being considered literature ranks second on the list of ridiculous human notions. (Right after the 22nd Amendment, of course.)<br />
<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3761818636919513619.post-63308340366817827702016-09-02T12:24:00.000-05:002016-09-02T13:10:49.454-05:00The Future of Publishing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIqGcTEBBW9hcBe9Lx8MVRGyFyvlFzxhHHYR06rvAzQMbZ7WgjRaOwIOC3c2gznyH7Km157EgE9I1AZ8LTtVS5tuHomEu89n0tj1o_eWv6qobBJogwOmmOkmowY4bvaSrWskLwYkYZuIs/s1600/EtSLoP194.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIqGcTEBBW9hcBe9Lx8MVRGyFyvlFzxhHHYR06rvAzQMbZ7WgjRaOwIOC3c2gznyH7Km157EgE9I1AZ8LTtVS5tuHomEu89n0tj1o_eWv6qobBJogwOmmOkmowY4bvaSrWskLwYkYZuIs/s320/EtSLoP194.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
We accept that the future of all communication is the web but how can professional writing survive? Especially in an open environment where stealing is as easy as copying and pasting?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #bf9000;">Why Did E-Readers Fail?</span><br />
<br />
Proprietary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats">e-readers</a> such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Kindle">Kindle</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_eReader">Kobo</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_%26_Noble_Nook">Nook</a> have failed largely and simply because they require proprietary, dedicated hardware. In short, the World Wide Web had obsoleted them before they were designed. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBooks">IBooks for Apple iOS and OS X devices</a> will linger on because Apple desktops, IPads and smart phones have another use. Why didn't <a href="http://www.technorms.com/11694/stanza-ereader-freeware">Stanza</a>, which can display any of these formats on a personal computer, tablet or phone, catch on? For the same reason we use Windows or Mac-based software more than the vastly superior, bullet-proof Linux: there was no big money committed to promoting the latter.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Money as a Filter</b></span><br />
<br />
We have been brought up to believe that "you get what you pay for." This is not the case with software, including at the systemic level. To understand this principle, grab your remote control, turn on your television, and hit the "Back" or "Last [channel]" button twice. What happens? Chances are, it takes you to the previous channel and then brings you back. WTF? Why doesn't it take you the last channel, then the penultimate one, and further back every time you hit the Back/Last button? Like your Back/Last button does on your browser, it could work in conjunction with a "Forward" button for returning to more recent channels.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasswR_EIBwEDfQa4ej2Qil8674zV67MbPgWC4deNf8TmOyKU5udIQWufVGWpeiyK6uin4DswBpWxNsdgsXcDMzy0B_8xOH7bOqCxb3aujbQZf1AnGRR2QzUNYg0a5fcb9LN3PUydZ029Y/s1600/EtSLoP190.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhasswR_EIBwEDfQa4ej2Qil8674zV67MbPgWC4deNf8TmOyKU5udIQWufVGWpeiyK6uin4DswBpWxNsdgsXcDMzy0B_8xOH7bOqCxb3aujbQZf1AnGRR2QzUNYg0a5fcb9LN3PUydZ029Y/s320/EtSLoP190.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The answer is that, like a horse designed by a committee, the TV interface is created by a professional programming team with a multi-million dollar budget. Twenty years ago, Free-To-Air TV switchboxes had much more elaborate, intuitive, utile and aesthetically pleasing selection software. Some versions allowed you to watch up to nine channels simultaneously. Who created these masterpieces? Creative teams with billion dollar budgets? No. These brilliant interfaces were invented by lone wolf computer nerds, few of them out of the their teens.<br />
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Other examples abound. Some premium priced word processors cannot print aligned columns, even in a non-proportional font like Courier [New]. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML">Hypertext Markup Language or "HTML"</a>, the basic language for web sites, has trouble with alignment and indentation. Poetry editors complain about linebreaks on e-readers. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format">Portable Document Format or ".pdf"</a> has similar difficulties. Meanwhile, a freeware text editor (e.g. <a href="https://www.editpadlite.com/download.html">EditPad</a>) created by some geek has no problem presenting and printing all of this. Ditto independent literary sites. Parenthetically, this is an economic reality: when we pay someone to do something their interest usually ends with the completion of that project, if not earlier. By contrast, geniuses tend to be more "focused and self-motivated" (read: obsessive), as evidenced by the failed efforts of their parents to dislodge them from their basements. By any objective measure,<i> inspiration beats money every single time.</i><br />
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<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>The Market</b></span><br />
<br />
We ask: "Why would anyone want to pay money for clumsily ordered text when more functional and fancier writing is free?"<br />
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The answer we get is: "Because the content is professional/commercial quality."<br />
<br />
Actually, that is true only of our "long" reading (i.e. books, especially novels). Most of our "short" reading (blogs, articles, jokes, discussions) is online and free. Facebook is our news fulcrum, obsoleting print magazines and newspapers. If we need instructions do we look around for the print version or search online? The vast majority of this information is gratis, easily accessible, graphical and interconnected. Hypertext rules. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBzHnFxcIz6lCcOH2G1u9DTQyDU1HFUKDkepv40cDVqavAHp4XNJpkz2letC1nM4veh2rBAg8g23hPx0WrAYBirLD7Ugp7zpYZ871bSTeiiW912VAe1DxEDTjz7kIofzQppF-ARP_LSC7/s1600/EtSLoP188.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnBzHnFxcIz6lCcOH2G1u9DTQyDU1HFUKDkepv40cDVqavAHp4XNJpkz2letC1nM4veh2rBAg8g23hPx0WrAYBirLD7Ugp7zpYZ871bSTeiiW912VAe1DxEDTjz7kIofzQppF-ARP_LSC7/s320/EtSLoP188.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Recompense for the authors and publishers? Like television, much of this comes from advertising (and data mining). This is especially true of blogs and social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter). These require substantial traffic, though.<br />
<br />
Subscription-only services are losing ground not because the expense is too great for subscribers but because it is to great <i>for potential subscribers.</i> It restricts access and, thus, general interest. Paradoxically, if "Game of Thrones" were not the most heavily pirated series in history it would not be the icon it is. It would be an obscure and bizarre indulgence of the wealthy, like yachting. Similarly, no novel on a format accessible to less than 1% of the market will ever be a best seller or be discussed by the public. <br />
<br />
Expense is not the only issue; there is also the matter of convenience. Imagine if every HBO episode were purchased individually, each show preceded by an onscreen payment, like a pay-per-view movie. This is how we purchase novels/e-novels. Tedious, and tinged with buyer's remorse if the item disappoints.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #bf9000;"><b>Penny-Peeking</b></span><br />
<br />
Few things are more frustrating than making a one-time visit to an information venue and being confronted with a demand for a substantial subscription free. Imagine if all these sources were handled by one central service and the cost were the lowest coin of the realm. To wit, suppose everything you pay to read were to cost a penny. Not social media, personal blog or special interest sites but every commercial offering: every magazine (now e-zine), newspaper edition, textbook, literary collection, standalone treatise, and, yes, every novel. Everything that needs support from readers. One penny, total, even if reading that document requires multiple return trips. <br />
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Of course, collecting one cent is not profitable so everyone would have an account with some organization, similar to your Google or PayPal account. A publisher could present indices, blurbs and teasers of their products, as many already do. When readers select the final text their account would be charged one cent. Do you read 1,000 such items a month? If so, your cost would be $10. That's less than most individual subscriptions, less than your ISP or cable television charges and it can be paid automatically via credit/debit card or a remittance service like PayPal. Little expense, zero bother, using cookies that make it "transparent to the user."<br />
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Who is going to pirate something that costs a penny? <br />
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Who can afford a computer and an Internet connection but not a penny? <br />
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Who is going to balk at reading something where the investment is a penny? <br />
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No one.<br />
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Is a penny enough, though? The service might charge up to half of that so...is half a penny enough for a publisher or author?<br />
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For all the reasons listed above, there are no best-sellers in the fragmented e-reader world. Forgive the hyperbole, but some producers will be happy with "100% of nothing" while others will prefer "1% of a lot". There are ~2,000,000,000 English speakers worldwide and a growing percentage of them are online. Compare hit counts on popular content sites to periodical subscriptions or book/e-book sales and we'll see how quickly the 1% exceeds the 100%. This tortoise versus hare race includes the snowballing effect of more readers producing more discussion which, in turn, produces more readers. These visitors can generate direct advertising revenue for the producers and heighten interest in other items the publisher sells.<br />
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Another paradox is that the online world is "more permanent" than the print one. A book published in 2010 will be out of print in 2013 and may be very difficult to find in 2016. Text posted online decades ago is still available (if only in open archives) today. Thus, authors and editors may be collecting those benefits long after initial publication. This provides an incentive to maintain domains, extending the life of online content.<br />
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Other approaches are being tried but we predict that, in one form or another, this "penny-peeking" (critics might call it "penny-piquing") approach will be the standard.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0