To what extent does whom you read influences how you write?

[Angeline]

Love this poem and this journal. Warning to Epmd: uses the word baby.

That's a good poem. It also brings up something that matters a lot to me, and that is that music probably influences my writing more than what I've read. The sound of music, the way rhythm sounds, whether it's formal or more improvisational all have an effect on what I write...and how I write.

Are you familiar with Born Magazine? I love what they do there, and I'd like to collaborate with people to develop something to submit to them. But I really do have to move first lol.

 

[Epmd607]

Love this poem and this journal. Warning to Epmd: uses the word baby.

My thing about baby is as a term of intimacy. It's anti-intimate, shouldn't be in a poem posing as a term of endearment. Billy Collins makes fun of it well in one of his poems, I can't remember which. The poem you link uses 'baby' like someone else would use 'man'. I think Bflag posted a poem that straddles the baby line every which way, last week maybe.

John Donne bang a gong

 

[Angeline]

My thing about baby is as a term of intimacy. It's anti-intimate, shouldn't be in a poem posing as a term of endearment. Billy Collins makes fun of it well in one of his poems, I can't remember which. The poem you link uses 'baby' like someone else would use 'man'. I think Bflag posted a poem that straddles the baby line every which way, last week maybe.

John Donne bang a gong

Didn't bother me a bit, but I dug James Brown and still love Motown and well popular ballads, like Louis Armstrong playing I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby. It's a cultural expression, and even a cliche can be the right thing to say under the right circumstances.

But I am very weird: unopposed even to words like "rainbow" and "unicon" in a poem under the right circumstance. Well, those two words in theory. I mean somebody could write a good or clever or even moving poem that uses them. Just not in the same poem, probably. Billy Collins could do it and make me laugh, too.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

My thing about baby is as a term of intimacy. It's anti-intimate, shouldn't be in a poem posing as a term of endearment. Billy Collins makes fun of it well in one of his poems, I can't remember which. The poem you link uses 'baby' like someone else would use 'man'. I think Bflag posted a poem that straddles the baby line every which way, last week maybe.

John Donne bang a gong

I think baby, like every other word, has connotative values that can be useful, but can be dangerous if one ignores them. I used it in my avatar dysphoria poem because I was trying to work against romance. ("Baby, I love you like a fax/copy/printer" was supposed to be a little jarring) So I think it can work so long as someone is aware of the connotation it carries--the sense of a glib endearment that is maybe a little defensive or oily.

 

[Tzara]

Love this poem and this journal. Warning to Epmd: uses the word baby.

That poem is an example of why I won't send anything out anymore.

Dammit. I wish I could write like that.








Epmd doesn't like the word "baby?" Can I taunt him with that? Oooh.

 

[Tzara]

...I am very weird: unopposed even to words like "rainbow" and "unicon" in a poem under the right circumstance.

"Unicon" sounds like a term that describes a joint Star Trek/Comics convention.

So, like an operational definition of "scary."

 

[champagne1982]

"Unicon" sounds like a term that describes a joint Star Trek/Comics convention.

So, like an operational definition of "scary."

Unicon Mr. Spock.
Landing pardy, to the transporter room...
4 to beam down Mr. Sulu...


You just don't want to be the "expendable crew member"
Ever
ever.

 

[Epmd607]

Didn't bother me a bit, but I dug James Brown and still love Motown and well popular ballads, like Louis Armstrong playing I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby. It's a cultural expression, and even a cliche can be the right thing to say under the right circumstances.

But I am very weird: unopposed even to words like "rainbow" and "unicon" in a poem under the right circumstance. Well, those two words in theory. I mean somebody could write a good or clever or even moving poem that uses them. Just not in the same poem, probably. Billy Collins could do it and make me laugh, too.

'Baby' in music doesn't bother me, in poems where it's used like 'Honey' I find disingenuous. The poem linked doesn't bother me, it's a slam poem. You can get away with a lot in the performance of a poem, just like most lyrics are absolutely uninteresting when read. I haven't heard this poem performed, but from how it reads I assume its meant to be performed. It's an okay reading poem, but I'm sure it's a better stage poem.

 

[Epmd607]

To what extent does whom you read influence how you name your baby?

I've been campaigning hard for the last month or so to name my baby Dorothy Parker Nancy Drew. My wife is not fond of either Dorothy or Nancy. She wants to name the baby George Eliot Drew. Has anyone else named their baby after a poet or writer?

 

[EroticOrogeny]

We chiose Frederick for our son, but not sure where we got that.. His middle name is my Dad's first name.

 

[Angeline]

"Unicon" sounds like a term that describes a joint Star Trek/Comics convention.

So, like an operational definition of "scary."

It does have a certain 1984 quality to it, huh? I gotta get a mouse for my laptop--I can't type with that silly little touchpad thingy.

Unicon Mr. Spock.
Landing pardy, to the transporter room...
4 to beam down Mr. Sulu...


You just don't want to be the "expendable crew member"
Ever
ever.

I know someone would riff on it as soon as I saw what T-Zed said. Lol.

'Baby' in music doesn't bother me, in poems where it's used like 'Honey' I find disingenuous. The poem linked doesn't bother me, it's a slam poem. You can get away with a lot in the performance of a poem, just like most lyrics are absolutely uninteresting when read. I haven't heard this poem performed, but from how it reads I assume its meant to be performed. It's an okay reading poem, but I'm sure it's a better stage poem.

Yeah, I hear you. I'm about to explore the poetry reading scene in the city we are moving to--it's supposed to be active and good. I fear the slam effect though because I don't feel like my kinda writing can compete with that, and I don't really want to write slam poetry. I want to write the way I like to write!

To what extent does whom you read influence how you name your baby?

I've been campaigning hard for the last month or so to name my baby Dorothy Parker Nancy Drew. My wife is not fond of either Dorothy or Nancy. She wants to name the baby George Eliot Drew. Has anyone else named their baby after a poet or writer?

Congratulations.

If my parents had named me Dorothy Parker Whatever, I'd be driven to be even more cynical than I already am.

When my son was born, my ex- husband and father in law, who shared the name, plus my four ex-brothers in law stood around my bed and thanked me until I gave in and named my son in the old family tradition (goes back three generations, so my son is a IV). But I did insist of giving him my beloved grandfather's middle name.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

Are you familiar with Born Magazine? I love what they do there, and I'd like to collaborate with people to develop something to submit to them. But I really do have to move first lol.

That's way cool, Angeline. Thanks for the link.

 

[Angeline]

That's way cool, Angeline. Thanks for the link.

Isn't it? We both probably know some people with whom to collaborate and submit there. I think these multimedia poems can be fascinating. I wonder is it still poetry? It needs a different name: po-artry-music. Poemusicartistry.

 

[bflagsst]

To what extent does whom you read influence how you name your baby?

I've been campaigning hard for the last month or so to name my baby Dorothy Parker Nancy Drew. My wife is not fond of either Dorothy or Nancy. She wants to name the baby George Eliot Drew. Has anyone else named their baby after a poet or writer?

If I was having a kid I might try and name them Dylan Thomas or Elizabeth Barrett

 

[vrosej10]

I ADORE Robert Frost. His poem The Road Not Taken serves as one of my mantras.

I love that poem too but your gunna hate me cause I just got a parodic play on that poem called Screw You Robert Frost published. Google it.

 

[greenmountaineer]

I love that poem too but your gunna hate me cause I just got a parodic play on that poem called Screw You Robert Frost published. Google it.

Saw it and chuckled. Although I like Frost who looked like everyone's grandfather, he was a bit of a curmudgeon in spite of his public image. (He actually made more money, I've read, from his poetry than many of his contemporaries at the time like Eliot, Pound, William Carlos Williams, etc.) He was the poet laureate in my home state of Vermont among his other accolades and is buried in the cemetery of " the Old First Church" in Bennington. Here's a website if you're interested:

"http://www.frostfriends.org/bennington.html"

I've visited. The photograph unfortunately doesn't include the last stanza of "Lesson For Today," another Frost favorite:

"And were an epitaph to be my story
I'd have one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone
I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

Yes, he was a bit of a curmudgeon.

 

[vrosej10]

Saw it and chuckled. Although I like Frost who looked like everyone's grandfather, he was a bit of a curmudgeon in spite of his public image. (He actually made more money, I've read, from his poetry than many of his contemporaries at the time like Eliot, Pound, William Carlos Williams, etc.) He was the poet laureate in my home state of Vermont among his other accolades and is buried in the cemetery of " the Old First Church" in Bennington. Here's a website if you're interested:

"http://www.frostfriends.org/bennington.html"

I've visited. The photograph unfortunately doesn't include the last stanza of "Lesson For Today," another Frost favorite:

"And were an epitaph to be my story
I'd have one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone
I had a lover's quarrel with the world."

Yes, he was a bit of a curmudgeon.

I'll check that link out. I am so glad you like the poem. It was written on a whim in response to an exercise that suggested you reply to a poem. I think spiritual growth can seem like too much hard work for some people and went from there. I knew the poem well because when we were asked to pick a few poems to study for my high school certificate, it was the first I picked.

 

[Sunndance07]

Falling in love influences me to write

 

[butters]

Falling in love influences me to write

for some it is the font of creativity

 

[Palba_Noruda]

Birds learn their songs and poets are like canaries...

Birdsong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y&feature=fvw

The songs of different species of birds vary, and are more or less characteristic of the species. In modern-day biology, bird song is typically analysed using acoustic spectroscopy. Species vary greatly in the complexity of their songs and in the number of distinct kinds of song they sing (up to 3000 in the Brown Thrasher); in some species, individuals vary in the same way. In a few species such as starlings and mockingbirds, songs imbed arbitrary elements learned in the individual's lifetime, a form of mimicry (though maybe better called "appropriation" [Ehrlich et al.], as the bird does not pass for another species). As early as 1773 it was established that birds learnt calls and cross-fostering experiments were able to force a Linnet Acanthis cannabina to learn the song of a skylark Alauda arvensis.[41] In many species it appears that although the basic song is the same for all members of the species, young birds learn some details of their songs from their fathers, and these variations build up over generations to form dialects.[42]

Birds learn songs early in life with sub-vocalizations that develop into renditions of adult songs. Zebra Finches, the most popular species for birdsong research, develop a version of a familiar adult's song after 20 or more days from hatch. By around 35 days, the chick will have learned the adult song. The early song is "plastic" or variable and it takes the young bird two or three months to perfect the "crystallized" song (which is less variable) of sexually mature birds.[43]
Timeline for song learning in different species. Diagram adapted from Brainard & Doupe, 2002[44]..

Research indicates birds' acquisition of song is a form of motor learning that involves regions of the basal ganglia. Models of bird-song motor learning are sometimes used as models for how humans learn speech.[/B][45] In some species such as zebra finches, learning of song is limited to the first year; they are termed 'age-limited' or 'close-ended' learners. Other species such as the canaries can develop new songs even as sexually mature adults; these are termed 'open-ended' learners.

Researchers have hypothesized that learned songs allow the development of more complex songs through cultural interaction, thus allowing intraspecies dialects that help birds stay with their own kind within a species, and it allows birds to adapt their songs to different acoustic environments.

(smilies are mine) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_song

 

[butters]

that's so cool!

let's hope, as poets, we fall in the canary category, but there's possibilities within each group

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

Falling in love influences me to write

Writing influences me to fall in love.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

My favorite books are manuals and dictionaries.I love that poem too but your gunna hate me cause I just got a parodic play on that poem .
_______________________________________________
Piggy Bank
Skechers

Where's the play? Just saw add links in your post.