2 posts tagged “poetry”
I was a writing major in college (heh) and as a result took my fair share of creative writing classes. One of the exercises that I loved the most was searching for found poetry - unintentional acts of poetic genius.
In my online travels yesterday, I ran across a page about an amusement park in Japan that offers a sky cycle.
The Google auto-translation made me smile. Pure found poetry:
When you row, the body moving, we fear!
It may become firm, is---Courage is shaken, squeezing!
We would like to close the eye, when with so it does, excess we fear,…
Going to there, returning turning, if it is not densely, it does not end
If you read nothing else, at least look at the picture captions.
What are five books that changed your life?
Inspired by Ms. Genevieve.
1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - I read it for the first time when I was 12, and I reread it at least once a year. It's passionate and rich, and is amazing in its ability to offer me something new each time I read it. It continues to teach me a great deal about love, relationships, friendships, desire, and truth.
2. The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon - One of the tighest pieces of fiction I've ever read, it helped shape my writing by teaching me the importance of point-of-view in fiction.
3. Our Bodies, Ourselves and The Joy of Sex - My parents and I never had "the conversation" until right before I went to college, so as a nerdy teen obsessed with reading, I went to the library and checked out books. In retrospect, a little strange, perhaps. But I think both works offered me a healthy perspective on sexuality and human relations.
4. Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey by Hayden Carruth - HC is the most underrated American poet. He's clear, witty, dark, vague, inspiring, difficult, emotional, passive, intense, light, funny and sardonic at the same time. I found that book at a time when I was stuggling to find my own poetic voice and understand what my writing meant to me. It was a massive comfort.
5. Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney and The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn - Two of the most amazing collections of poetry that I read while studying in the UK. They both focus on life's phases, and remind me of the time that I spent abroad - again, helped me find a voice.
(OK, so that's really seven, but I was an English major.)
