The Real Writer

Poetry Visualized

I just found out about a new website called Poetry Visualized, which is offering a place for poets and other artists to show off their work as either audio, text, or text and film (video, music, etc.). They plan on gathering the pieces into a feature-length film to take to festivals next year and doing an online visual festival this year.

It seems very new, so who knows whether they will or won't become a good forum for poets and other artists. I'm for anything that allows writers to stretch their wings and experiment with other disciplines, and same for other artists experimenting with words. The only red flag for me is their definition of Visual Poetry, which I don't find accurate. They're defining it as mostly a graphic and film medium in the modern sense.

BUT, the term is somewhat interchangeable with Concrete Poetry, which is more text-based than Visual. Concrete Poetry began, technically, with the Greeks and continued on through time, including George Herbert's shaped poetry (Easter Wings, for example), Mallarme, e.e. cummings, etc. It was revived by Brazilian poets in the 1950s and given the CP term then. It began with text and painting, collage, and photography (static images) and sound, then included motion.

Sorry for the mini-lecture, I'm always a little suspicious when there's no nod to history/tradition. Most art forms don't just appear out of nowhere! Perhaps that's the formalist in me.... :) I couldn't find a mention about rights or permission, so if you decide to participate, check that out first. It's apparently run by attorney Rod Underhill, who was cofounder of MP3.com.

For the all-time best resource for Concrete/Visual Poetry - go to www.ubuweb.com

Link to Poetry Visualized: www.poetryvisualized.com

I wouldn't be a good advocate for Baltimore poets or Write Here, Write Now if I didn't toot our horn and say that we had a Visual Poetry class in spring of 2007, which included a gallery show at Creative Alliance, and are turning poems into visual pieces (paintings, collage, mixed media), then animations/video right now, a class I planned last summer, but a form I've been working in for ten years. So we're ahead of the curve here in Bmore!

Be Quiet

This is a challenge I'm giving myself so thought I'd extend it to you. Take a day (or a weekend if you can manage it) and just be quiet. No phones, no TV, no email, no music, no visitors, no parties, etc. Stay home if that works best for you, but you can also go out - you just can't talk to anyone!

The last year, for me, has been so busy, which has been great, but I haven't heard myself think in a long time. Not good for any artist to not be able to hear that 'still, small voice' within. Now that my residency with Creative Alliance is over and I've moved into the new house, I finally have the quiet and privacy I've been craving for a while, and can see and feel how much I need a big, healthy dose of silence. Right now it sounds better to me than chocolate, which is really saying something.

So I am setting my intention to do this within the next week or so. If this is harder for you - you might have kids - lock yourself away somewhere for an hour (closet, laundry room, master bath?). Figure out what might work for you and take whatever size dose you can. It does add up.

Yes it's good to find time to write and to read, but it's also important to find time to make space - in your head, in your heart, as well as your life, for whatever belongs to you to enter. Have pen and paper handy if you must, but just listen and think. And don't expect anything momentous to happen right away. It's a process. It's a journey. It's cumulative. Let your mind clear, and just be quiet.

Doesn't that sound delicious?

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

A wonderful resource for artists of all disciplines, you can find the nationwide directory here:

Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

If you are a Maryland resident like me:

Maryland Lawyers for the Arts

Info about their services, which I'm sure applies to all the states:

Founded in 1985, Maryland Lawyers for the Arts, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides lawyer referral services and pro bono legal assistance to income-eligible artists and arts organizations. In addition, MLA presents educational workshops and seminars that focus on the legal aspects of arts related issues such as copyright, contracts, and entity formation, including nonprofit, tax-exempt corporations. Maryland Lawyers for the Arts is committed to protecting the legal rights of the arts community and to providing legal assistance and education to artists and arts organizations in all creative disciplines.

Their first newsletter - it began in winter, 2008

Arts Brief

TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE ARTS BRIEF: go to website, choose 'library' in the menu at the top and click on the subscribe link.

Sign up for A Poem a Day for National Poetry Month

A Poem a Day - sign up here