I listened to the interview and some poetry readings by Denise Duhamel. I enjoyed listening to the interview. I mostly enjoyed reading to the poetry. I found it very easy to imagine the poem and images in my mind with it being read aloud. I was very impressed with the poem Feminism. I felt that it was so strong. I liked that she was able to tell, through the interview, how she came about writing the poem. She stated that she used a Girl Scout handbook that belonged to her niece to use as reference material for writing this poem. I thought that was so interesting. I was glad to hear what materials she used for inspiration. I am slowly finding that poetry has rules, but the source of the poetry is wide open.
They even talked about how her poems contained a lot of humorous content. I don't necessarily think of poetry geared towards adults to be humorous in nature. I have this thought of broken hearted woman pouring her heart out over the paper through poetry. I now see that poetry geared towards adults can be humorous. Adult poetry does not have to be serious, it can be fun and playful.
I thought this site was helpful because it had the audio clips. You were able to hear the author and listen to her thoughts about her poetry. Reading an interview is never the same as getting to hear it live. I appreciated hearing her laugh and giggle about her poems and their content. I appreciate light hearted humor. I must admit that her poem entitled Nick at Night was hard for me to understand completely. I have come to the conclusion through the last two web sites that I may be trying to hard to understand. I think I need to clear my head, relax, and just listen and stop trying to assign value to each line like a number. They do not have to make sense.
4 comments:
NOTE: I'm posting comments to all of your first three blog entries here.
Shelby, I just finished reading and writing a response for somebody else that had written a blog entry on Toolkit for Poets, so I was interested in seeing what you had to say about the site. It's good to read the different reviews because they tend to focus on different parts of the site (since many of these sites are so extensive). As I read your comments about haikus and your initial impression that they would be easy to write, it made me think of a game that advertises itself as taking minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. The haiku form really does lend itself to the impression that it would be easy to write, but my how difficult they are to compose. One of the comments from the other blog I read on this site indicated that her first reaction to the site was a confusing layout. Did you find it difficult to navigate and find useful information?
In your second entry, I appreciate your candid remarks about your level of comfort with understanding poetry. I am right there with you in that regard. I have some of the same goals with poetry that you stated in your blog. Given these similarities, I have noted the Electronic Literature Dictionary as a site to include in my resource exploration.
As for your most recent entry, you make the observation that poetry for adults does not have to be serious--it can be humorous. I have this preconception that I have to overcome as well. I have always viewed poetry that is humorous as less praiseworthy by those who are serious and consistently partake in the genre. I have no basis for that feeling, but that's how I've always felt. Your comment about humorous poems shed some light for me. One of my blog entries was for an interview by a recently deceased author. It contained no audio, but I can already tell that I like those sites and find immediate value in them. Your review affirmed those thoughts. Thanks, Shelby.
I totally connected to your image of a woman crying over her paper as she wrote a poem. I was totally transfixed into that image that poetry was either serious or romantic. How interesting that it is a challenge for me to write about humorous issues. Thank goodness for this class. I am hoping to explore all the aspects of poetry that I was really afraid to take a chance at writing!
I'm looking forward to hearing that interview. I love that she used the Girl Scout Handbook as a reference. That's just cool.
I think it's fun to hear an author's reaction to his/her own work, especially when you can tell that they are enjoying it, as well.
Excellent posts.
In general comedy in all the arts gets much less respect than tragedy--and yet, I do believe it is much harder to write good comic verse (or act in good comic plays) than in the tragedy, or drama--I think Ogden Nash is one of the great underappreciated poets of the ages. The thing is, he makes it look so easy! (I should try assigning people to imitate an Ogden Nash poem soemtime!).
And the best poets, such as DuHamel, can combine the elements to make a superb work of art.
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