Out of my depth -- The Lonely Canadian Writer

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Date Posted: 14:29:08 06/06/08 Fri GMT-5
Author: Roger
Author Host/IP: ppp883.dsl.ontario.net / 209.159.179.121
Subject: Out of my depth

I had the pleasure of attending a reading of sound poetry last night, at the Niagara Artists Centre in downtown St. Catharines. About twenty five people attended, which is about par for any poetry event here. The poets were Greg Betts, a local English professor who ran a seminar at the CAA meeting the night before, and Gary Barwin from Hamilton, who started off with a couple of interesting sound poems.

Now, a sound poem is exactly that - noises. As Greg explained to me, they take the words out of the poem, and leave the rhythm and sound. (Hope I got that right.) The second poem Gary and Greg read was based on the word "Niagara," and involved some audience participation, in sounding the last syllable 'a.' You had to be there.

The next poet was Adeena Karacsik, a Canadian who lives in New York, and has achieved a considerable reputation for her work. She showed this short video: <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIsErKOr00">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmIsErKOr00</a> which is interesting to watch. She uses words for their sound and multiple meanings. Listen to the video, is she saying "Blue Bayou," or "Blew by you?" I brought back one of her books. (Turns out she's a friend of Christian Bok, who wrote "Eunoia" a few years back. I have it; it's quite an accomplishment, and fun to read. If I remember correctly, he uses the word 'fuck' only once in the 'u' section. Anyway, Adeena's use of language put me more in mind of jazz than hip-hop.)

The last reader was Jaap Blonk, from the Netherlands. He is considered one of the most radical sound poets in the world. His performance left me a bit cold, although parts were great fun. I had not realized such an array of sounds could be produced by the human vocal apparatus. At times, it sounded like a jazz musician singing scat, and at times it reminded me of a German I once worked with who had Tourette's syndrome. This is what I meant by being 'out of my depth,' but hey, that's how you learn to swim, right?

Anyway, if you get a chance to go to a reading of sound poetry, take it. I came out of there with my horizons expanded considerable.

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Replies:

Re: Out of my depth -- Lori, 15:20:05 06/06/08 Fri GMT-5
- Re: Out of my depth -- DianeG, 17:54:28 06/06/08 Fri GMT-5
- Re: Out of my depth -- Rooooogergergerger - boop!, 18:59:34 06/06/08 Fri GMT-5