Poetry Jam 2020

[lunabee34]

tamsin made a post about wanting to read and write more poetry in the New Year, so we have decided to read the same book of poetry each month and comment on it. Everyone is welcome to join.

January is Wendy Cope's If I Don't Know.
February is Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III.
March-December forthcoming.

We are also thinking about coming up with poetry prompts and possibly posting some poetry we write.

At the end of each month, I'll put up a post for everyone who has read the book of poetry to comment on. If you want to link to or post poetry you've written, leave a poetry prompt, or just talk about reading/writing poetry in general, those posts will be the place to do it.

Poetry writing took up a great deal of the creative energy of the first two decades of my life, and took up almost none of the last two. I'd really like to get back to writing poetry. I made a halfhearted effort to reengage last year, but I think having the accountability of reading/writing poetry in a public way will be helpful to me to meet that goal.

I hope a lot of you get inspired to dive into poetry along with us.

Comments

[nyctanthes]

and a lot of it just sounds like ever-so-slightly increasing anxiety for ten minutes until it finally reaches a crescendo. *shudders*

Ha!

But also, I think that's often what they're going for? I read so many reviews of albums that are: they've had a horrible year and are processing it through this album which takes you on a journey of sheer despair with the barest flicker of light far off in the distance. It's awesome! Listen to it with the lights off and cry and cry.

(Which is fine; but I like my despair with a story attached to it.)

While I *am* a fan of electronica and metal, something with a beat I can work to that doesn't have to have narrative, more experimental music generally leaves me cold.

[lunabee34]

Oh, my husband is Brian Eno, Hearts of Space, Phillip Glass, experimental music all the way. I just can't do it. He used to try to convince me sometimes with a song, but more than 20 years has left us comfortable with our irreconcilable differences in music.

I definitely think they have to be going for anxiety and terror in some of these songs. Some of them sound like bees swarming. LOL

I like Aphex Twin and Richard D. James stuff because they're melodic, so sometimes he has been able to convince me. But mostly not.