The Poetry Meme
Dec. 1st, 2006 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlWhat’s the first poem you remember reading/hearing/reacting to?
Up until I was about 13 or 14 I regularly referred to poetry as "the lowest art form." To me, poetry was dense and unaccessible. I couldn't figure out what most of it meant and because of that, felt it was an archai and completely irrelevant form of expression. Until the night I watched Reg. E. Gaines perform his poem "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" on MTV.
In the early 90's MTV recruited a number of New York spoken word poets who frequented the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and asked them to do a number of 30 second spots for the channel. Poets like Maggie Estep, who I came to LOVE and probably gained the most noteriety based on the spots, were filmed at bizarre angles reciting their fierce, in your face political poetry. The spots became so popular MTV filmed an hour long poetry special featuring all the poets.
I remember flipping channels one night and coming across the show. Reg. E. Gaines had just taken the stage and had launched into "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" a poem about teenagers killing other kids in order to steal their brand name clothes, a crime that showed up on the New York news regularly back in the early 90's and was a real fear for kids in my age group. Reg. E. hunched his shoulders and took on the persona of the poem's speaker, a fashion conscious thug on the look out for his next target.
It was hypnotizing. Reg. E.'s words were so clear, his movements so precise. He was magnetic and incredibly creepy at the same time. Here was poetry that wasn't only entertaining, it actually meant something! It was addressing an issue that was relevent to me and my friends. And most importantly, it was accessible. The language wasn't complicated, there weren't any ridculously big words or confusing syntax. It was straight forward bare bones writing, the sort of laguage I tried to use in my own writing.
I watched him and thought to myself "I wanna do that."
I read/don’t read poetry because...
Because when you're a writer reading others is the primary way you improve your own work. Reg. E. Gaines and Maggie Estep got me into writing spoken word poetry. Through that, I learned how to read and appreciate poetry in general.
A poem I’m likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is…
To this day "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" is my favorite poem. Maggie Estep's "I'm Not a Normal Girl" comes in a close second, and Sherman Alexie's "Horses" a close third.
I write/don’t write poetry, because...
It enables the writer to express thoughts and ideas that may not work in prose form. Poetry allows for a lot of variation in format, grammar and punctuation. Thoughts don't necessarily have to flow in a logical order. They don't have to be confined to sentences. And the first draft of a poem is usually written in a much shorter period of time then the first draft of a novel or short story. There are a lot of pros to writing poetry :-)
My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature…..
In that poetry is still harder for me to analyze. I can do it, but it's a lot harder to write a ten page analysis of a poem that only takes up one page than a novel that takes up 250. To really get the full effect of a poem you have to consider every little detail of it. Why it is structured the way it is, why it bears the title it does, what the writer intended by breaking each line where he did. Poetry is a very deliberate art form so it must be read very closely.
I find poetry…
Comforting
The last time I heard poetry…
Was probably the last time I listened to "The Good Earth Mix." This is a mix tape![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
risaypaz made me back in college and on it there's a recording of her reading a spoken word poem she wrote called "Winter." I love listening to it for two reasons: 1) Because there are a lot of layers to it and I notice something new and extraordinary about it every time I hear it. 2) Because I'm the person who introduced her to spoken word poetry so I like to think of myself as being in some small way responsible for this great poem.
I think poetry is like…
Am I supposed to think of something "poetic" to say here? Poetry is like a flower in bloom or some such nonsense? Okay.
Poetry is like a sledgehammer; capable of great precision in the hands of a professional, painful in the hands of a novice.
Up until I was about 13 or 14 I regularly referred to poetry as "the lowest art form." To me, poetry was dense and unaccessible. I couldn't figure out what most of it meant and because of that, felt it was an archai and completely irrelevant form of expression. Until the night I watched Reg. E. Gaines perform his poem "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" on MTV.
In the early 90's MTV recruited a number of New York spoken word poets who frequented the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and asked them to do a number of 30 second spots for the channel. Poets like Maggie Estep, who I came to LOVE and probably gained the most noteriety based on the spots, were filmed at bizarre angles reciting their fierce, in your face political poetry. The spots became so popular MTV filmed an hour long poetry special featuring all the poets.
I remember flipping channels one night and coming across the show. Reg. E. Gaines had just taken the stage and had launched into "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" a poem about teenagers killing other kids in order to steal their brand name clothes, a crime that showed up on the New York news regularly back in the early 90's and was a real fear for kids in my age group. Reg. E. hunched his shoulders and took on the persona of the poem's speaker, a fashion conscious thug on the look out for his next target.
It was hypnotizing. Reg. E.'s words were so clear, his movements so precise. He was magnetic and incredibly creepy at the same time. Here was poetry that wasn't only entertaining, it actually meant something! It was addressing an issue that was relevent to me and my friends. And most importantly, it was accessible. The language wasn't complicated, there weren't any ridculously big words or confusing syntax. It was straight forward bare bones writing, the sort of laguage I tried to use in my own writing.
I watched him and thought to myself "I wanna do that."
I read/don’t read poetry because...
Because when you're a writer reading others is the primary way you improve your own work. Reg. E. Gaines and Maggie Estep got me into writing spoken word poetry. Through that, I learned how to read and appreciate poetry in general.
A poem I’m likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is…
To this day "Please Don't Take my Air Jordans" is my favorite poem. Maggie Estep's "I'm Not a Normal Girl" comes in a close second, and Sherman Alexie's "Horses" a close third.
I write/don’t write poetry, because...
It enables the writer to express thoughts and ideas that may not work in prose form. Poetry allows for a lot of variation in format, grammar and punctuation. Thoughts don't necessarily have to flow in a logical order. They don't have to be confined to sentences. And the first draft of a poem is usually written in a much shorter period of time then the first draft of a novel or short story. There are a lot of pros to writing poetry :-)
My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature…..
In that poetry is still harder for me to analyze. I can do it, but it's a lot harder to write a ten page analysis of a poem that only takes up one page than a novel that takes up 250. To really get the full effect of a poem you have to consider every little detail of it. Why it is structured the way it is, why it bears the title it does, what the writer intended by breaking each line where he did. Poetry is a very deliberate art form so it must be read very closely.
I find poetry…
Comforting
The last time I heard poetry…
Was probably the last time I listened to "The Good Earth Mix." This is a mix tape
risaypaz made me back in college and on it there's a recording of her reading a spoken word poem she wrote called "Winter." I love listening to it for two reasons: 1) Because there are a lot of layers to it and I notice something new and extraordinary about it every time I hear it. 2) Because I'm the person who introduced her to spoken word poetry so I like to think of myself as being in some small way responsible for this great poem.I think poetry is like…
Am I supposed to think of something "poetic" to say here? Poetry is like a flower in bloom or some such nonsense? Okay.
Poetry is like a sledgehammer; capable of great precision in the hands of a professional, painful in the hands of a novice.
