Michael Parker's JournalCurrent and Historical Perspectives on Politics, Ethics, Religion, Film, and LifeFavorite Quotes Regarding Poetry- May 31, 2007 Lee Herrick and Pris Campbell inspired me to document "at least 10 quotations pertaining to poetry - from 10 different writers &or poets which best coincide with your philosophy vis a vis ars poetica. They can be posthumous or otherwise. The order is not important - unless it is to you." Here are just a sampling of ten that I&146;m fond of. Poetry is music written for the human voice. Maya Angelou A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W.H...http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/30.html#a924 Memorial Day- May 29, 2007 I've been working on a poem "Because Of These Ill Days" over the weekend and hope to find a home for it. It touches on the emotional effects that my health problems have had on me over the past year. I just underwent a second MRI in nine months. Because of the results -- bilateral narrowing of the nerve canal on L4 and something else I'm not ready to mention right now in case it ends up being nothing at all -- I'm scheduled to see one of the valley's...http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/28.html#a923 Hot 100 Songs Poem Challenge- May 24, 2007 I happened to see MSN's spotlight on the band Kings of Leon and their new song "Because of the Times." Finding it highly poetic, I thought it would be fun compiling a poem of the top 50 hits on Billboard this week. The titles of the songs in my poem appear in capitals. The songs come from the vocalists Huey, Gwen Stefani, Gym Class Heroes, Mims, 50 Cent, Plain White T&146;s, Crime Mob (Featuring Lil Scrappy), Brad Paisley, and Unk. This challenge is to compose your own poem out.http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/24.html#a922 T.S. Elliot and the 'Impersonal Theory'- May 22, 2007 My friend Rex highlighted T.S. Elliot&146;s essay on poetry criticism, called "Tradition and the Individual Talent" in his comment last week. Reading it this evening, I found myself quite agreeable to his concept of the mature poet writing from a wholly selfless, "impersonal" place. It's probably the hardest skill a poet must develop--to be the conduit for the universal message rather than the personalized one, which can be, more than likely, easily ascertained because it is full of...http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/21.html#a921 Short Film: Super Powers- May 19, 2007 Came across this delightful new short film "Super Powers" that premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film went on to win the Special Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short. It is directed by J. Mitchell Anderson and Jeremy Kipp Walker. Enjoy!http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/19.html#a920 Annie Finch on 'Criticism'- May 17, 2007 Last night, I finished another wonderful essay by Annie Finch, "How to Create a Poetic Tradition," which is a response to a letter from a member of the WOMPO listserv. Finch&146;s astute four-page response attempts to answer the reader&146;s posed question: "why are male poets deemed the major carriers of the poetic lineage" What transpires is an accurate and intriguing analysis of criticism&146;s history and how women can help build a new (her)story. I wanted to post an excerpt from the essay;.http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/16.html#a919 Repetition- May 16, 2007 I&146;ve been reading about the art of repetition in poetry, as analyzed by Annie Finch in her collection of essay&146;s The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self. I&146;ll write about Finch&146;s fascinating treatment of this topic at a later time. Tonight&146;s brief post has a different purpose. In the essay "Repetition, Repetition," Finch uses Sara Teasdale&146;s poem "Let It Be Forgotten" as a paradigm of how repetition works in poetry in an aural, visual, and...http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/15.html#a918 EUROVISION 2007 HIGHLIGHTS- May 13, 2007 I was sampling the songs from the winners of this year&146;s EuroVision song writing contest held in Helsinki, Finland this weekend. I came across one of Greece&146;s semi-finalists, Elena Paparizou, who represented Greece last year. While sampling her forgettable entry for the competition, "My Number One," I found her hit song from 2006, "Light in Our Soul." Wow! Elena&146;s a knock out! I&146;m very impressed! Hypnotic melody. Meaningful lyrics. Powerful vocals. And thanks to visual effects..http://blogs.salon.com/0002090/2007/05/12.html#a917 |