When is Poetry not Poetry?

Hi, I've a question title today and that's because I'm writing about stuff I learned in class today, stuff which I'm against, but feel it's important to share with everyone. So, I've been doing some intense work in poetry these last few Fridays and we've been looking at poets who's poems are out of the circle of 'normal poetry.' Poets like; Lyn Hejinian and her prose poem My Life, Ron Silliman, Tom Raworth and today Tom Phillips, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Amiri Baraka and Kenneth Goldsmith. (I've posted some links below for these poets, which you can go and visit. I didn't want to post up any of their poems in case I get in trouble, so please go and check them out, 'cause then you'll see what I'm trying to show you.)

So, most of these poets sort of fall under the area of poetry for the ear, eye and mind, which means they make great use of sound and often the poets perform them so that the full benefit can be reached. The eye or visual poem often involves a sort of collage, mashed up style of words, letters and images, sometimes the poets may use other people's writers and make something out of them. There is also the idea of conceptual poetry- take Goldsmith and his poem which is in fact a newspaper typed up and turned into 900 pages worth of words. Lastly there is the experiment writing and the very Modernist view of producing something that is so fresh it has never been seen before by anyone else.

That sort of gives you a rough idea of the stuff I looked at today and the links will give you even more. It sort of is like the extreme side of poetry really or like mixing music or art with poetry, unfortunately I disagree with it, for me this is not poetry, its something caught in-between these areas and in a strange place of it's own that sort of is like marmite- you either love it or hate. Though, hate is a strong word and I don't hate the poems or poets, I just don't agree with them over this. I guess to achieve these things you must see the world and language in a different light and I guess- though I hate to use this, (irony there!) being dyslexic might be the issue here! I'm not setting it all down to that, but more of my own idea about what poetry should be and should not be!

I wanted to add another image to show you some visual poety, but scared of copyright iusses, I thought I'd try one of my own, so here's one like really quick, no editing poem, that I did about trains;

I think everyone should be able to make their mind up though, so please let me know what you think.

http://www.tomraworth.com/
http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/
http://www.geoffreyyoung.com/thefigures/day.html
http://www.ianhamiltonfinlay.com/
http://www.amiribaraka.com/
http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/
http://mylifebylynhejinian.blogspot.com/

Here's someone who's put up their Modernism Visual poems on flicker. I think they are good.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/virtue_fern/3112597938/

Lastly, my friend asked me to post a link to his blog. He's a comic book writer in the making:
http://voicesofa-distantstar.blogspot.com/

here's one of his drawings that I like!

Oh and here's my personal twitter, in case you want to follow me there;
http://twitter.com/#!/ironmaidenfan9

Rainny days

Hi, this is my 80th blog post! Well so it says on the dashboard and I think that's been the most interesting thing of my day. I've not been doing a lot because of this;

Rain. It's been like this all day and for most of the last two days as well, though we've not had gale force winds today yet. I did brave the weather and go to Ormskirk for pop tarts and cake, but then I've spent the rest of the day in bed. I've been making notes in Wuthering Heights- getting it ready for my Vic Lit projected in March and watching TV movies; first the Corpse Bride and now Jane Eyre a black and white version, but as I'm soon about to be studying the novel- I read it over summer- I thought having it on in the background couldn't help. I still have Brent Weeks' The Way of Shadows to finish- 6 chapters left now. I've been busy doing other things though.
My uncle died on the 26th Jan and it was really sudden, so I've not had the will or the mind to be doing much. Luckily, I've had little work to do though, its about to change. I've an essay to write for Lit Modernism- 2,000 words on Kathrine Mansfield's short stories and her Modernism symbolism.

Guess watching the Corpse Bride has made me lit these. I like candles though, but the only tea light candle holders I have are Halloween ones. Still it doesn't matter, I like Halloween too much. Anyway, the candles are for my uncle tonight.
I've been baking cakes too. This is my latest design; a full moon with bats, misty clouds and stars. I don't think it was cooked in the middle but my housemates still ate it!

So I've not been doing anything else lately, though I've been thinking about giving Bob the cactus his own twitter account, though I've two of my own on the go right now, but it would be easier then his blog! He's doing okay, growing fast, though he still hurts when he gets you, but it seems he likes watching the world go by and everyone hurrying to and throw and missing the simple things as they pass.

So lastly for today, I've been trying to get my TV sorted, by upgrading the channels. It took me awhile to find the channel scanner button though, because this TV is a bit funny. So I found the button and scanned and then the TV lost all the BBC channels. It really loves doing that, so I had to watch the start of Star Wars 4, till I could rescan it again-not that I didn't mind, it's an okay one-and then it did it again! So had to go for the 3rd time luckily step and now I've all the right channels and I'm still watching Jane Eyre!

Gremlins are stealing my stuff!

Hi, I'm sure that Gremlins like the cute Gizmo above have been stealing things from my room, because items appear to be missing like my pen drive and my mobile phone memory card. There's a notebook too and socks! I keep finding odd socks all over my room and I've no idea how they got there or where their pairs now are......I had another idea that maybe borrowers had been involved too.

I'm hoping that whoever has my things returns them soon, because I really did want to load some pics up from my phone of my two new dogs and also save the start of my new essay. I guess I'll have to write about them first and then take some photos on my camera. I might tidy my room and see if that turns anything up- I might have simply misplaced these items. So I'll have to do that once I've finished here!

So my new dogs then; they are actually my uncle's dogs but he died on Wednesday, so my family have had to take responsibility for them. It is a little too soon after Sandy though and I don't think any of us were ready to take on two small and full of energy creatures, but there's no one else to take them in and I'm sure my uncle wouldn't have liked them going to a dog's home. The chances of them being rehomed are slim too, because Cindy is a lurcher cross yellow Labrador and Patch is a jack Russell cross staffie, being a pair and being not very desirable breeds is the most possible cause. They are good dogs though and they do have some obedience and are good on lead. I guess its just getting use to them, because they are so unlike Sandy- yet they did know her-Patch likes sitting on her hip and licking your ears and Cindy is the noisy one and barks at everything. Hopefully I'll find a pic to put up soon!

In light of that I've not been doing much and I've not written my other blog or do a webcam post because of the news, but I do want to carry that on, so I'll find some time to do that soon enough.

                                                                   Sindy and Patch

Webcam update

Hi, please go to the youtube link below to view webcam post
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5WU0kvtbzE
thanks.

First ever video blog for me

Hi! please click below to see me doing my blog with a webcam-something I've never done before! So I know its a bit messy in places and I've given up trying to sort the ending out now- I so don't have the technology skills to do that! Anyway, hopefully everything else is okay and I might do my blog like this again- though maybe not too soon! Enjoy watching, bye.



Worry Exams

Hi, I know I've not wrote in awhile, but I've been really busy and sick, plus running two blogs is not an easy thing to do, so I decided that I wouldn't give up on this blog but I'd post the same things on both because its easy and then people can decided which blog to read. So as a caught up on here I'd just like to write about my dog for a few minutes. She died 9/12/10, peacefully in her sleep at home. It was on my dad's birthday and in the morning. I came home from uni and she was cermated on friday, but as of yet not been buried. It was been a massvie blow to the family, friends and everyone else who knew her because she was such a great dog and touched many people. She'll be missed and never forgotten. RIP.

 

This photo is from 2009, so its pretty old now, but it was from my first year at uni and this message on thefire exit door had me and many other people giggled as we walked passed it. Originally it read merry Xmas, but when we came back in january someone and I've never found who decided to change the message to a more appropriate one. So (and it was the same with last year) at this time of year I recall this message and it makes me laugh. Though it is very true as next week I've facing what is possibly going to be the two biggest exams of my life. I have seen my modernism exam paper today though, because it is a seen exam and whilst the 1st question scared me the second- if I can find some more information on the web- should be okay. I plan to spend my evening studying these things now and also- if I get the chance, putting some new music on my ipod touch because it really does need an update.

Next pic of the week is this one, taken by my little brother of me in my new coat! My mum has spent months knitting this and it was meant to be my Xmas present. It was finished yesterday, but it still needs buttons and pockets. It's really warm though, so I might not give it back any time soon!

So besides from more revision and finished my reflection essay today, I guess the only other thing to report about this week is the New Year's Eve party I went to last Friday- though it feels a long way away to me now!- I made homemade strawberry woo woo to share and if you've not tried any before I suggested you do- Revolution bars serve it and theirs is the best. The night was good, though I drink too much and next time I'm so sleeping in a bed and not on a sofa whilst people are playing darts in the next room! Anyway Happy New Year everyone and here are some pics;

My strawberry woo woo was mega tasty.

The misleading fruit salad punch!

My dad and his drunken playing.

Lastly, my friend sent me this link and I thought I'd share on my blog, because I just think that it really shows what you can do if you keep trying to keep your dreams alive.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/writer-who-was-rejected-100-times-is-finally-rewarded-2176111.html

Human sign post for a day

Hi! This is my uni, Edge Hill in Ormskirk and we had an open day today. It was my second time on the job and last month I was in Hale Hall registering people and this time I was a sign post, so I had to stand around and direct people to the places they needed to be at. Doesn't sound like a very fun job does it? I was slightly worried this morning, but now I'm glad I did it. I meet lots of new people and was mega helpful to all of them. I had fun and I was able to discuss courses and the campus, I also got asked questions about the accommodation, why I came to Edge Hill and where the nearest hot drinks were!

I really like my job, it gives me the chance to represent my uni and shows my love for the place. I just feel the need to let everyone know how good EHU is and how it changed my life. Even if that means I've to spend the whole day outside, freezing and smiling all the time. I'm glad I could happy those people and I hope the make the right choice! Next open day, I'd like to take people on campus tours and show them around, I think I'd be good at that now, I've more confidence in talking to people. Today I learnt that by me starting the conversations it got people talking and so asking if they were going the right way, which I think they might not have done if I hadn't said hi. Sure building my communication skills there. :)

The other thing that happened this week is that I got to meet Adam Marek, writer of the book above. I know it looks a little strange, but its a collection of short stories and each of them have two running story-plots, so they are pretty interesting. He did a reading at the Rose Theater and then a two hour workshop with my class, where he give us tips and had us thing about story openings and what readers expect from stories. That was amazing, I learnt a lot and it reminded me how many different writers come to EHU to talk about their work.

I think I'll wonder off and have something to eat now, but I'll try to come back soon to write some more. :)