Related pages:
Poetry index. Books on How to Read. Books on How to Write. How to Listen. How to Write - A Recipe. |
How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. |
Books of Poetry Form. |
If you have difficulty listening to poetry, contemplate Philip Wagner's advice.
You may enjoy poetry by listening for its wit, its insight, and its music.
Listen to poetry by attending poetry readings in your local bookstores or colleges.
Here are two other marvelous ways to hear poetry:
The poems are "Determined by the consensus of over 1,000 compilers, and arranged in chronological order." Each poet and each poem is preceded by pithy comments. The poets who read the poems have diverse reading styles, which adds interest to the program.
By the way, you may come across negative reviewers. Ignore them. On the whole, such folk seem unaware that "classic" works are different from "modern works" and that (just as Joan Baez has given us her marvelous song of Poe's poem Annabel Lee) a woman may be the reader for a poem written by a man.
The above Copyright © 2002-2017 by J. Zimmerman. |
Stuff You Can Do At A Boring Poetry Reading
by
Philip Wagner
1. Write the names of the people you love
on the roof of your mouth
with your tongue.
2. Hum lyrics -
ones you'll write in green ink
on your lover's silk underwear.
3. Imagine ... walking around the building
Sing out the names of everything you see
and chant the words, I-love-you.
Take for example this: Wet and Fallen Pine Cone
I-love-you
All the spent and dented ...
all the forgotten ...
all empty beer cans ...
everything in the gutter,
I-love-you.
and O parking meters
lonely with no time left for anyone
I-love-you.
4. Listen carefully to the poet
Invent a little prayer for his easy death.
Recite the mantra: deDUM deDUM, heDUM heDUM
5. See what happens
when you add the words chicken guts at the end of each stanza.
6. Aurally rewrite a line in Pig Latin
Rally-o-ray write-o-ray a-ray ine-lay in-ray Ig-pay Atin-lay
7. Move to the front row
Look into the poet's eyes
Stare into his corneas
Go there, &
with your feet on one side and your two hands on the other
open his irises real wide
so the poet can see
what it is
he's talking about.
Copyright
© 2002-2015 by Philip Wagner.
(First e-publication @ Ariadne's Poetry Web, June 23, 2002.) (First paper publication in Porter Gulch Review, Spring 2002.) |
Related pages:
Poetry index. Books on How to Read. Books on How to Write. How to Listen. How to Write - A Recipe. |
How to write specific forms: Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka. |
Books of Poetry Form. |
Related pages:
Poetry Index. Books on How to Read. Books on How to Write. How to Listen. How to Write - A Recipe. |
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