[stylist] Reflections on Bill's poem and poetry in general

Mon Feb 20 19:52:29 UTC 2012

The art that moves me the most is art that I will never fully understand. 
Art that gives me new revelations, little peeks into itself, every time I 
stop and ponder what I am seeing/hearing.  This somes from years of looking 
and listening - it does not happen quickly and without effort. Art takes 
time, and we live in a world that wants everything FAST, QUICK, PAINTLESS, 
and BANAL (had to put that new word in from this past week's post).

There is art that is created for mass consumption - it is not created to 
bring any kind of thinking about, but just to give a quick little  tickle. 
That is just about anything you would hear on the raido - popular with most 
anyone.

And, then there is the art/writing that brings us to seek out meanings, 
examine the words, the images, the ideas, and OURSELVES, too. Those pieces 
are many layered and multiple, and ever changing usually. Those are the 
works that reflect the ZEITGEIST of our time, long before  we ourselves can 
begin to see it. Those are the things that we can come back to time and 
again, and it is ever new.

Sometime, I have read a poem many times, over many years. At times, I am 
confronted with new truths that are there, and I could not have recognized 
them earlier, because I had to change first.  The "aha" moment comes slowly, 
over years of time, very often.

Lynda

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 2:07 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Reflections on Bill's poem and poetry in general

> Robert,
> When I consider the collection of songs/prose/poetry/art that I truly 
> love,
> I find that they are culled from many genres. If I look at any genre in 
> its
> global completeness (country music, opera, modern poetry, suspense novels,
> etc.) I would have to say that I like very little of what is out there. I
> think good art (in the general sense) transcends genre. Perhaps, you 
> haven't
> read enough poetry to come across the good stuff. I particularly like 
> Billy
> Collins. RFB&D (now Learning Ally) has a book called "Sailing Alone Around
> the Room." It's absolutely wonderful. Each piece is like a vignette, a 
> slice
> of life imbued with the author's humor perspectives and emotions. I'd love
> to read it in Braille to see what he does with line breaks, but I would 
> love
> him, if he had written these in paragraph form.
>
> Song lyrics are indeed poetry, and as a songwriter, I find that there are
> very few percentage-wise that have any real significance to me. 
> Fortunately,
> there are many songs out there, and enough that I love and relate to to 
> last
> a lifetime. For me, it is the words that make or break a song. If a melody
> is good, it doesn't need lyrics. If stupid words get written to that 
> melody,
> it's a shame or an eyebrow-raiser. If excellent words find an excellent
> melody, that's heaven.
>
>
> I think the only form of art that seems to have more winners than losers 
> are
> colonial and Victorian architecture and Renaissance and Baroque music. 
> But,
> maybe time has culled out the duds.
> Donna
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Robert Leslie Newman
> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2012 10:27 AM
> To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
> Subject: [stylist] Reflections on Bill's poem and poetry in general
>
> Bill and others
>
> Bill- Your poem is one of the types of poetry that I can actually follow
> from start to finish. And you know --- as I thought that last sentence 
> out,
> and am putting the rest of this paragraph together, I am --- wondering 
> what
> is in my makeup that can make it so that some poetry I can stick with and
> feel that I can actually understand and perhaps even like? Mostly, I just
> don't get what poets are getting at! Bill's type of writing constructs 
> short
> phrases consisting of wording that is for me, clear and it doesn't like 
> hurt
> my brain to fathom. In saying that, I mean, I usually cannot
> follow-see-understand or like most poetry. Is it --- like taste, as in 
> what
> pleasures me? Is it a mind thing, as in that hard-wired ability to make
> mental connections which end up in the understanding of the world? Or is 
> it
> a reflection of my world experience; the nature - nurture thing and this 
> is
> the experience/nurture part of it which makes it so I get or cannot get 
> and
> like poetry? Like I know there really is a very serious human thing in the
> assents of the various forms of language be it spoken or sung or 
> written ---
> and yes, even in those other representative forms, like art as in 
> painting,
> sculpture, etc.  Yes, I'm wanting to like poetry.
>
> Another thought- to me, most song lyrics are like poetry; more
> representative than actual story-line or conversational. Usually it is the
> notes that move me, not the words.
>
> ..The house is quiet, I sit at the kitchen table, the rain patters on the
> roof, and I indulge in examination of me and life.
>
>
>
> Robert Leslie Newman
> Personal Website-
> Adjustment To Blindness And Visual impairment
> http//www.thoughtprovoker.info
> NFB Writers' Division, president
> http://www.nfb-writers-division.net
> Chair of the NFB Newsletter Publication Committee
>
>
>
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