Feeling out of sorts, I turned to Leonard Cohen, as I usually do in these instances. What Leonard Cohen is able to capture is depth of emotion, and this is what draws us to his music. And it is when we are not feeling all that great, or confident, or powerful, that his music affects us the most. People who are more externally-biased, and do not journey inward to places of hurt and suffering, often do not like Cohen's music. It is 'too depressing,' 'suicidal,' they say. And yet I would bet that his music has saved many people from committing suicide. Anyway.... I came across the video below and found it so interesting that I had to share it with you. The way Leonard Cohen presents himself, in such a lavish environment, really struck me, since his music seems at odds with the high society at this event. It seems that he has managed to do something beyond words... beyond the insincerity that runs in this world.... and all with the power of poetry and song... /ez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIR5ps8usuo&NR=1&feature=endscreen
Vallum Magazine's poetry blog
Friday, 14 June 2013
Griffin Poetry Prize Winner!
Congratulations to David McFadden for winning the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize for poetic excellence for his collection, What's the Score?
more details: http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/06/13/canada-griffin-poetry-prize-winners.html
more details: http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/06/13/canada-griffin-poetry-prize-winners.html
Saturday, 1 June 2013
FEATURED POET: Kevin Higgins
BETRAYALS
(c) Kevin Higgins, 2007 (in Vallum 4:2/5:1)
When the bombers refused to turn
into butterflies, and the Workers
went down the road chanting,
"They say fight-back!
We say cut-back!"
she put on her
stop-doing-that-now face
and counterattacked with evening
after evening of pure thoughts
and proper posture; accompanied
her gluten-free muesli
to the verandah and watched the seagulls
flying towards her;
as she took out and weighed
all our betrayals.
Thursday, 30 May 2013
silence...
a friend recently participated in a silent retreat, which sparked my interest in it. there are two kinds of silence: the good kind and the bad kind. the good kind involves a feeling of peace, like you are one with the universe, a kind of free-floating in the quiet of outer and inner spaces. the bad kind, makes you pace around, feel like you have no friend or connection to anything or anyone, and leaves you almost crazy. because the world is so caught up with sound, or noise, it has grown accustomed to always co-existing with it. so a warning bell sounds when it is suddenly quiet. seriously, many people can't handle silence for even five minutes.
but I say unto you, be quiet! at least sometimes... maybe a first baby step to the possibilities of meditative silence is a meditation with music that might help still your mind enough for the silent retreat. the video below might disconnect your mind from your body if you listen to it long enough and stare directly at the flame for the recommended hour. ha. maybe afterwards you can just stare at the flame without the music, yes, in silence.
why should we be silent? because that is where the mystery is. /ez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfpLea9OurA
but I say unto you, be quiet! at least sometimes... maybe a first baby step to the possibilities of meditative silence is a meditation with music that might help still your mind enough for the silent retreat. the video below might disconnect your mind from your body if you listen to it long enough and stare directly at the flame for the recommended hour. ha. maybe afterwards you can just stare at the flame without the music, yes, in silence.
why should we be silent? because that is where the mystery is. /ez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfpLea9OurA
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
dead zone
ok, I just blogged about film and fiction. all good. but I just came across this 'debate' on a site, which, although full of hot air, illustrates how a lot of people think about poetry:
"Good fiction (short stories, novels, any kind of story-telling, really) conveys philosophical, personal, emotional, historical and educational concepts. It also provides these within a framework of a story, which immerses the reader in the concepts in a way that would otherwise be impossible.
Poetry, especially modern poetry, conveys some of the same concepts but it does so in a much shorter and often formless way. Often, it conveys nothing at all.
I submit that people who write and read poetry instead of fiction are lazy.
The poetry writers throw out some phrases or words which do not even have to rhyme or follow any structure at all, and the readers thank them because this means they can "fill in the blanks" with their own concepts.
It's easy for both, safe for the world-views of both, and it accomplishes nothing. Nothing was actually communicated, because the interpretation is from the reader himself. The reader could get the same kind of inspiration from looking at a rock. Probably more inspiration, honestly.
Poetry can be fun if you just want to throw something out there really quick and fun to read if you're not looking to learn anything or be challenged (other than the occasional artless "poetic shock attempt"- i.e. "I want to kiss George W. Bush" or something along those lines).
But it stands that poetry is still just underdeveloped (and vastly underdeveloped, at that) fiction. Any poem could be turned into a story with some talent and effort, and it would gain meaning for it.
Ernest Hemingway did one better. He used all the advantages of the story to truly convey meaning, but he left just enough ambiguity so the reader could make the stories a little more personal (by "filling in the blanks").
That's a tricky feat to pull off, and I've seen anyone else able to do it. If you can't do that, surely it's better to go with "straight" fiction. After all, if you have no specific meaning you want to impart, what is the point of writing anything at all?"
http://www.debate.org/debates/Poetry-is-nothing-except-underdeveloped-fiction./1/
I can't believe this rant. It is sad that there is so little understanding of what poetry is and how deeply involved with writing a poet is. I can only hope that these shallow and uneducated beliefs are not in the majority. /ez
"Good fiction (short stories, novels, any kind of story-telling, really) conveys philosophical, personal, emotional, historical and educational concepts. It also provides these within a framework of a story, which immerses the reader in the concepts in a way that would otherwise be impossible.
Poetry, especially modern poetry, conveys some of the same concepts but it does so in a much shorter and often formless way. Often, it conveys nothing at all.
I submit that people who write and read poetry instead of fiction are lazy.
The poetry writers throw out some phrases or words which do not even have to rhyme or follow any structure at all, and the readers thank them because this means they can "fill in the blanks" with their own concepts.
It's easy for both, safe for the world-views of both, and it accomplishes nothing. Nothing was actually communicated, because the interpretation is from the reader himself. The reader could get the same kind of inspiration from looking at a rock. Probably more inspiration, honestly.
Poetry can be fun if you just want to throw something out there really quick and fun to read if you're not looking to learn anything or be challenged (other than the occasional artless "poetic shock attempt"- i.e. "I want to kiss George W. Bush" or something along those lines).
But it stands that poetry is still just underdeveloped (and vastly underdeveloped, at that) fiction. Any poem could be turned into a story with some talent and effort, and it would gain meaning for it.
Ernest Hemingway did one better. He used all the advantages of the story to truly convey meaning, but he left just enough ambiguity so the reader could make the stories a little more personal (by "filling in the blanks").
That's a tricky feat to pull off, and I've seen anyone else able to do it. If you can't do that, surely it's better to go with "straight" fiction. After all, if you have no specific meaning you want to impart, what is the point of writing anything at all?"
http://www.debate.org/debates/Poetry-is-nothing-except-underdeveloped-fiction./1/
I can't believe this rant. It is sad that there is so little understanding of what poetry is and how deeply involved with writing a poet is. I can only hope that these shallow and uneducated beliefs are not in the majority. /ez
Monday, 27 May 2013
a spot on fantasy
fantasy, O fantasy ... the worlds 'within,' somewhat opposed to science fiction, the worlds 'within but out there.' as you may have guessed, I prefer the former. I am looking forward to reading the latest by Patricia McKillip, who, if you haven't read her, has an amazing control of language and imagination. I also enjoyed the 1980's film, Legend, which is quite enchanting. what does it take create such other worlds, just under the covers? all part of the creative mind, poetry and fiction. these days, I am always moving too fast to even think of such grand feats... but I did slow down to listen to the soundtrack below. and I will read the book on a long train-ride to Toronto. /ez
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=8I20fZG9j6E
excerpt from Wonders of the Invisible World, Patricia A. McKillip, 2012.
"She gave him bread seasoned with rosemary, a deep bowl of savory stew, and wine. While he ate, she sat across from him on a hearth bench and talked about the wood. 'My family wandered in and out of it for centuries,' she told him. 'Their tales became family folklore. Some were written; others just passed from one generation to the next along with the family nose. Even if the tales weren't true, truth would never stand a chance against them.'
'Have you ever been--'
'To fairy land and back? No. Nor would I swear, not even on a turnip, that any of my ancestors had. But I've seen odd things here and there; I've heard and not quite heard...enough that I believe it's there, in that ancient wood, if you can find your way.' He nodded, his eyes on the fire, seeing and not quite seeing, and heard her voice again. 'You've been there and back.'
'Yes,' he said softly."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=8I20fZG9j6E
excerpt from Wonders of the Invisible World, Patricia A. McKillip, 2012.
"She gave him bread seasoned with rosemary, a deep bowl of savory stew, and wine. While he ate, she sat across from him on a hearth bench and talked about the wood. 'My family wandered in and out of it for centuries,' she told him. 'Their tales became family folklore. Some were written; others just passed from one generation to the next along with the family nose. Even if the tales weren't true, truth would never stand a chance against them.'
'Have you ever been--'
'To fairy land and back? No. Nor would I swear, not even on a turnip, that any of my ancestors had. But I've seen odd things here and there; I've heard and not quite heard...enough that I believe it's there, in that ancient wood, if you can find your way.' He nodded, his eyes on the fire, seeing and not quite seeing, and heard her voice again. 'You've been there and back.'
'Yes,' he said softly."
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Carmine Starnino's essay and further reflections
We cannot be divorced from our culture's practices, and as artists/writers, there is the added weight of having to represent these practices via a given medium. If the collective 'mind' consists of long, interminable information modules (and by 'information' I include anything that is in circulation, like art, writing, commodities, music, ads, opinions etc..), then how can one 'descend' into the psychic archives and pull out the kind of meaning that is not also a series of information streams dressed up in random bits and bytes? Difficult.
Carmine Starnino has written an insightful piece he calls "The Steampunk Zone," wherein he discusses poetry, specifically, and how it is perceived and absorbed today. He loosely points to the randomness of cultural consciousness and writes, "as intellectual thresholds are reduced to practically zero, we are fast approaching a kind of free economy: it costs nothing to blog about these things. God knows it means nothing." And, yes, it is an economy that is 'free' in the sense that there is little basis for truth or centredness anymore. With respect to poetry, Starnino says that "Today the rule is 'only connect.' No association is too odd or unlikely. Ideas exist in a state of high-spirited hyperlinkability." This does not only apply to poetry and art, but is the hallmark of postmodern, 'excremental' culture. And at the heart of the postmodern is the game.
The game is fun, as it has always been since the beginning of time. It is playful, exciting, challenging, and random in its outcome. This is fine. But if we get lost in the game--if we become the game--without being able to step outside it, then where is reality? We turn into kinds of addicts, moving within continuous spheres that will not let go of us. I like Starnino's futuristic references. He highlights a very important tendency in social consciousness to move beyond the present, real, world towards some space-reality 'out there,' which is a very dangerous thing, as it has no end--the endless frontier--where the telos is likely to be self-annihilation. The game has gotten out of control, and how can we expect artists and poets to express something different, or differently? The 'different' may be ironically couched in pre-20th Century influences.
I wanted to write: "The game is now on video, now available everywhere." And I guess I just did, but I am thinking that this inherently postmodern statement, and its attending bleakness, may not blank out the possibility of escape. /ez
link to Carmine Starnino's essay:
http://lemonhound.com/2013/04/17/carmine-starnino-steampunk-zone/
Carmine Starnino has written an insightful piece he calls "The Steampunk Zone," wherein he discusses poetry, specifically, and how it is perceived and absorbed today. He loosely points to the randomness of cultural consciousness and writes, "as intellectual thresholds are reduced to practically zero, we are fast approaching a kind of free economy: it costs nothing to blog about these things. God knows it means nothing." And, yes, it is an economy that is 'free' in the sense that there is little basis for truth or centredness anymore. With respect to poetry, Starnino says that "Today the rule is 'only connect.' No association is too odd or unlikely. Ideas exist in a state of high-spirited hyperlinkability." This does not only apply to poetry and art, but is the hallmark of postmodern, 'excremental' culture. And at the heart of the postmodern is the game.
The game is fun, as it has always been since the beginning of time. It is playful, exciting, challenging, and random in its outcome. This is fine. But if we get lost in the game--if we become the game--without being able to step outside it, then where is reality? We turn into kinds of addicts, moving within continuous spheres that will not let go of us. I like Starnino's futuristic references. He highlights a very important tendency in social consciousness to move beyond the present, real, world towards some space-reality 'out there,' which is a very dangerous thing, as it has no end--the endless frontier--where the telos is likely to be self-annihilation. The game has gotten out of control, and how can we expect artists and poets to express something different, or differently? The 'different' may be ironically couched in pre-20th Century influences.
I wanted to write: "The game is now on video, now available everywhere." And I guess I just did, but I am thinking that this inherently postmodern statement, and its attending bleakness, may not blank out the possibility of escape. /ez
link to Carmine Starnino's essay:
http://lemonhound.com/2013/04/17/carmine-starnino-steampunk-zone/
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