MEDITATIONS
Now that the new show is up it has given me a chance to reflect a little on my new work. Also, some of the questions/comments/response of visitors to the show, the site, and the blog over the past few weeks have generated some thoughts on this new work. Over the next few posts I will talk a bit about the women, the dots, and might even get to… wait for it… water lilies.
POETRY
Above, see the poetry broadside for "Chicago" as seen at the Reference Point show.
Have had some questions lately about poetry and poems and where the ideas from poems come from. Thought it might be interesting to talk about this a bit. Mainly, “so the stuff in your poems, are these things from your life?” (or some variation on that theme).
Here goes:
It is hard to explain. People generally think of poetry as "true." Like if you say in a poem "I went to the movies" it really means that I, Kurt Eidsvig, went to the movies. Then again, people do the same with fiction. They always think the writer and the main character are the same person.
When I was in Grad School I decided to never let the truth get in the way of a good poem. So, while they all start with an idea that is mine, and some contain things I have seen, thoughts I have had, people I know, etc... I will bold-faced lie or make something up in a poem if it will make it better. It sounds a lot cooler to say something like "the sky was shattering like sea glass sorting itself out between the sand and the surf," than it does to say "the sky was blue. There was no sea glass that day." Or maybe not. I kind of like the sadness in not finding sea glass at the end there.
Plus, poems are a lot like songs, only with the music and the words all mixed up into one. So while a songwriter might make something up to make a rhyme, a poet might make something up for the sound of the "s" or to have one beat at the end of a line, or whatever. All that said, poems are really a neat art form because they are so intimate. There is something about reading a poem that seems like you are peering into someone's mind, or spying on them, or know their innermost thoughts or feelings.
And all that said, it is true, Even if I "lie" in a poem it is to more truly capture a feeling or get someone to feel or think something, maybe. And finally, yes. a lot of my poetry is "me" but some of it isn’t.
And as for how I chose what poems to make into “broadsides.” It seemed dependent on poems that were heavily influenced by place or heavily referenced place (that is, a true geographic location on a map, so I could pull the map, collage it, and lay the poems down). Also, they had to be poems that had lengths suitable for the format (I had decided that using excerpts wouldn’t be as string). For this, Blue, Chicago and Missoula seemed just right. This added to the fact that they are definitely some of my stronger work and seemed worthy of this visual art/poetry status.
Now that the new show is up it has given me a chance to reflect a little on my new work. Also, some of the questions/comments/response of visitors to the show, the site, and the blog over the past few weeks have generated some thoughts on this new work. Over the next few posts I will talk a bit about the women, the dots, and might even get to… wait for it… water lilies.
POETRY
Above, see the poetry broadside for "Chicago" as seen at the Reference Point show.
Have had some questions lately about poetry and poems and where the ideas from poems come from. Thought it might be interesting to talk about this a bit. Mainly, “so the stuff in your poems, are these things from your life?” (or some variation on that theme).
Here goes:
It is hard to explain. People generally think of poetry as "true." Like if you say in a poem "I went to the movies" it really means that I, Kurt Eidsvig, went to the movies. Then again, people do the same with fiction. They always think the writer and the main character are the same person.
When I was in Grad School I decided to never let the truth get in the way of a good poem. So, while they all start with an idea that is mine, and some contain things I have seen, thoughts I have had, people I know, etc... I will bold-faced lie or make something up in a poem if it will make it better. It sounds a lot cooler to say something like "the sky was shattering like sea glass sorting itself out between the sand and the surf," than it does to say "the sky was blue. There was no sea glass that day." Or maybe not. I kind of like the sadness in not finding sea glass at the end there.
Plus, poems are a lot like songs, only with the music and the words all mixed up into one. So while a songwriter might make something up to make a rhyme, a poet might make something up for the sound of the "s" or to have one beat at the end of a line, or whatever. All that said, poems are really a neat art form because they are so intimate. There is something about reading a poem that seems like you are peering into someone's mind, or spying on them, or know their innermost thoughts or feelings.
And all that said, it is true, Even if I "lie" in a poem it is to more truly capture a feeling or get someone to feel or think something, maybe. And finally, yes. a lot of my poetry is "me" but some of it isn’t.
And as for how I chose what poems to make into “broadsides.” It seemed dependent on poems that were heavily influenced by place or heavily referenced place (that is, a true geographic location on a map, so I could pull the map, collage it, and lay the poems down). Also, they had to be poems that had lengths suitable for the format (I had decided that using excerpts wouldn’t be as string). For this, Blue, Chicago and Missoula seemed just right. This added to the fact that they are definitely some of my stronger work and seemed worthy of this visual art/poetry status.
For more on poems and poetry I would check out the life of Jack Spicer, William Carlos Williams' poem "This is Just to Say," the fire escape Frank O'Hara sat on, and the collected works of Biggie Smalls.
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