Initiated Investigation on an idea that interests you

When searching up the words which i was given, i came across
a link that seemed interesting to me. I love art and this was the link to an online art gallery. When clicking on, i found a bunch of photos but one photo stood out to me more than the others because it related directly to the main word which i was searching. This photo/painting is called “The Cathedrel, by Frantisek Cupka I would describe this photo as many shapes filled in with different colours, mostly blues of different shades. This photo gives off an
air of mystery and culture which is what i enjoy most about it. When first looking at this photo, i felt as if i was looking directly into the night, which was my word. It gave me the same feeling as i get when walking outside and 9 or 10 o’clock. It reminded me of one of my many walks at night and i loved it. I believe that part the reason that i felt this way was because o the colours. Through this photo, and my evaluation of it, i have learnt that the colours used in any type of art work, can help create a feeling of whatever topic a person is trying to communicate through their work. This is similar to poetry. When writing a poem, the types of words used can help create an auro or feeling of whatever the poet is trying to communicate. If for example, a poet wanted their reader to picture the night sly when reading their poetry, he or she could involve words that have to do with the night and well as use imagery, (a descriptions which projects an image into someones mind) in their work. Imagists are a type of poets that do much of this.

 This photo that projects the night so well, makes me wonder whether i myself could write a poem which does the same, if i used a lot of imagery. Seeing this photo made me wonder about whether other words and feelings can be portrayed through art as well as this. I both paint and sketch, and I would like to create a painting or a sketch that resembles the night, and
see if i can get an equal feeling from both paintings. I would also like to experiment with imagery in my poetry and plan on doing this in my upcoming poetry composition assignment.

Initiated Investigation on Robert Browning

Browning was born in Camberwell on 7 May 1812. He was an English poet and playwright. His dramatic verse and especially his dramatic monologues were what got him to be considered one of the foremost Victorian poets. Robert was raised in a household full of significant literary resources. His mother, whom he was very close with, was a devout nonconformist as well as a talented musician. Since childhood Browning had an encouraged interest in literature and the arts. By the age of 12, he had written his first poetry book! Unfortunately however, he burnt it when he could not find a publisher. Many of Roberts poems revolve around love and romance, but he almost always includes a dark edge to his work. This is why I am so interested in his poetry. I find that any poet who can play on people’s emotions to this extent, by moving from a gentle feel in his work to more of a violent and dramatic exit, is extremely talented in his or her art. His poem titled “Porphyria’s Lover” did exactly this! This poem takes the perspective of a man telling us some kind of a story. In it, he speaks of a girl with whom he was in love. The way he spoke about her, all I as a reader could sense was his innocence and love for this girl. However, when she comes to him, he speaks of how he strangles her with her hair; “…and all her hair/In one long yellow string I wound, Three times her little throat around, And strangled her.” Porphyria’s lover/ the man, then talks of the corpse’s blue eyes, golden hair, and describes the feeling of happiness that this murder gives him. Here we see the darker edge to the poetry and experience the dramatic exit which is was talking of. This poem evoked my emotions as a reader as many of his poems have. This was the first of his poems to examine abnormal psychology, but many of the poems he wrote throughout his career followed this. It reminded me of the movie the orphan, only because the character in it seemed so innocent until later on. This poem is the exact same thing.

The poems I read by Robert Browning, especially Porphyria’s Lover, made me wonder about how the Robert himself is as a person. I would like to find out more about whether the poems he writes portray his true character in reality. I would like to look more into this and compare the poems he has written to his personality and perspectives on certain topics. It would also be very interesting to see reflections he has perhaps written on his own poetry or the meaning behind it.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/182

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/rbov.html

http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-browning/

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/porphyria/best1.html

 

 

 

Initiated investigation of surreal poetry

Surrealism in poetry is something that interests me very much. It is a type of writing based on free imagination and “practicing a creative process free of any conscious control.” It is said that the importance of the unconscious as a source of inspiration, is related directly to the nature of surrealism. When reading surrealist poetry, I feel completely free from everyday life. I feel as if I am entering this world filled with unusual and rare things. I look at this form of poetry almost an escape. Many surreal poets write with such ease and freedom that their true emotions are expressed perfectly. I regard this form of poetry as one in which writers do more writing than thinking and just let their words flow. I have found that many surrealist poems make readers feel as if they are in some kind of a dream like state. In fact, they seem to remind me of a dream. The poem Dawn by Federico Garcia Lorca is a great example of surrealist poetry. One line in this poem stood out to me more than the others; “a hurricane of black pigeons splashing in the putrid waters.” Not only does this line make you think, but it also makes you look at things from a different perspective. Instead of saying a flock of black pigeons, using the word hurricane creates a completely different impact. It also brings images to my mind of birds flying across the sky, but in more of an unrealistic imaginative way.

Reading about surrealist poetry, made me wonder whether I myself could write a piece of surreal poetry. I would like to find out and plan on writing a surreal poem as my next experimental journal entry. My research also makes me wonder whether the surreal poems that I read, which seem less meaningful, actually have the most emotion and meaning put behind them. I wonder about this because surreal poetry is the type in which strong meanings seem to be hidden behind the dream like, funny writing.

http://www.jbeilharz.de/surrealism/surrealism.html

http://alangullette.com/essays/lit/surreal.htm

http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/

http://www.art.net/Studios/Poets/jennifer/rainbow/surreal/srindex.html

Investigation on Surrealist poet, Dunstan Carter

Dunstan Carter, a thirty two year old surrealist poet currently living in Rusholme Manchester, has been writing poetry for 15 years. His work fulfils all the aspects of surreal poetry and is fascinating to read. Reading his poem, “Half Fallen Leaves“, had me utterly engaged. It was both descriptive and just unreal (surreal haha). It reminded me of a work in which something completely horrifying is meant to sound almost humorous. From all the poems by Carter that I read, “ Half Fallen Leaves“ would definitely have to be my favourite. Dunstan Carter has had a variety of his work published in magazines such as Obsessed With Pipework, irk, Penumbra, First Time, Never Bury Poetry, Rain Dog, Beat Surreal, Square One and The Errorist .On top of writing poetry, he also performs and records music as one half of Manchester’s Gonk-Folk duo, The Abodes. Listening to his music on a link which i found, gave me an idea of why he might write in the way in which he does. I would say that his recordings give me the same engaging feel as his poetry does. His poetry is really something he puts all his feelings into. The messages are hard to really understand but it is easy to see the emotion put behind his work and this is what i really enjoy about it.

My research on Dunstan Carter made me wonder whether he has ever tried to communicate certain messages in both his poetry and recordings. This would be a very interesting thing to look into and perhaps i will in the future. I would love to see whether his recordings connect directly to his surreal poetry. I would also like to read some more of Carter’s poems. Surreal poetry is one of my favourite types and I chose to do my investigation on Carter because while reading through surreal poetry, his poems really caught my attention. I thought he would be an interesting poet to study, and I would say that I was proven right.
http://dunstancarter.wordpress.com/tag/surreal-poems/
http://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/dunstancarter

Investigation on Roo Borson

Looking into Roo Borson, i realized my deep  appreciation for lyric poetry. The way Roo Borson writes her poems, make me feel as if I am there in the midst of what she is saying. The imagery her work gives off is astonishing. When reading her poem titled “Summer’s Drug,” i could picture every single phrase written, playing my head. Roo Borson, was on born January 2oth in 1952 and is a B.A. from Goddard College (1973), an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia (1977), a Writer in Residence at the University of Western Ontario 1987-88, and at Concordia University 1993. As proof of her accomplishments, Borson was the youngest poet to be included in The new Oxford book of Canadian verse (1985) and is also a three-time CBC Literary Award winner and a three-time General’s Literary Award winner for poetry. Her book Short Journey Upriver Toward Oishida, won the Governor General’s Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize! The jury who presented Borson with the governor general’s literary award in poetry, described her work as “an organic whole that resonates on profound spiritual levels, juxtaposing the mundane with notions of
transcendence,” which “invite the reader to embark upon a contemplative journey full of imaginative encounters with death, love, beauty, creativity and the mystery of the physical world.” I strongly agree with this, and especially with
the part of the Jury’s speech which speaks of Borson’s poetry being like a
journey. Her work definitely does give me that feel. I am one person who loves
to read, and Roo Borson’s poetry reminds me of one of the many books which has made me feel extremely engaged. Borson , who is known to many as an Eco Poet (a poet whose work consists of a strong ecological emphasis or message) has also been involved in several collaborative projects, notably with poet Kim
Maltman and visual artist Andy Patton, who are two of her many influences.
Timothy Findley, another celebrated author, has stated that her work “creates a
compelling atmosphere of wonder.” This is just one more description of Borson’s
work which I cannot argue with.

Borson’s work makes me wonder about her life experiences and what really inspires her work, other than just the authors she works with. Much of her work is very nature oriented and I wonder if there is a reason for this. Is she just one who enjoys her surrounding environment? Is this her inspiration? Looking into this idea would interest me. I would love to read more of Borson’s celebrated work.

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/borson/

http://www.thinairwinnipeg.ca/writers/roo-borson

http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/see-and-hear-poetry/a-g/roo-borson/

Panther Press Contest: Walking our path

Isn’t everything we see a path? A pathway with doors, which lead to different directions, each of which holds the unknown. How can we ever know unless we keep going, keep walking, along our path? How can we find our way, if we don’t look for it? Yet we sit around and wait for what’s going to happen. They say good things come to those who wait. I say that’s bullshit. Good things come to those who go out of their way to find them, to those who do anything and everything in their power to find what their looking for, to those who know exactly what they are looking for? But what happens to those of us who have no idea what we want, to those of us who hold back on what we want because others tell us our dreams and destinations are pointless and stupid? Much like while walking down the hallway of our high school, what happens when the final bell rings? Some people run to catch the bus, other miss a few, some stay around and wait, others have no choice but to stay. What happens when the final bell rings, not in school, but in life? When we know this is our last chance to have what we have wanted for longer than anyone can imagine, and if we really want it we have to try hard as hell to reach it? I believe life is a race, with both many winners and many losers. The losers are the ones that don’t give their dreams a shot, the ones that sit around and wait for good things to come to them, the ones that regret. And the winners? Well, the winners are the ones who try. Not necessarily do they succeed, but they live their lives with pride, knowing that the tried as hard as they could, while the real losers sit around and think of what could have happened, and what could have been if they had just given it a shot when they had their chance. This I believe, is the real loss.

 

 

What is poetry

When I personally think of poetry, I think of music, flow
and rhythm. I look at poetry as someone’s own thoughts and expressions put
together in a creative and thoughtful way which allows for readers to view the
poets thoughts from a completely different angle, often finding connections in
it to their own lives. However, I believe that anything which truly makes you
feel something deep inside can be considered poetry. Saying that, I believe it
can be considered justifiable for me to say that poetry is something different
to each of us.

From the discussion we had in class, I found myself wondering
whether certain things could be considered poetry. For example, the piece 1 to
100. When listening to this, I was paying more attention to how the numbers
were being said, than the numbers themselves. I do believe that this piece was
framed in a way which allows for it to be considered poetry. The way something
is said, is as important as what is being said. Listening to that piece, I
found that the way the numbers were being said, was what was giving them meaning
and framing them. The whole concept of framing was also something which I found
interesting about the in class discussion we had. When we discussed what poetry
was, we as a class came to the conclusion that not just anything can be
considered poetry. However, the hard part is where we draw the line, for the
idea of where to draw the line could be different for everyone. It is said that
beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In comparison to this saying, I believe
that the meaning of poetry or anything for that matter relies on a person’s own
interpretation of it. The way we see things, depends gravely on us
individually. I personally, could interoperate everything that we heard in
class, as poetry. What has a meaning to someone else cannot just be considered
nonsense. However like I mentioned before, the way things are said, adds a lot
to the meaning of a piece and allows for a different insight on the matter. The
discussion we had in class made me wonder a lot about other people and what
they consider poetry. I find it would be interest to hear what everyone thinks
and it interested me very much to hear whether people considered what we heard
in class as poetry or not, and their reasoning for it.

To further learn about poetry and the different meanings
different people hold for the term, I plan to research definitions of poetry
and see what I can find, and see whether or not they relate anything to my
personal opinions. I look forward to learning more about this topic in class
for our new unit on poetry and I hope to learn more.

Investigation of mash-ups and sampling sound

When I listened to the playlist for the category of of mash-ups and sampling sound, I felt as if I was listening to a rock song off my I pod. I really enjoyed it.  I loved the beat and the consistent rhythm. It was amazing how the different types of sounds were used in such a nice and enjoyable pattern. I also liked the way different words were mixed up and put into different parts giving songs and other recordings, a whole different meaning from the original one. I thought about all the different sounds I was hearing and where I had heard them before as well as how they were being made. Listening to the playlist reminded me of a time in grade 10 when I was taking a communications technology course, and was assigned to mix up different songs and sounds, and to play around with them in order to createa piece of my own. It was one of my favourite projects. I loved creating
something that was so different from what I had originally started off with (The
fact that i couldn’t really mess up on it might have also been a reason for
which it was one of my favourites, but that’s irrelevant). I also had to
include distinguishable words in my final piece, just like these recordings do,
and I included all the words that really caught my attentions. I loved how my
final piece turned out. I thought of that project as more of a fun experiment
than actual school work, and I’m sure these well made recordings also began as
a fun experiment to learn more about sound.

Listening to this playlist made me wonder about whether
these recordings were made at random or with a specific intent behind them. It
would be interesting to find out about what the artists of these recordings
were meaning to do, or even thinking about while creating them. I also thought about
all the different songs I listen to and how amazing it would be to just change
up the words and see how they all turn out. I believe that the songs would flow
much differently and there would be more rough edges, just like there were in
many of the songs/recordings on the playlist, making them particularly more interesting.
I could even put the words together in a way that made the song have a
completely different message if I chose to or maybe even at random and then see
what i ended up with. In the future, I would actually like to try this with a
couple of songs and then interpret the original one and the changed one to
compare the different flows, beats and messages. In my opinion, this would make
for a great piece of writing.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25429

http://www.myspace.com/mashupsound25

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(music)

Investigation on sound poetry

When I first listened to the codpaste episode about sound
poetry, I found it really funny. I think sound poetry is a hilarious concept
but also one that can be referred to as extremely deep, depending of course on
what types of sounds are being made.  When listening to this recording however, I
sensed more of an edge of humour than anything. I enjoyed it because it made me
laugh. I believe sound can have a very huge impact on our mood and this is
proof of that. When listening to this episode I thought of the different sounds
being used to create the effect of humour and about how they all worked so well
together. It reminded me of a time when I and my sister were younger and we
made a vow not to talk for an entire day, so instead of talking we mumbled. We didn’t
think anyone would really be able to understand us but strangely we did great
that day with communication. My mother understood almost everything we were
trying to say (The hand actions also helped).  This kind of opened my mind to sound and the different types of sounds that could be used to communicate certain words and
concepts. I believe this relates directly to sound poetry because I look at sound
poetry as a story being told without words, but instead with sound.

Listening to this episode made me wonder about what kinds of
different sounds could be used in order to make a piece sound more deep than humorous
or to even communicate any other type of emotion. It made me wonder whether
certain written poetry could be translated into sound poetry.

To explore this concept further, I would enjoy reading
poetry and experimenting with different sounds to see which ones could
communicate the poem better, and to turn a poem into sound poetry. I think that
would be really cool thing to do and would be a great experience to just learn more
about sound in general.

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25530

http://epc.buffalo.edu/sound/soundpoetry.html

http://www.poetryteachers.com/poetclass/lessons/sound.html

 

 

 

 

Investigation on Martin Luther Kings speech, with his language removed

When I first listened to marathon Luther king’s speech with
language removed, I was surprised that someone would even think to do such a
thing. It’s both creative and imaginative, and the sounds I heard were great.
In a way it was as if a whole new meaning was given to his speech. I would
never have even played attention to the sounds in the background or any of the
sounds present, if I hadn’t listened to this version of his speech. When
listening to this, I thought about all the people who must have been present
during the speech and about what sounds they each must, personally, have been
creating in the background.  It reminded
me of a time when my friend wanted to watch the movie hairspray with me, which was
a movie that I had already watched 10 times.  I refused to watch it and told her that it wouldn’t be interesting for me anymore. She then told me to look into the background of
the movie, and instead of focusing on the story line of the movie and what was
happening, to pay attention to the random people and things going on in the
background. I finally agreed and to be honest, watching the movie like that, was
more interesting than it was all those other times. Just like paying attention
to the things going on in the background of a movie, in this case this
recording helps us pay attention to the different things going on in the
background, as well as notice things we wouldn’t have before. It also helps us
see something, from a whole different perspective.

Listening to this speech with all the language removed, made
me wonder what everyone in the background must have been doing, and more
specifically what everyone must have been thinking. I believe a big part of
this can be figured out by listening to the sounds in the background. It also
made me wonder how I would sound if I was recorded during the day and all
language was removed, and also whether or not I would still be able to
understand myself and know what I was saying at the time, by listening closely
to the sounds.

Listening to this recording made me realize that I would
love to explore the concept of having language removed from recordings, by
actually recording myself during the day and just erasing all the language
later on. It would be fascinating to see how I would sound.