Twenty Questions: Poets' Edition

[Angeline]

I'd like to get to know you better. And everyone loves reading others' answers to these things, so let's get the party started!


20 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).


2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?


4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?


5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?


6. What poem can make you cry?


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?


10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?


14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?


15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?


16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?


17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?


18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?



19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)



20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

 

[Angeline]

My answers

I'd like to get to know you better. And everyone loves reading others' answers to these things, so let's get the party started!


20 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).

I'm going with the collected poems of WB Yeats because I love him and think he is accessible and lyrical and meaningful.


2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

I'd send you a poem called One Window by Forugh Farrokhzad because most people are unfamiliar with her and she wrote beautiful, moving poetry.


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?

That would be UBU.com


4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?

I'm blankng on this one. Maybe I'll come back to it.


5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?

Hmmm. The Hallmark Quickie by Lit's own karmadog comes to mind.


6. What poem can make you cry?

Yeats The Wild Swans at Coole


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?

Coleridge


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

Not sure. I'll have to come back to this one.


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

This one, which I memorized years ago. Yes, Yeats again. Like Corndog once told me, I have a Yeats infection.


WHEN you are old and gray and full of sleep
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.



10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?

TS Eliot's The Wasteland


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?

Either Pessoa or Rilke.


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?

Usually I'd rather read because I can stop and think and go back over and over, but going to a good reading can be a magical experience.


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?

Well they already did Eliot (Cats), so maybe some Langston Hughes because the music would have to be jazz or blues. One poem? A Dream Deferred? I, Too, Sing America?

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?

In France They Kiss on Main Street by Joni Mitchell

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?

Yup. Adrienne Rich's The Fact of a Doorframe


16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is probably why I now hate Coleridge.


17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?

My favorite poets are mostly dead. So this is a problematical question for me.


18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

My favorite poem I've ever written is something called Lady's Blues in Winter. But I think my best poems are more recent ones because they reflect what I've learned up to now.


19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)

I'm triple jointed. Really.

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

Why did you do this, Angeline? I was bored and I wanted to learn more about all of you.

Now please don't make me be the one one who does this!

 

[champagne1982]

I am unabashedly unaware of poetry these days. There are several reasons for it, but the main one features time. I should be more aware of newer poets, but I'm not. I should read more poetry books, but now that the kids are grown, I don't. I should remember the poetry that makes me laugh and cry, unfortunately, I can't even remember my neighbour's names, apart from being the 2-year-old's dad and mom (I know the youngster's name). So, my answers to your questions are going to be sorely thin, but here goes.
1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).
Leonard Cohen, Rumi and any wonderful rhymer from early last century. My great-uncle could recite The Cremation of Sam McGee, Casey at Bat and The Highwayman without batting an eye.

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?
Still I Rise - Maya Angelou because there is rhythm, there is a joy expressed in overcoming barriers to success and yet, there's a satisfaction in being exactly who you are. Plus, I've got oil wells pumping in my living room, what with being where I'm from, and all.

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?
I don't read elsewhere although I do hang out (even more rarely) at a little dive bar in Second Life where rules a certain redhead...

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
I have always LOL'd at Dr. Suess' The Lorax -seriously

6. What poem can make you cry?
A poem I wrote at the passing of a wonderful woman. Tea At A Wake and sometimes the poem I wrote as a marking of the passage of 2 years from the day when my son lost his arm.

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?
They've made it. Hahaha. Read the answer to question 5.

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?
Both. I really appreciate the way the reader can create an atmosphere totally different from the one created by the voice in my head.

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?
Into the Fire - Sara McLaughlin

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?
A Year of Rumi

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?
I memorized the major soliloquys in Hamlet, MacBeth and Julius Ceasar. Robert Service and Edgar Allen Poe were perennial favourites of my teachers. I think that we have lost something when schools fail to require recitations of famous works. It is a social experience to begin to quote a poem then have your friends join in. (Really! Try it at your next fireside gather!)

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?
Noise from the cancer ward Effective and concise.

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)
I was an airframe technician on C130 Hercules and CF18 Hornet aircraft through the 80s and into the 90s.

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.
Dogs or Cats?
Dogs, I have two and they are my best listeners.

 

[bronzeage]

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device). Charles Bukowsky


2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?
One of mine, certainly. It would depend on my mood, or yours. Anyway, I can send you a poem, so there is no "could" about it.

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?
I can't say I have one. There once was a place called poetrybang, but it crashed many years ago.


4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?
No idea.


5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
It would have to be Ogden Nash. There are too many from which to choose.


6. What poem can make you cry?
Several of mine.


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?
Kahlil-Gibran


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. I would be the lead.


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?
Too many to list.


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?
I'm never really sure where they were written.

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?
Poetry was meant to be spoken.

13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner


14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?
Most of Gordon Lightfoot's songs.

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?
Thomas Moore, but not that Thomas Moore.

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?
The standard Whitman poems, Captain, Oh my Captain, etc, The Midnight Ride Of Paul Revere, John Masefield's Sea Fever (And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by)
I still love them.

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?
Me, of course. Why not? It's not like it matters, or anything.

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

Diana, a poem about a stripper.


19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)
I can toss you in the air like a doll and catch you.


20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

Where do you find your material? A life of bad behavior has left me with a rich field to mine.

 

[Angeline]

Thank you both for the answers and the smiles. Bronze, you could throw me in the air, really? When I was a kid this guy who had been a circus strongman used to come in my parents' shop. He could lift a chair with one hand and lift me on the palm of his hand. It was tres fun.

Come on you other poets! Answer some questions!

 

[Desejo]

I'd like to get to know you better. And everyone loves reading others' answers to these things, so let's get the party started!


20 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).
Well. If a poet somehow lodged his/herself in your bookcase or were sitting on your nook/Kindle, I would only wish that they were not disagreeable or bizarre, and had decent hygiene. In all seriousness, while I could recommend hundreds of must read books, I can't do that yet for poetry. It's very dependent on individual taste - more so than literature I think.

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why? One I have saved in a poetry app - maybe Dhaka Dust by Dilruba Ahmed. Why? Because we are getting to know eachother, and that poem might give you an idea of the kind of issues that float around in my mind.


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?
Err. None right now. I do like the POETRY app for iphone.

4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read? I don't know.*****bably someone none of us has heard of who is writing under a rock in a desert and will become the latest prophet to take the world by storm....

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
Hmm. I think 50-50 by Langston Hughes is pretty amusing. I think Ode to Spot, as recited by Data is hysterical...but I am nerdy that way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SySZdvsFYt4

6. What poem can make you cry? Difficult question - anything that taps into my mood or feelings at the time, good or bad.


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep? Lots of them. I have a really hard time appreciating anything metered, rhymed and in ye olde english. Just does not appeal to me.


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it? Poems of Rumi, with Johnny Depp as Rumi. Well...why not?!

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now? Maybe the opening lines from Howl, by Allen Ginsberg. I know some of you are rolling your eyes at me


10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand? I couldn't love something that totally mystified me.


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately? I've read a lot of non american poetry lately, many excellent poems. One that comes to mind is A Pity, We Were Such a Good Invention by Yehuda Amichai.


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why? I prefer to read it. I like to see the words and think about their connections.


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical? Nothing can top The Rocky Horror Picture show or Dr. Horrible. I pass on this one.


14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song? OK - here is another sure to be unpopular answer: Almost anything by Eminem.


15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one? No. The bathroom is reserved for Wired magazine


16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now? Yes. Some Shakespeare, some French poems, maybe one or two others. I can't recite them now but I could probably do it if I reviewed them. Because the poems were imposed on me (not my choice) they are not special to me.


17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?
No idea....

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why? I don't think I have written a best one yet.

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!) I don't have a drivers license. And no, I am not from NYC.


20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

Coffee or Tea? Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.

 

[PandoraGlitters]

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device). I really loved Patricia Storace's volume of poetry but it's hard to find.

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

I would (actually make that will) send you one by Jake Euker, my friend who passed away recently, because reading his work makes me laugh and I think it might make you laugh, too.


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?www.blueangellanding.com (Volume 2 will launch in the next week or two)

4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read? BJ Ward

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
Simon Armitage's poem "The Christening" or maybe David Weinstock's "Notes on Cats"

6. What poem can make you cry?
Still to this day I tear up at "Love Is Not All" by Millay

7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?
Oof. Lots. Gluck has before.


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?
Anything by Sharon Olds. Did her book "Stag's Leap" come out yet? That would be a good one. And it should star Sigourney Weaver just 'coz they both have wirey arms.


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?
(changed this). Alta: little old ladies is the term they use / to make me laugh at women who've/ been fighting for over 60 years


10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?
Again, Lots! Most of Gertrude Stein. Some of 1201's.

11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?
The poem "Noche de Lluvia, San Salvador," by Aracelis Girmay


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?
Both. I love to read poetry to see the shape and appreciate the craft as applied to diction and editing. Equally, I love to hear poetry to appreciate the craft as applied to narrative and sonics.


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?
Sylvia Plath's Daddy would make an interesting number. I used to use "The Hardness Scale" as an audition piece when I was an actor.

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?
I'm Your Man by Cohen maybe. A lot of the songs of Courtney Love and Poe. I could hear Ginsberg reading Dead Kennedy's, totally.

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?
Nah. My bathroom is too small for that. I can barely keep towels!

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?
Never had to, but did choose to. Still love them.

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?
Tony Hoagland because he kicks ass and because he stood up for Sharon Olds which makes me love him a little. And next, Sharon Olds.

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?
The one I will write tomorrow because it is still perfect.

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)
Hm. That I used to sing backup in a reggae band, maybe. (Did I tell you that?)


20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.
What is the best bad-for-you thing to ingest? Bananas Foster. Yum.

 

[Angeline]

Thank you ladies! You've given me some great ideas for new reading. I'm happy to know you both. Dora, you know I'm a fan of your poems and Desejo, I'm quickly becoming one of yours. I've really enjoyed reading what you've been posting here.

 

[Angeline]

I am unabashedly unaware of poetry these days. There are several reasons for it, but the main one features time. I should be more aware of newer poets, but I'm not. I should read more poetry books, but now that the kids are grown, I don't. I should remember the poetry that makes me laugh and cry, unfortunately, I can't even remember my neighbour's names, apart from being the 2-year-old's dad and mom (I know the youngster's name). So, my answers to your questions are going to be sorely thin, but here goes.
1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).
Leonard Cohen, Rumi and any wonderful rhymer from early last century. My great-uncle could recite The Cremation of Sam McGee, Casey at Bat and The Highwayman without batting an eye.

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?
Still I Rise - Maya Angelou because there is rhythm, there is a joy expressed in overcoming barriers to success and yet, there's a satisfaction in being exactly who you are. Plus, I've got oil wells pumping in my living room, what with being where I'm from, and all.

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?
I don't read elsewhere although I do hang out (even more rarely) at a little dive bar in Second Life where rules a certain redhead...

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
I have always LOL'd at Dr. Suess' The Lorax -seriously

6. What poem can make you cry?
A poem I wrote at the passing of a wonderful woman. Tea At A Wake and sometimes the poem I wrote as a marking of the passage of 2 years from the day when my son lost his arm.

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?
They've made it. Hahaha. Read the answer to question 5.

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?
Both. I really appreciate the way the reader can create an atmosphere totally different from the one created by the voice in my head.

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?
Into the Fire - Sara McLaughlin

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?
A Year of Rumi

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?
I memorized the major soliloquys in Hamlet, MacBeth and Julius Ceasar. Robert Service and Edgar Allen Poe were perennial favourites of my teachers. I think that we have lost something when schools fail to require recitations of famous works. It is a social experience to begin to quote a poem then have your friends join in. (Really! Try it at your next fireside gather!)

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?
Noise from the cancer ward Effective and concise.

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)
I was an airframe technician on C130 Hercules and CF18 Hornet aircraft through the 80s and into the 90s.

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.
Dogs or Cats?
Dogs, I have two and they are my best listeners.

How could I have forgotten Dr. Seuss? *face palm*

 

[bronzeage]

Thank you both for the answers and the smiles. Bronze, you could throw me in the air, really? When I was a kid this guy who had been a circus strongman used to come in my parents' shop. He could lift a chair with one hand and lift me on the palm of his hand. It was tres fun.

Come on you other poets! Answer some questions!

Really.

It's a request I get fairly often. It starts with a little disbelief, but anyone who sees it done, wants their turn.

 

[HarryHill]

testing

 

[HarryHill]

0 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).

(What the Hell is an erm device?) Don't know you well enough to answer this one

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

Again, see ans. 1

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?

There's another one?

4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?

Does that discount the existance of Old/new poets?

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?

'I've never seen a purple cow...'

6. What poem can make you cry?

Any of Kocksure's stuff.....Fuck, Fuck, Fuck...

7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?

Homer, 'The lliad' ....dactylic hexameter ...really?

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

Kippling, Already several old flics ....Pauly Shore

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

Dylan Thomas 'Do not go gentle into that good night ...'

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?

Just one?

11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?

Modifier, lately, makes this a non answer

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?

Read, my ears aren't what they once were

13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?

I'll let you know later

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?

Just saw the pseudonym of a writer that reminded me of Rod Stewarts 'Maggie May'

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?

There's enough shit in there now... So the answer is nope

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?

Yeah, probably the first prose poem, 'The Gettysburg Address' show that one to the Talliban

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?

Sigh..

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

Oh the pain that life bestows
on singing bird and sweet red rose
who sing and bloom for one short season
then pass away for no good reason
when dark clouds gather at setting sun
and cold winds blow their time is done ..........Why ask why?

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)

Wouldn't you like to know?

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

How often does your heart break?.......It never heals

 

[Angeline]

0 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).

(What the Hell is an erm device?) Don't know you well enough to answer this one

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

Again, see ans. 1

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?

There's another one?

4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?

Does that discount the existance of Old/new poets?

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?

'I've never seen a purple cow...'

6. What poem can make you cry?

Any of Kocksure's stuff.....Fuck, Fuck, Fuck...

7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?

Homer, 'The lliad' ....dactylic hexameter ...really?

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

Kippling, Already several old flics ....Pauly Shore

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

Dylan Thomas 'Do not go gentle into that good night ...'

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?

Just one?

11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?

Modifier, lately, makes this a non answer

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?

Read, my ears aren't what they once were

13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?

I'll let you know later

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?

Just saw the pseudonym of a writer that reminded me of Rod Stewarts 'Maggie May'

15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?

There's enough shit in there now... So the answer is nope

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?

Yeah, probably the first prose poem, 'The Gettysburg Address' show that one to the Talliban

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?

Sigh..

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

Oh the pain that life bestows
on singing bird and sweet red rose
who sing and bloom for one short season
then pass away for no good reason
when dark clouds gather at setting sun
and cold winds blow their time is done ..........Why ask why?

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)

Wouldn't you like to know?

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

How often does your heart break?.......It never heals

Thanks for the responses. The "erm device" mean Nook, Kindle, I-Pad, smartphone, etc. Sorry for my lack of clarity. I get lost in the metaphors sometimes.

Hearts heal with time. Mine did.

 

[Tzara]

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device)? Since I have no idea what poets are in your bookcase (other then, say, Ted Berrigan and Yeats), I'll default to the poet I would suggest to anyone--Kenneth Koch.


2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why? "Drunken Memories of Anne Sexton" by Alan Dugan, not because you resemble the late Ms. Sexton nor because I think you're a drunk, but because I like the poem and I like you and it's at least a bit about being befuddled by someone you admire from distance.


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)? poets.org.


4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read? I'd say A. E. Stallings, but I know I've mentioned her before on Lit. I don't know. Chad Davidson?


5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read? Ko; or, A Season on Earth by Kenneth Koch, although his The Duplications is pretty funny, too.


6. What poem can make you cry? Actually, quite a few. It isn't difficult to make me cry. But Ezra Pound's adaptation of Li Po, "The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter" is one. Robinson Jeffers' "The House-Dog's Grave" is another. Both are, unsurprisingly, about love.


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep? Spenser's The Faerie Queene. The thing's better than Ambien.


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it? Aniara by Harry Martinson, with Michael Fassbender as Mimaroben.


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now? These:

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.​

from Yeats' "Leda and the Swan."


10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand? I should probably say "The Waste Land," but let me be more obscure and name "Poem Beginning 'The'" by Louis Zukofsky.


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately? Li Po. If you mean contemporary poetry, probably Lorna Crozier, recently.


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why? Mostly read it. I've been listening to poets read their work recently and most of them do it badly. That is to say, I like the poem better in my head than listening to them read it.

I fairly often read out loud to myself. Does that count?


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical? "General William Booth Enters into Heaven" by Vachel Lindsay. It already even has music (as Lindsay notes) and would make a dynamo number in the Broadway musical Salvation! on the creation of The Salvation Army. Maybe Nathan Lane as the General (Zero Mostel would be better, but is, alas, deceased).


14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song? "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow, which actually did start as a poem by Wyn Cooper.


15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one? Lots. No long Proustian or Jamesian scenes to, um, work one's way through.


16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now? If I did (and I'm sure I did), I can't recall what they were. The first poet I can remember really liking is E. E. Cummings, whom I discovered in high school, but not through class.


17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why? Dora had some good suggestions. I might say Kim Addonizio or Dorianne Laux, both of whom I really like as poets, both of whom I think are kinda hot, and both of whom are good public speakers, which is important for the position.

Though I don't much care for hip hop myself, I think it might be cool to name Jay-Z or someone to the position.


18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?



19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!) Geez. I've dished about my rather limited life so much that there isn't much I haven't blabbed about at some time or another.

How about that, while a blue state Democrat, the only political candidates I have ever worked for were Republican.


20. Make up your own damn question and answer it. Q: Why does the chicken cross the road?

A: To hold his pants up.

 

[ninianne]

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).

I tend not to buy collections--I prefer anthologies because I get a little bit of everyone. But, I've always liked John Donne--he has such a eclectic body of work. If we're going modern--maybe Sexton--she's one who I have on my shelf--or maybe

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

Guy Wetmore Carryl's The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet because I think more people should know that poem and I think it's great.


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?

I spend time on poets.org and poemhunter.com but some things I've only been able to find in books.


4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?

I read way too much to have favorites.

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?

I like Lewis Carroll. And Dr. Suess--I was reading to my nephew whose 2 and a half, and was struck again by the lines from the last story in "The Sneeches and other stories"

I do not fear those pale green pants
with nobody inside them
I said and said and said those words
I said them, but I lied them.

I also think Robert Burns has some really funny stuff. And John Donne . . . I like funny poetry.


6. What poem can make you cry?

I tend not to cry over poetry, but recently, anything about death and babies--it just hits too close to home.

7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?

I also tend not to fall asleep reading--but maybe Dante's Inferno?

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

I have no idea. Possibly something out of "Transformations"--except they've done fairy tales to death recently.

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

Way too many to count. Going back to Robert Burns:

And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun

I can still hear my professor reading that out to the class in his lovely Welsh accent . . .

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?

I love John Ashbery, but whenever I try to read meaning for more than three lines at a stretch, my thoughts get tangled crosswise. Some of my favorites, "My Philosophy of Life," and "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in Landscape" (which is technically a sestina)


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?

possibly Borges--sometimes I have a hard time remembering to differentiate between Americans and Brits. Does Charles Simac count?


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?

yes--either, or, both. I think poetry should have the ability to be read aloud or else it's some other--possibly interesting--artform, but not poetry.


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?

I know it's not rhyming--and I have no idea what kind of music it would be, but Billy Collins "Litany"--I can just imagine the dancing


14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?

I don't have favorite songs either. I know too many.


15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?

I actually don't have any books in the bathroom--in every other room in the house, but not there in the damp.

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?

Yes. The Jabberocky, The Embarrassing Episode of Little Miss Muffet, Sea Fever, The Octopus, about fifty lines from "Much Ado about Nothing", one hundred lines from "Canterbury Tales" . . . the list could go on--I made it a point to choose bits that I didn't mind having in my head forever.

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?

I have no idea. I'm not sure I care--but I'm certain whoever it is will do whatever a poet laureate does to my satisfaction.

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

I'm not a good judge. The most recent one I liked was the paper one I posted to the 007 discussion here, but that was a few months ago. Usually, I like the one I'm working on, and right now, I'm concentrating on school instead of poetry.


19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)

I have a wind chime hanging over my computer--it rings as I type, and when it's quiet, I know I've been staring at the screen too long.

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

why am I up at 2:30 am doing this? I have no idea. I wish I could sleep.

 

[butters]

20 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).
Byron, of course, and then Jody Azzouni


2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?
this, just because it may make you smile - a little, if only once:

working out with Jasper


oh fuzzy-faced, contented cat
preferring cushions to the mat;
rotund, we both need exercise
I touch my toes - you roll your eyes;
you stretch, I jog till oh so hot;
I sweat - you scratch an awkward spot.

determined to burn calories
I twist and lunge, bend at the knees;
you flick your tail and preen a whisker,
lick a paw and deign to risk a
little shake, and then you drop
down cushionwards just as I flop
exhausted, wondering if I'm thinner;
you eye your empty bowl - where's dinner?


3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?
not sure i have a favourite right now, especially as i lack the time to go browsing the web much, spending most my net-time here anyway



4. Who is the most exciting young/new poet I’ve never heard of, but whose work I ought to find and read?
sorry, i'm not up enough with the new writers as i once was - if you'd have asked me that 7 years ago i could have offered you a list. there are, however, new (to this place at least) writers who knock me sideways at times. never enough hours in the day to read enough or comment enough on them and all here, which is a great pity.


5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?
don't know if it's because i'm sick right now, but my brain's freezing trying to think of what they were called, who wrote them... but know i have read some that truly tickled my funnybone. :frustratedemote:


6. What poem can make you cry?
jeezus, looks like i'll have to return to fill in this when i'm not so fuzzy. suffice it to say that i have been moved to tears on many occasions by a poem, or a phrase within that poem


7. What supposedly immortal poem puts you to sleep?
too many. i'd put it down to a short attention-span but i find byron and shakespeare both manage to keep me engaged no matter the length of their writes.


8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?
it's kind of already happened for me, with The Night Before Christmas poem - starring Shrek i'm sure there are other, far more noble poetry books that would benefit from that special touch a movie-producer has, and Johnny Depp if you don't mind. then again, Ten-nant's Hamlet was super-awesome. That's his soliloquy, watch it and be moved!


9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?
oh, this one's easy peasy!

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?
can't answer this one - i have to enjoy a write as i find it; if i'm not understanding what the poet intended, but still enjoying it, then i'm probably finding meanings that suit me to find... so i might not know i'm not understanding it because it seems to me i am in a way, if that makes sense. if i come across a poem i honestly feel i don't understand, and can't work through that by a bit of research to discover its truth, then the chances are i'm not loving it enough to bother digging deeper... i think i just got lost in my own thoughts there. sorry


11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?
anything by Pablo Neruda. his work entrances me.


12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?
most of the time i prefer to read, as it has more dimension for me this way but also because the majority of readers don't do the writes justice imo. some people are gifted with the sort of voice i could listen to all day and night, reading poetry or books or simply making words fall from their lips - these people i would love to hear read poetry aloud, moreso than read it myself, but i'd want to read it afterwards to digest it on another level. i don't like hearing myself read my own writes, though that ick factor is greatly reduced if i whisper them. i like the whispering of my poems. don't even know the whys of that one.


13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?
gawd knows

14. What is your favorite poem that is masquerading as a song?
not exactly my favourites, but agree with desejo about plenty of eminem's writing... in this fuzzy state my mind keeps coming back to 'The Boxer' by Simon and Garfunkel:

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises.
All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest, hmmmm

When I left my home and my family, I's no more than a boy
In the company of strangers
In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared, laying low,
Seeking out the poorer quarters, where the ragged people go,
Looking for the places only they would know.



and - more recently - Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts:

a few lines

I know I can't take one more step towards you
Cause all that's waiting is regret
And don't you know I'm not your ghost anymore
You lost the love I loved the most

I learned to live half alive
And now you want me one more time

And who do you think you are
Running 'round leaving scars
Collecting your jar of hearts
And tearing love apart
You're gonna catch a cold
From the ice inside your soul
So don't come back for me
Who do you think you are


i think it has to be The Boxer as my favourite.




15. Have you ever kept a book of poems in the john? Which one?
no, lol. nowhere to keep it, though i've read many in the bath.


16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?
not so much memorise poems but quotations from plays and essays to use in exams. hated that part of things - the destructuring, the pulling to pieces, the raw mechanics... ruined the pleasure of the reading for me at a time when all i wanted to do was wander in another world, feel, experience the wonders my eyes were interfacing with. it did, however, give me some understanding of hidden meanings i'd have missed entirely, and a little knowledge of tools a writer can use. for many years those pieces became places i'd not visit again, too sucked of life to interest me, but think i could revisit them now after all this time and maybe look at them as i would have wished to first time around.


17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?
:blinks:

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?
i really don't know. my thoughts on that change over time, and ones i like best are often not the ones best received by others. if i went by response here, then my 'best' would have to be 'imprint', whereas i prefer 'white flags' or even 'positive thinking'. meh, ask me three weeks from now and it'll be different again, most likely.



19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)
due to a clash of two subjects i'd chosen for O-level, and the school putting me into history over the biology course i'd have preferred, i was the first person in my school to take the general science o-level the first year it was brought out. i didn't have a teacher, since the school wasn't set up for the exam course, so got to sit in the back of chemistry/physics/biology science lessons and work from a book on my own - i passed with a C grade by answering only the biology questions in the exam and only the odd one from the other sciences. i sucked at chemistry and physics


20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.[/QUOTE]
Q: why do you type such long replies? short and concise is always better.
A: i think it's because i'm typing as i think, rather than think before i type, which makes for more long-winded responses but if i type them first and then look back on them i am able to edit them down to a shorter and more grammatical reply and ... oops

 

[twelveoone]

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

The Waste Land
Christopher Walken

13. What poem would you like to hear the main character bust out singing in a Bollywood film or American musical?

still cracking up over "Daddy" - good one
Bollywood - Dante's Inferno (all singing) a shame Divine is dead, saw him as Dante. Our own Tzara could play Virgil, barring that, Joe Pesci. You may want to leave before the ending.

American musical - Paradise Lost, Johnny Depp in both major parts

20. Make up your own damn question and answer it.

Q. What is so damn difficult about The Waste Land?
A. just get the director's cut, where Tarantino talks about it.

 

[Angeline]

Great responses all, thank you. This thread has, as I hoped it would, turned into a mini poetry course. I tend to stick with my old favorites, so I love all the new stuff that is being suggested in this thread. Gives me lots of poem reading to do, and as I am utterly sick of politics in America at the moment, the poems will be a welcome change.

 

[twelveoone]

I'd like to get to know you better. And everyone loves reading others' answers to these things, so let's get the party started!


20 Questions:

1. What poet should be in my bookcase (or, for the techno inclined, on my erm device).

Philip Schultz
he's real Rye, if you get my drift

2. If you could send me one poem which one would it be and why?

wouldn't, i have enough enemies

3. What's your favorite poetry related blog or website (besides here, obviously)?

http://williamwatkin.blogspot.com/search/label/Article: Poetry Machines

5. What’s the funniest poem you’ve read?

some of mine

6. What poem can make you cry?

this is tough, i don't, but i can't read Paul Celan without feeling devastated

9. What lines from a poem that you first read years ago still haunt you now?

as i pondered weak and weary
but it always goes off in a different direction
bronze's answer cracked me up, how can any boy not remember the charge of the light brigade, and think there must be something to this poetry crap that there trying to shove down our throats, give me a horse and a saber, dammit

10. What poem do you love, love, love, but don’t understand?

some of 1201's, bah, ha, ha, just kidding, I know where it's going so that has a tendency to bore me

11. What’s the best non-American poetry you’ve read lately?

Richard Richard Howard translation of Les Fleurs Du Mal
he does something really interesting with that
Tolkien's suppressed
Song of Saruman

12. Do you prefer to read or listen to poetry? Maybe both? Why?

read, if lucky i can get the voice in my head

16. Did you have to memorize any poems in school? Which one(s)? How do you feel about the poem(s) now?

see above, give me a horse and a saber, dammit

17. Who should be the next poet laureate (of whichever country is your home)? Why?

John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten because
Right now ha, ha!

I am an anti-Christ
I am an anarchist,
Don't know what I want
But I know how to get it.
I wanna destroy the passer by
'Cos I wanna be anarchy,
Ho dogs body

Roger Waters would be a second choice, they could redo the National Anthems also

18. What's the best poem you've written? Why?

in english, engrish, or broken ingles?
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
all rise
I could never tell an L from an R
I smile instead

or from my Spaghetti Western by 1201 aka the man with noname, the saga of a deconstructionist Johnny Derrida

for the poor box
it groans with spiders

pronounced: et grooans with spi ders

19. What is something surprising about you that I don't know? (If I barely know you this'll be a real easy one!)

chipbuddy keeps me in a closet as a sex slave, feeds me cheese

8. Even for poetry books, the contract has a provision for movie rights. What poetry book should they make into a movie? Who should star in it?

Les Fleurs Du Mal
Desijo, but only if i get the other part

 

[butters]

Roger Waters would be a second choice, they could redo the National Anthems also

damnit, i meant to put in anything Floyd and forgot!

chipbuddy keeps me in a closet as a sex slave, feeds me cheese

you kept that one so far in the closet it thought it was in narnia :littlesmile:

 

[twelveoone]

oh. I love Question #8,
I could do that all day.
movies and poetry
didn't johhny depp play a poet, once?
i could see him walking around with a dead albatross

 

[twelveoone]

damnit, i meant to put in anything Floyd and forgot!

wait a second, is this Syd Floyd, Pink Floyd, or Floyd Lite (waters-less)
I had no idea Roger was Welsh, go Red Dragon on a field of Green.

 

[butters]

wait a second, is this Syd Floyd, Pink Floyd, or Floyd Lite (waters-less)
I had no idea Roger was Welsh, go Red Dragon on a field of Green.

Pink, of course

having said that, the High Hopes track from the Division Bell album was definitely a poem.

 

[HarryHill]

How many would change their answers today? How many newbies want to play?

 

[butters]

How many would change their answers today? How many newbies want to play?

would you?