Marianne Moore tweet poetry

Working on a review I came across this poem by American poet Marianne Moore. Like Elizabeth Bishop's marimba music I fell in love with these pine turkey-feet:

You can read the full poem here 

More on Elizabeth Bishop's marimba music here.

#residentgeeks

A programme funded by the Australia Council for the Arts: a Geek in Residence is installed to deliver dynamic digital initiatives across an organisation and its community.

The idea being that the techies provide the "skills, information and connections needed to succeed in the digital era". The project appears to be in abeyance currently but I wonder why. It is funny how everyone has become a geek these days so maybe that is it.

But I am still waiting to see some of the really useful filtering/predictive text - multi-thread poetry, Boolean verse, 3D structural holographic towers of words and I wonder who is actually working on this stuff now. Rather than just getting scored up on a really good tweet - of course that is fun too - but...

The old news story is here http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/news/media-centre/media-releases/new-geeks-in-residence-for-arts-organisations/

And yes there is still just a really small part of me that would be happy if I could open my front door electronically at the press of a button...

Breathing Space July #TomasTranstromer

This poem by Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer - who died earlier this year - reminds p&g of perhaps our favourite Elizabeth Bishop poem.

Breathing Space July is a deceptively simple poem that plays with human boundaries in a delightful way. The subject is outside time, gravity and beyond scale - as large as huge trees and yet smaller than insects. Enjoy!

The full poem is as follows.

Breathing Space July

The man who lies on his back under huge trees
is also up in them. He branches out into thousands of tiny branches.
He sways back and forth,
he sits in a catapult chair that hurtles forward in slow motion.

The man who stands down at the dock screws up his eyes against the water.
Docks get older faster than men.
They have silver-gray posts and boulders in their gut.
The dazzling light drives straight in.

The man who spends the whole day in an open boat
moving over the luminous bays
will fall asleep at last inside the shade of his blue lamp
as the islands crawl like huge moths over the globe.

Thomas Transtromer translated by Robert Bly

You can read more on Tomas Transtromer here http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/personpage.asp?author=Tomas+Transtromer

Magda Portal tweet poetry

Magda Portal (1900 – 1989) was a Peruvian poet, feminist, author, and political activist.

A key figure in the vanguardia movement in Peru and beyond, she also founded APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) political party with others

You can read the full sonnet here:
.
Liberación

Un día seré libre, aún más libre que el viento,
será claro mi canto de audaz liberación
y hasta me habré librado de este remordimiento
secreto que me hunde su astilla al corazón.

Un día seré libre con los brazos abiertos,
con los ojos abiertos y limpios frente al sol,
el Miedo y el Recuerdo no estarán encubiertos
y agazapados para desgarrarme mejor.

Un día seré libre . . . Seré libre presiento,
con una gran sonrisa a flor de corazón,
con una gran sonrisa como no tengo hoy.
Y ya no habrá la sombra de mi remordimiento,
el cobarde silencio que merma mi Emoción.
Un día habré logrado la verdad de mi Yo!


You can find the full poem in a translation by Liz Henry here http://bookmaniac.org/poetry/antologia/magda-portal/liberacion/

Twittering

The whole Venn Diagram thing struck a few people on Twitter yesterday making it our fastest most popular post ever (although not our most popular post that is still for many of you the inimitable http://poetandgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/auction-chant-as-poetic-form.html).

Anyway here is an autumnal garnering of the Twitter fields this morning:

And in answer to this question,

Obviously the answer is yes.

We liked this one best though:

Credit card poetry

New (old) technology from Mastercard means that your credit card has become a mini-computer with input and output messages on the card. The display is very limited currently and if you are as old as the hills will remind you of digital calculators in the seventies.

p&g wonders if this couldn't be adapted for poetry requirements - a tweet poetry length display direct to you...maybe a mini mini keyboard too.

Check out the well-cool Mastercard youtube vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRfjn1wNcIU

Zhang Zao tweet poetry

Zhang Zao (1962–2010) was a Chinese poet and academic whose goal was to “transform one’s self and life”.

This tweet poetry is from his poem In the forest translated by Brian Holton (who was born in p&g's neck of the woods). The full poem can be found in Jade Ladder, the Bloodaxe anthology of contemporary Chinese poetry.

More information here http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/979/Zhang-Zao

Snippet

distant yet never so close
we walk a sinking earth
lying down on her or simply standing
we feel the bucking of time...

Read the full poem here http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/7/Distant_Yet_Never_So_Close

Aníbal Núñez tweet poetry

Aníbal Núñez (1944-1987) was a Spanish poet, painter and translator.

Núñez was born in Salamanca and studied Literature. Modern Languages and Fine Arts there. He translated the work of Propertius, Catullus and Rimbaud - nice choices. He died young but left a large body of poetry and extensive visual work. This tweet poem is taken from the poem No solamente en broadway (Not only in Broadway) written in 1972 but first published in 2008.

"Recognition was slow to come, as his poetry stood outside the major critical currents of his time in Spain. The situation has been changing since his death, and re-evaluation of his work has seen him recognised as a major, if independent, figure." Tony Frazer.

"El día que descubrí que el gran poeta salmantino figura en todas las antologías poéticas que se precien ; que su Antología Poética completa ( dos volúmenes ) figura en el catálogo de la prestigiosa Editorial Hiperión ; que no tiene estatua, no , en ningún rincón de la ciudad ; que era nada amigo de la ostentación y la mediocridade e hijo del insigne PEPE NUÑEZ LARRAZ." Ismael Marcos

Find his work here http://www.amazon.com/palabras-Hispanicas-Hispanic-Literature-Spanish/dp/8437625823/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367821424&sr=1-2 and in English for arguably the first time here http://www.shearsman.com/pages/books/authors/nunezA.html; full text of the poem here http://www.poesiaspoemas.com/anibal-nunez/no-solamente-en-broadway.

Amongst all the monotony of all these activities fix yourself in the wind that sweeps clean these tombs chapped by snow

Emily Bronte tweet poetry

Emily Bronte was an English novelist and poet (1818-1848). She lived and died in Yorkshire, England with only a brief period studying in Belgium. She published her poems in one volume with those of her sisters Charlotte and Anne as Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Emily's pen name being Ellis (EB); under which she also published her only novel Wuthering Heights.

This tweet poem is taken from her poem The visionary.

poetandgeek.com ‏@poetandgeek

One alone looks out o’er snow-wreaths deep Watching every cloud dreading every breeze whirling the wildering drift bends the groaning trees

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The full poem:

The Visionary


Silent is the house: all are laid asleep:
One alone looks out o’er the snow-wreaths deep,
Watching every cloud, dreading every breeze
That whirls the wildering drift, and bends the groaning trees.

Cheerful is the hearth, soft the matted floor;        
Not one shivering gust creeps through pane or door;
The little lamp burns straight, its rays shoot strong and far:
I trim it well, to be the wanderer’s guiding-star.

Frown, my haughty sire! chide, my angry dame!
Set your slaves to spy; threaten me with shame:      
But neither sire nor dame nor prying serf shall know,
What angel nightly tracks that waste of frozen snow.

What I love shall come like visitant of air,
Safe in secret power from lurking human snare;
What loves me, no word of mine shall e’er betray,      
Though for faith unstained my life must forfeit pay.

Burn, then, little lamp; glimmer straight and clear—
Hush! a rustling wing stirs, methinks, the air:
He for whom I wait, thus ever comes to me;
Strange Power! I trust thy might; trust thou my constancy.

Find out more about Emily Bronte here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Bront%C3%AB.

Anabel Torres tweet poetry

Anabel Torres (1948-) born in Bogotá, Colombia is a poet and translator. She has won major prizes and published several books including Las bocas del amor (1982). She has lived in New York. She now works in the Netherlands.

The tweet poem is from her work The Eskimo's Woman.

More information available here http://www.jornaldepoesia.jor.br/ag34torres.htm.

Tweet poetry project update

So far we at poetandgeek have called the shots with tweet poetry seen here but we would like to make a call for original tweet poetry to add to our site.

This is what you have to do.

1. Tweet your tweet poetry
2. Screen shot it.
3. Crop it (we don't want your whole screen);
   under 100KB is good.
4. Send to us.
5. If we like it, we'll post it.

Over to you...

More about tweet poetry here http://poetandgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/three-rules-of-tweet-poetry.html.

Jan Zwicky tweet poetry

Jan Zwicky (born 1955) is a Canadian eco-political and anti-colonial philosopher, poet, essayist, and violinist.

This is an extract from Zwicky's poem Transit from her book Forge published by Gaspereau Press 2011.

More information on Zwicky can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Zwicky.

Alfonsina Storni tweet poetry

Alfonsina Storni (1892 – 1938) was an Argentinian poet and feminist of the modernist period. Her work has inspired many writers, artists and musicians including Ariel Ramírez and Félix Luna who composed the song Alfonsina y el Mar ("Alfonsina and the sea"), performed by Mercedes Sosa, Tania Libertad, Mocedades, Andrés Calamaro, Katia Cardenal and many others.

poetandgeek.com ‏ @poetandgeek

Cuando picada el alma de tristeza sombría Sabedora de engaños me pasada los días Besando las dos manos que me ajaban la vida

You can find more information about Storni here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonsina_Storni or listen to Mercedes Sosa's very beautiful rendering of Alfonsina y el mar here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O7vewJGMYk&feature=related.

The full poem:


Dulce tortura

Polvo de oro en tus manos fue mi melancolía
Sobre tus manos largas desparramé mi vida;
Mis dulzuras quedaron a tus manos prendidas;
Ahora soy un ánfora de perfumes vacía.

Cuánta dulce tortura quietamente sufrida
Cuando, picada el alma de tristeza sombría,
Sabedora de engaños, me pasada los días
¡Besando las dos manos que me ajaban la vida!


Sweet torture


My melancholy was gold dust in your hands;
into your long hands I scattered my life;
my gentleness remains taken by your hands;
now I am a phial empty of perfume.

How much sweet torture quietly suffered
when stung by the soul of dark sadness,
aware of the lies, I pass my days
kissing the two hands that stifle my life!

Adrienne Rich tweet poetry

Adrienne Rich died at home aged 82 but her memory lives on. I hope everyone does a little writing today for her.

poetandgeek.com ‏ @poetandgeek

having read the book of myths and loaded the camera and checked the edge of the knife-blade the body-armor I am having to do this here alone

More here http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/29/adrienne-rich-poet-essayist-dies.

The full text of the 1973 poem Diving into the wreck from which this tweet poetry is taken is available here http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15228.

This excellent photograph was taken by K. Kendall.

Edna St. Vincent Millay tweet poetry

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) poet, playwright and feminist. Born in Maine, she spent her early life in poverty. Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923 for "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; the third woman to do so. She is sometime remembered more for her sexuality than her poetry. In her own time, she was highly regarded especially as a sonnet writer and awarded the Frost medal for her contribution to American poetry in 1943.

poetandgeek.com ‏ @poetandgeek

An empty cup a flight of uncarpeted stairs It is not enough that yearly down this hill April Comes like an idiot babbling & strewing flowers

The full poem is here:


Spring

O what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

1921.


More information is available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay.

Elisabeth Bletsoe tweet poetry

Poet Elisabeth Bletsoe was born and raised near Wimborne in Dorset in the southwest of England. Her work is informed by her knowledge of botany, folklore, geology and history.

poetandgeek.com ‏ @poetandgeek

         

the fidget foot the foldsitter a fine tilth/tilt gobyground mumbler of cabbages windswift side-looker the stealaway frisker in hedges

This tweet poetry is taken from Bletsoe's poem Here Hare   Here.

You can find more of Bletsoe's work in the anthology of radical landscape poetry The Ground Aslant ed. Harriet Tarlo  and her books Landscape from a Dream and Pharmacopoeia & Early Selected Works. All available from Shearsman.

Charlotte Mew tweet poetry

Charlotte Mew (1869 - 1928) was an English poet and writer. Admired by Thomas Hardy, Walter de la Mare, Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon and John Masefield, she battled with depression during her lifetime.

poetandgeek.com @poetandgeek

trees and the high white walls the sun was always on the towers The walls are standing to-day and the gates I have been through the gates

Her best known work remains the ambiguous poem The Farmer's Bride.

This tweet poetry is taken from the poem I have been through the gates

His heart to me, was a place of palaces and pinnacles and shining towers;

I saw it then as we see things in dreams,--I do not remember how long I slept;

I remember the trees, and the high, white walls, and how the sun was always on the

towers;

The walls are standing to-day, and the gates; I have been through the gates, I have

groped, I have crept

Back, back. There is dust in the streets, and blood; they are empty; darkness is over

them;

His heart is a place with the lights gone out, forsaken by great winds and the heavenly

rain, unclean and unswept,

Like the heart of the holy city, old blind, beautiful Jerusalem;

Over which Christ wept .

More on Charlotte Mew here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Mew.

Íñigo de Mendoza tweet poetry

Fray Íñigo de Mendoza (Burgos, 1425 - Valladolid, 1507)  was a Spanish Franciscan priest and poet. He was a peripatetic monk but more often led a worldly life in court. His most important work is considered the Vita Christi from which this tweet poetry is taken, in which poetic forms of the time, romances, songs, couplets and carols are intermingled.

poetandgeek poetandgeek.com 

en mirar los movimientos de los cursos çelestiales ca según la profecía por çiençia de astrología entendían saber el día del parto

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His work is of the lírica cancioneril castellana poetic works collected in songbooks often themed.

More information can be found here http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8D%C3%B1igo_de_Mendoza.

A year of poetandgeek.com

poetandgeek.com will be a year old in a week or so and we are celebrating.

First, we have made 3 issues of our magazine; the third of which is coming soon crammed with juicy art and poetry. All can be found at poetandgeek.com central.

Second, our posts on poetry, place and informatics that have gone beyond what is offered anywhere else in the world. Here Ginsberg rubs shoulders with Zora Cross, Sir Walter Scott takes a bow to Daniel de Cullá. We were talking about new poetry apps and what good they might be to writers from our earliest posts. And looking at the machine-speech-poetry interface not to mention the bird-musical instrument-sound art interface. And look a little closer and you will find everything from tweet poetry - first defined here - to Arabic free verse and the new ballad. Like this sort of stuff? Want to know what a hemistich is? Poet and geek? Then stick around for 2012.

And that brings us to our third and most important element: our readers who join us via Nintendo, Android and iPod and browse on everything from SimplePie to Opera and Firefox, who have come from every continent bar Antarctica (and that is only a matter of time) and half of the world's countries ranging from China to Oman, Micronesia to Suriname, Scotland to Nigeria. We like you reading our stuff so thank you and please keep visiting. Send poems, ideas, images, wishlists, what you think you want to see...and we will try to make it happen.

We are free here to do what we like. (Not owned by any national organisation and funded solely by a bequest from a Dublin fashion designer that gives us a few brief years of life.) And we hope to do it brilliantly.

Thank you.