tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327165758377801408.post3286506950334305902..comments2024-01-26T13:12:55.520-08:00Comments on Feel Free to Read: Performing PoetryGlenn Buttkushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10680725814199700692noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327165758377801408.post-72456291097559615842012-10-18T19:41:46.556-07:002012-10-18T19:41:46.556-07:00Okay, so I just went to read another poem and thou...Okay, so I just went to read another poem and thought of you and this punctuation topic. Here is the opening:<br /><br />"Gypsy dressed, the night sky <br />smooths her cloudy skirts"<br /><br />So if I read it "as written" and completely straightforward, I see a girl dressed like a gypsy and a night sky smoothing the girl's fluffy, light-as-air skirts.<br /><br />But if I isolate the first line, I read it as saying the night sky is gypsy dressed (dressed like a gypsy). Ever changing, ever moving, beyond grasp.<br /><br />And if I isolate the first line and also remove the comma, I read that this gypsy girl <i>dressed</i> the night sky herself. What a power, what a magical beauty to wave her fingers and star the sky herself! And perhaps "dressed" means that the girl cared for and bandaged the wounds of the night sky; she is its nurse.<br /><br />You see how much more meaning I have packed into one line by defying the writer? Perhaps she intended all this, and perhaps she did not. But the poem is mine now, and I am free to make it more and different with my own voice and mind, as every reader is. What a shame to neglect the possibilities. Most readers waste all the magic in poetry by just <i>reading</i> it instead of smoking it and holding their breath until it gets them high.<br /><br />Here's the poem I referenced, should you like to read the entire piece:<br /><br />http://mamaneedsshoes.blogspot.com/2012/10/reaping-wind.htmlflipside recordshttp://flipsiderecords.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327165758377801408.post-64985076625924697462012-10-18T19:25:24.238-07:002012-10-18T19:25:24.238-07:00P.S. I have had the most fun reading Hamlet, every...P.S. I have had the most fun reading <i>Hamlet</i>, every word aloud in a British accent, and in the bathtub of course. Perhaps that is truly the key for reading Shakespeare. ;)flipside recordshttp://flipsiderecords.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327165758377801408.post-5539612253853381462012-10-18T19:23:42.317-07:002012-10-18T19:23:42.317-07:00Regarding the above comment, I would say that some...Regarding the above comment, I would say that some sneaky poets dare you to defy the punctuation for it is mere trickery. You might find more meaning in ignoring it and inserting your own. But not many poets would write like this, I'm sure.<br /><br />I'm quite certain most poems could be read in a variety of ways, bringing to life different meanings each time. Certainly poetry should never sound dull or monotonous. What an insult to its energy and lifesource to minimize it to only combinations of words. If the reader is not excited about the poem, he shouldn't be reading it to others.<br /><br />"I remember Yeats and Eliot and MacLeish, who read their most evocative poems with such monotony as to stun the brain. Only Dylan could read his own stuff." ... What a shame.<br /><br />"look on his seamed face, riven with a ghastly smile, that was compact of surprise, malice and envy" ... Lovely. :)<br /><br />Thank you for sharing this, Glenn.flipside recordshttp://flipsiderecords.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327165758377801408.post-32806334171384881482012-10-17T15:15:24.301-07:002012-10-17T15:15:24.301-07:00Dame Judi Dench offered two suggestions for readin...Dame Judi Dench offered two suggestions for reading Shakespeare, and the suggestions apply to poetry in general:<br /><br />- obey the meter<br /><br />- obey the punctuation<br /><br />Another basic principle taught by John Barton (Royal Shakespeare Company Guru) pertaining to Shakespeare but applicable to poetry in general<br /><br />- there's scant stage direction so you're free to vocally experiment any way you want<br /><br />Even with punctuation you can experiment with how the poem is recited, for example, you can read words separated by a series of commas as a list, and read through quickly, or you can read words separated by a series of commas as mental hesitations, new thoughts or a progression of ideas slowing coming to mind<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com