MetaFilter posts tagged with poems

Those feet of a wench in her wimple...

msalt — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:14:46 -0800

Viking love poems (not to be confused with Vogon poetry). 200 years before medieval troubadours "created" romantic poetry, skalds such as Gunnlaug Snaketongue, Hallfred the Troublesome Poet and Kormak Ogmundarson told of their hearts' ecstasies and despairs. Other Viking poets such as the mighty Egil Skallagrimsson (prev 1 2) cover more predictable subjects, such as killing ("the ugly music of the spears" -- "I carved the wolf's carrion/And killed them all") and vomiting ("Many a guest's gift/Is even more gushing;/Now the ale has ended up/All over Armod"). Here's a poem he wrote at age 6 about killing a playmate with an axe after a ball game. (SMI audio file, in Old Norse). Eddaic Norse poetry is simpler in language and meter; Skaldic verse is distinguished by alliteration and kenning, the use of riddle-like indirect allusions. Meters used.

Enheduanna, the first poet we know by name

Kattullus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:33:39 -0800

Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna. Here are two alternate translations of The Exaltation of Inana, one by James D. Pritchard and an English rendering of Dr. Annette Zgoll's German translation. If you want to learn more, go to The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages.

Facebook for Poetry

dylan20 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:49:12 -0800

ReadWritePoem was a multiuser poetry blog until July 31, when it turned into a social network for poetry with forums, groups, subblogs and more.

Clerihews

Iridic — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:12:50 -0800

Sir Humphry Davy
Was not fond of gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

This is the first example of the form that came to be known as the cler ihew. It's a biographical quatrain with a rhyme scheme of AABB. The first line uses the subject's name as a rhyme, while some element of their history occupies the rest of the stanza. The form aspires to wit, irreverence, and metrical irregularity:

Oscar Wilde Had his reputation defiled. When he was led from the dock in tears He said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at two years." (Stephen Fry)

Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who invented the clerihew as a schoolboy, is best remembered today as the author of Trent's Last Case, cited previously on Metafilter as the 33rd best mystery novel of all time. Several clerihews by W.H. Auden Sarah Palin clerihews Clerihews on philosophers Clerihews on female poets of the Romantic era

Dairy Odes

carsonb — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:50:09 -0800

Oh cow, oh cow, what are you thinking?      Should I leave the gate open?
Are you content?                                     Would you be happy?
Do you yearn?                                         Would you turn feral?

Do you want freedom?                               Oh cow
Greener pastures?                                     Moo cow
A bull?                                                    Run free cow

The Online Dairy Ode Contest was a light-hearted, web-based, sister competition to the James McIntyre Poetry Contest. It was held at irregular intervals from 2001 to 2005. The only criterion for entry was that the poems had to be Dairy Odes; ie about dairy products, cows, or dairying.

Out of that I have written these songs

Potomac Avenue — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 07:34:29 -0800

Free Verse The result of a contest sponsored by the Academy of American Poets to promote Poem in your Pocket Day. Happy National Poetry Month ! Prev ious ly

in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:58:29 -0800

Should you find yourself wandering around the city of Leiden, the Netherlands sometime, you may notice some curious markings on the city's walls.

These Muurgedichten ("Wall Poems") adorn many of the town's streets (clickable map), and many English-language poets are represented: one John Keats, for instance, inside a bookshop; Dylan Thomas, E. E. Cummings, W.B. Yeats, some guy called William Shakespeare, or this ode to Charlie Parker by American William Waring Cuney. But poets of many other languages and nationalities can be found throughout the city. Just to name a few: Charles Baudelaire (French), Jorge Luis Borges (Spanish - Argentina), Herman Gorter (Dutch). And being native to this here neck of the woods I would be remiss if I were to neglect mentioning some of my favourites: apart from the Cummings one mentioned above, my hero of Dutch poetry J.C. Bloem's appropriately overgrown tribute to Paul Verlaine; and Guillaume Apollinaire's Dadaist/Surrealist "Loin du Pigeonnier" ("Far From the Dovecote"). Lastly, Muurgedichten collects manifestations of public poetry found elsewhere under its "Not in Leiden" heading. I couldn't resist a selection:

Humorous medical one in Brazil (Portuguese).

Martin Carter (Netherlands Antilles, English)

Excerpt from JFK's inaugural address (Boston, English)

Childrens Rights (Zanzibar, English)

Policemans Prayer (Virginia, US, English)

Short, brilliantly framed Byron quote (Utrecht, NL, English)

No man is illegal (Sittard, NL, Dutch)

I am a poet. Should I want the rose to bloom, the rose will bloom. (Vlaardigen, NL, Dutch)

You'll Think, What's That Poet Doing (Monnickendam, NL, Dutch) You'll think, what's that poet doing In our alley On our wall In our town When he's not from 'round here. To be frank: so do I. But still, now you're looking at me. I can talk to you, say That I am happy you're looking at me And then you might for instance say "likewise". We wouldn't have done so otherwise.

Cave Canem Feature

netbros — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:33:13 -0800

The Drunken Boat publishes poetry from around the world, translations of poetry, reviews of poetry collections and anthologies, and interviews with well-known poets. The current issue features Cave Canem poets, home for the many voices of African-American poetry and committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African-American poets.

Classic Poetry Aloud

Iridic — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:39:19 -0800

Classic Poetry Aloud: free recordings of 427 public domain poems.

The Gawain Project

Effigy2000 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:18:46 -0800

The Gawain Project is an ongoing translation of the late 14th century anonymous poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (originally written in Middle English) into Modern English, for the amusement of Arthurians and anyone who likes a good story. [via mefi projects]

What else is there besides matters of taste?

ersatz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:59:28 -0800

It's almost as good as being at John Ashbery's home (bio) and there's more, including a preliminary inventory of his library* (search for "inventories" or scroll down). Ashbery's poetry is still very much invested in the reader's pleasure—more so than many supposedly "approachable" poets. You can hear him read his poems (more), watch him (here's -transcript- a brief taste and a half-hour video) or read a few of his poems. The Ashbery Resource Center has plenty of material including a list of Ashbery's cited influences. You can find more poems, reviews and pages on his work and be sure to click through to the Jacket feature. Skip to the conversation with Kenneth Koch about art and if you aren't satiated yet try this article, a TLS review of his latest or an older effort by the Boston review. Finally, you can see his collages and read an essay on John Ashbery's surrealism. For completeness' sake, here's an animated poem. *Yes!

Two mathematicians walk into a bar...

cthuljew — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 08:09:25 -0800

A math professor was explaining a particularly complicated calculus concept to his class when a frustrated pre-med student interrupts him. "Why do we have to learn this stuff?" the pre-med blurts out. The professor pauses, and answers matter-of-factly: "Because math saves lives." "How?" demanded the student. "How on Earth does calculus save lives?" "Because," replied the professor, "it keeps certain people out of medical school."

RIP Hayden Carruth 1921-2008

jessamyn — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:31:52 -0800

"Why don't you write me a poem that will prepare me for your death?" Hayden Carruth's wife, thirty years his junior, asked him. He did so, and it became one of his most popular poems. Carruth, who celebrated his 87th birthday last month died last night at his home in Munnsville New York. Carruth was the winner of the the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his poetry collection Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey. He edited Poetry magazine from 1949-1950 and was a poetry editor at Harpers. A few more news pieces: Lives of a Poet (U of Chicago), a book review and more bio at the New York Times, additional bio information at the birthdays of poets blog. A few more poems: Carruth describing and then reading a poem he wrote about Raymond Carver in May of this year, Of Distress Being Humiliated by the Classical Chinese Poets, The Cows at Night, The Afterlife: Letter to Stephen Dobyns II, and my favorite On Being Asked To Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam (more) An excerpt from the U Chicago link

Carruth, whose grandfather wrote speeches for Eugene Debs, calls himself an “old-line anarchist” and a “rural communist with a small c.” On this day he grumbles about President Bush. In 1998 he declined an invitation to the Clinton White House for a celebration of American poetry, explaining in a letter that “it would seem the greatest hypocrisy for an honest American poet to be present on such an occasion at the seat of the power which has not only neglected but abused the interests of poets and their readers continually, to say nothing of many other administratively dispensable segments of the population.” He has long resisted the notion that politics—or anything else—doesn’t belong in poetry. His poems are democratic in the broadest sense, siding with the weak against the powerful, oppressed against oppressor. His sympathies extend even to despised creatures like rats and car salesmen. “I’ve always felt sorry for the rats,” he says.

Shakespeare's Sonnets

Kattullus — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:40:34 -0800

William Shakespeare wrote some of the world's finest sonnets. The website shakespeares-sonnets.com is a fine place to start delving into the poems. Here you can see scans of the first edition of The Sonnets as printed by Thomas Thorpe in 1609. If you wish there were more sonnets by Shakespeare, your jones might be eased by the Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up, which lets you remix them according to taste. And finally there's Shakespeare in Tune, a site where Jonathan Willby recites each of the 154 sonnets following a short improvisation on a German flute.

Chinese Poems

Kattullus — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:16:41 -0800

Chinese Poems is a simple, no frills site with over 200 classical Chinese poems, mostly from the Tang period. The poems are presented in traditional and simplified chinese characters, pinyin and English translation, both literal and literary. Here's Du Mu's Drinking Alone:
Outside the window, wind and snow blow straight,
I clutch the stove and open a flask of wine.
Just like a fishing boat in the rain,
Sail down, asleep on the autumn river.
Among other poets featured are Li Bai (a.k.a. Li Po), Du Fu and Wang Wei. As a bonus, here's the entire text of Ezra Pound's Cathay, most of whom are from Li Bai originals.

This is a baseball writing thread

anotherpanacea — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:19:29 -0800

John Rawls gives six reasons why baseball is the best of all games. Marianne Moore's "Baseball & Writing." John Updike's "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu." "Let no one post 'Casey,'" shall be the whole of the law.

A Howl that went unheard for over 50 years

Len — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:11:30 -0800

For more than 50 years, it was believed that the first recording Allen Ginsberg made of Howl was in Berkeley in March 1956. Now, an earlier recording – made on Valentine's Day 1956 at Reed College, Portland, Oregon – has been found. Reed have made it – along with seven other poems Ginsberg read the same night – available here. (Click on "Allen Ginsberg reads ..." for drop down menu; apologies for crappy quicktime interface.)

Where it says snow read teeth-marks of a virgin

jessamyn — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:51:53 -0800

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

Surrealist poet Charles Simic was named the Poet Laureate of the US this week. He also won the Wallace Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery" of the art of poetry. [more inside]

Stack poems.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:21:45 -0800

Max Dohle's Stapelgedichten is a simple concept. Stack up some books, take a picture: a poem is born. Most are in Dutch, but there are some English ones as well.

This is the YouTube poetry post.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:31:13 -0800

Poets on YouTube: Bukowski; Dylan Thomas; Jim Morrison; Allen Ginsberg; Sylvia Plath; Billy Collins; Cookie Monster; and what the hell, even Jacques Brel.

But there's plenty of readings by amateurs as well: for example, lilcutiewithabooty06 reads e e cummings; Michael reads cummings really fast; Tom Waits and Bono read Bukowski; bearded men read Lewis Carroll and Shakespeare; and what if Emily Dickinson had a ukulele?

Mouseover links to see titles; feel free to add your favourites.

Newspaper Blackout Poems

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:46:22 -0800

Newspaper Blackout Poems "So much thrives on facsimile that when you see the real deal, it has none of the passion and feels like a desperate pose."

Gorgeous means six bars on your cellphone, always.

dobbs — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 10:17:58 -0800

Gorgeous - a spoken word poem by Rives. {via TED Talks}

Hook, Line, and Sestina

Miko — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:21:39 -0800

Fisher Poets You've heard of cowboy poetry, sure, but how about the verse of modern-day fishermen and women? Taking the Cowboy Poetry Gathering as their model, fisher poets have plunged into the celebration of occupational culture with their own annual festival in Astoria, Oregon. Get a glimpse into this difficult, dangerous, and unpredictable way of making a living through the work of Erin Frestad, Geno Leech, Toby Sullivan, and others. Listen to the sounds of the gathering on this piece from PRI's Here & Now, too.

Just because I'm your uncle doesn't mean I cannot love you the right way

Robot Johnny — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:39:07 -0800

Happy Valentine's Day
to my favourite virgin.
I'd show you how much I love you,
but I don't feel like getting married.
The 8th Annual Pamie.com Valentine's Day Poems (previously on MetaFilter...)

surf this poem

dhruva — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 19:16:02 -0800

Three Invitations to a Far Reading "But what if some poems aren’t meant to be read at all? What if they are meant to be viewed? What if, like TV, they are meant to be surfed? " [via]