As my wife Monica (aka the human calendar) kindly pointed out, today marks the 5th anniversary of this blog.
To mark the occasion, I've dug deep into the vaults and selected a poem from each year of the blog's existence. Not necessarily my favourites, but pieces which I thought deserved a second look for whatever reason.
Year 1: the great singing voices of the dead
(I don't write 'em like this any more!)
Year 2: Portrait of Ledong Qui
(I still see Ledong at poetry gigs occasionally - hopefully I'll see you at Overload, Ledong!)
Year 3: digitalia
(Think I can see a family resemblance with more recent experiments in this one.)
Year 4: rain
(Simplicity?)
Year 5: stoppages
(Sentences on a theme?)
Thanks to you, the readers of the blog, for your feedback and encouragement. I wonder what this blog, my (writing) life, and the world will look like 5 years from now... Any predictions?
Cheers,
Stu
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
5 years of thoughs
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In five years I'll be Queen! Congrats on the milestone... here's to five more.
ReplyDeleteCheers! :)
ReplyDeleteQueen of the indie publishing scene? (You're already crowned in my book)
Want a controversial comment? That seminar on experimental poetry. It looks like less content, less rhythm, bigger gaps of silence between thoughts. And so on. That's not a criticism but to me lyricism and flow and continuity of thought seem to be at odds with experimentation. But then I am notoriously simple and simultaneously verbose. When's that thing in Newcastle again? Stuey! You Rock!
ReplyDeleteThis is Not Art runs from the 1st to the 5th of Ocotober. The panel discussion on experimental poetry is on Saturday the 3rd.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really sure what you're referring to in this comment though (a particular poem?), so I'll defer judgement on whether or not you're being controversial!
i will just have to try harder then, sorry. i was trying to explain what pops into my mind if someone says they are an experimental poet. The poems will have less rhythm, more complexity, less continuous thought, more angularity and so on. So if I was going to write one, that's what I'ld do. And then I would prepare my justifications carefully, make sure I could reverse engineer the poem if forced to, or just say, well if you don't understand it, you are too stupid. So I guess I'm saying people should be prepared to defend what they are doing in an old fashioned way, that is to say, your poetry should procede from an aesthetic as opposed to a 'poetic'
ReplyDeletePaul, we've discussed some of this stuff privately, so I won't repeat it here, except to acknowledge that I would like to start posting more about my positions, intentions, methods, etc. I've written along these lines at various points, though not really here on the blog. Sometimes I talk about this stuff in the comments stream, but rarely in any great detail. So I think it's time for a reassessment and to state these things as clearly as I can. I see the panel at TINA as a key part of doing this.
ReplyDeleteI would read your ars poetica or poetic manifesto with keen interest, Stu.
ReplyDeleteCool. Over the next few months you can expect to see some posts in that direction.
ReplyDeleteI've promised this before, and not delivered - but I mean it this time.
Stu,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your anniversary, though...
How many more years can you remain the planet's #1 poetry blogger?
Map of the World on December 21, 2012 for Stu
And here's the chrono on that, Stu
Though... till the End comes, please keep on collecting!
PS. Please keep in mind that Nostradamus said the Rain is never unintentional, nor is the Fire...'twas all included in his Arse Poetica, I believe. (Or was it the Mayans who said that?)
I've nominated your blog for an award, you can check for more details in my post about that
ReplyDeletehttp://singyourownlullaby.blogspot.com/2009/09/award-nomination.html
Take care stu
Tom, I remember being traumatised by Nostradamus's predictions in my youth (I guess most kids went through that phase?).
ReplyDeleteSo... three and a bit years of this to go? Well, it's been fun... for some of us, at least.
The Pure Land Buddhists have interesting things to say about human actions/desires and weather too.
Mariana, thank you so much - I'm honoured! :) I just posted a response on your blog.
ReplyDeleteBabelfish translation of the spam post in Russian above:
ReplyDelete"From the pleasures are most pleasant those, which are encountered most
rarely. , Best perfumes themselves in the small bottles. Return to
your matter by entire heart and soul, but you will look, first of all,
this good matter. Reasonable strives for the fact that pleasantly, and
the fact that it frees [otnepriyatnostey]. Entire Russia, this
drinking Hamlet."
Spam with literary merit?
I don't have the guts to click on any of the links. Hope they're innocuous...
Going back to this post it occurs to me that the 'spam post in Russian' may have been nothing of the sort... Someone was being a bit clever I think. (I seem to remember TC alluding to this possibility at the time, though maybe that comment's disappeared like some of the others. The ether must be just about full by now).
ReplyDeleteFull of netjunk (and gems), that is.
ReplyDeleteMight it be possible, Stu, that the ether itself may be merely a "cover domain" employed by the diabolically clever ghost of Vladimir Nabokov?
ReplyDeleteTom! Haha, I think I'm willing to entertain the possibility ... that would be one diabolically clever ghost. (While we below may aspire to 'ethereal prose' and spinning our own 'cover domains' out of aery thinness.)
ReplyDelete