(no subject)
I always assumed that the only good thing I got from my second college English class was my Jeffrey Dahmer paper... but I went through a Harryette Mullen book we had to read, and I found a poem that makes me wiggle. It's really cute, despite being nonsensical.
Here's some backstory: the book it's from is called Sleeping With the Dictionary. It's poetry, but instead of just strictly writing poetry, she plays word games. One of them was like... you replace all of the nouns in your poem with a word in a dictionary that is 7 words above or below the word you originally used. Anyway, it seems like it could be really nonsensical, but the magic behind words and language is that some of the poetry ends up being BETTER after that.
I don't know, the poem that I liked didn't use that (to my knowledge)... but it still plays with words and themes. Anyway... I'm gonna put it here because I appreciate it. After all, poems are just songs without music behind it.
Any Lit by Harryette Mullen
You are a ukelele beyond my microphone
You are a Yukon beyond my Micronesia
You are a union beyond my meiosis
You are a unicycle beyond my migration
You are a universe beyond my mitochondria
You are a Eucharist beyond my Miles Davis
You are a euphony beyond my myocardiogram
You are a unicorn beyond my Minotaur
You are a eureka beyond my maitai
You are a Yuletide beyond my minesweeper
You are a euphemism beyond my myna bird
You are a unit beyond my mileage
You are a Yugoslavia beyond my mind's eye
You are a yoo-hoo beyond my minor key
You are a Euripides beyond my mime troupe
You are a Utah beyond my microcosm
You are a Uranus beyond my Miami
You are a youth beyond my mylar
You are a euphoria beyond my myalgia
You are a Ukranian beyond my Maimonides
You are a Euclid beyond my miter box
You are a Univac beyond my minus sign
You are a Eurydice beyond my maestro
You are a eugenics beyond my Mayan
You are a U-boat beyond my mind control
You are a euthanasia beyond my miasma
You are a urethra beyond my Mysore
You are a Euterpe beyond my Mighty Sparrow
You are a ubiquity beyond my minority
You are a eunuch beyond my migraine
You are a Eurodollar beyond my miserliness
You are a urinal beyond my Midol
You are a useless beyond my myopia
That one goes out to all my peeps.
And, if that fails at making me one of the most pretentious persons I know, this will win it:
I was googling the poem to see if anybody had anything to say about it... it's not a very well known poem as much as it is a poem of decent length in one of her most prominent poetry books. Anyhow, I didn't find much... most of the hits google pulled up weren't even discussions about the poem but just the title of the poem listed with the rest of the poems in the anthology. Therefore more than 80% of the shit that came up was garbage.
Anyway, I found “Precise Word Choice vs Bombardment of Imagery,” an editorial by Robin Stone, which I thought was really interesting.
Harryette Mullen's "Any Lit" is a good example of imagery bombardment. How much imagery is too much? The poet's job is to intertwine enough related imagery in the poem to allow the reader to flow along the words to the meaning without becoming overwhelmed by images that pull the reader off in a tangent, or create a distance between the reader and the meaning of the poem. According to Coleridge, poetry should be "sensuous, and by its imagery elicit truth in a flash, and be able to move our feelings and awaken our affections."
It just surprised me because that poem is a very safe and very retarded poem to choose to use as an example of "imagery bombardment." This Robin person is picking on the fact that Harryette drew little lines between a few dozen related or completely unrelated things... it's just funny that the fucking douchebag didn't even bother to mention the double standard behind using that as an example. Sure, it's imagery bombardment... but what about the very simple image that the entire thing projects:
You are the you beyond my my.
That is the only image the poem intends to show.
I don't know... I just feel like it's really easy for people to completely disregard the consequences of their simplicity... Maybe the image isn't so easily noticed by everyone who reads it... but a "guest editor" for a POETRY COLUMN who is speaking about IMAGERY BOMBARDMENT should certainly know how to feel around a poem, especially one whose prose is otherwise more or less nonsensical.
I guess there is no point behind me complicating this post with all of that. I suppose I just feel like it would be interesting to pick my teacher's brain about that and see what he says. The funny thing is, when I was in that class, I hated how pretentious he was but now I pretty much appreciate it. Whatev'.
ANYWAY I'm having a really fun weekend... that is all for now. (And yay for public entries!)
Here's some backstory: the book it's from is called Sleeping With the Dictionary. It's poetry, but instead of just strictly writing poetry, she plays word games. One of them was like... you replace all of the nouns in your poem with a word in a dictionary that is 7 words above or below the word you originally used. Anyway, it seems like it could be really nonsensical, but the magic behind words and language is that some of the poetry ends up being BETTER after that.
I don't know, the poem that I liked didn't use that (to my knowledge)... but it still plays with words and themes. Anyway... I'm gonna put it here because I appreciate it. After all, poems are just songs without music behind it.
Any Lit by Harryette Mullen
You are a ukelele beyond my microphone
You are a Yukon beyond my Micronesia
You are a union beyond my meiosis
You are a unicycle beyond my migration
You are a universe beyond my mitochondria
You are a Eucharist beyond my Miles Davis
You are a euphony beyond my myocardiogram
You are a unicorn beyond my Minotaur
You are a eureka beyond my maitai
You are a Yuletide beyond my minesweeper
You are a euphemism beyond my myna bird
You are a unit beyond my mileage
You are a Yugoslavia beyond my mind's eye
You are a yoo-hoo beyond my minor key
You are a Euripides beyond my mime troupe
You are a Utah beyond my microcosm
You are a Uranus beyond my Miami
You are a youth beyond my mylar
You are a euphoria beyond my myalgia
You are a Ukranian beyond my Maimonides
You are a Euclid beyond my miter box
You are a Univac beyond my minus sign
You are a Eurydice beyond my maestro
You are a eugenics beyond my Mayan
You are a U-boat beyond my mind control
You are a euthanasia beyond my miasma
You are a urethra beyond my Mysore
You are a Euterpe beyond my Mighty Sparrow
You are a ubiquity beyond my minority
You are a eunuch beyond my migraine
You are a Eurodollar beyond my miserliness
You are a urinal beyond my Midol
You are a useless beyond my myopia
That one goes out to all my peeps.
And, if that fails at making me one of the most pretentious persons I know, this will win it:
I was googling the poem to see if anybody had anything to say about it... it's not a very well known poem as much as it is a poem of decent length in one of her most prominent poetry books. Anyhow, I didn't find much... most of the hits google pulled up weren't even discussions about the poem but just the title of the poem listed with the rest of the poems in the anthology. Therefore more than 80% of the shit that came up was garbage.
Anyway, I found “Precise Word Choice vs Bombardment of Imagery,” an editorial by Robin Stone, which I thought was really interesting.
Harryette Mullen's "Any Lit" is a good example of imagery bombardment. How much imagery is too much? The poet's job is to intertwine enough related imagery in the poem to allow the reader to flow along the words to the meaning without becoming overwhelmed by images that pull the reader off in a tangent, or create a distance between the reader and the meaning of the poem. According to Coleridge, poetry should be "sensuous, and by its imagery elicit truth in a flash, and be able to move our feelings and awaken our affections."
It just surprised me because that poem is a very safe and very retarded poem to choose to use as an example of "imagery bombardment." This Robin person is picking on the fact that Harryette drew little lines between a few dozen related or completely unrelated things... it's just funny that the fucking douchebag didn't even bother to mention the double standard behind using that as an example. Sure, it's imagery bombardment... but what about the very simple image that the entire thing projects:
You are the you beyond my my.
That is the only image the poem intends to show.
I don't know... I just feel like it's really easy for people to completely disregard the consequences of their simplicity... Maybe the image isn't so easily noticed by everyone who reads it... but a "guest editor" for a POETRY COLUMN who is speaking about IMAGERY BOMBARDMENT should certainly know how to feel around a poem, especially one whose prose is otherwise more or less nonsensical.
I guess there is no point behind me complicating this post with all of that. I suppose I just feel like it would be interesting to pick my teacher's brain about that and see what he says. The funny thing is, when I was in that class, I hated how pretentious he was but now I pretty much appreciate it. Whatev'.
ANYWAY I'm having a really fun weekend... that is all for now. (And yay for public entries!)