Monday, April 5, 2010

The Lines of Others: Annika

Annika actually quoted this Dada poem before I asked people to offer favorite lines for National Poetry Month. It's so good, it goes in the pot.

(Please, anyone who wants to, keep leaving more in the comments--with a little explanation of what they mean to you.)

Poet Hugo Ball (below) started Dada in World War I in response to what he saw as the "glaring mistake" of confusing people for machines.

Hugo Ball reading his Dada sound poem "Karawane," Cabaret Voltaire, 1916, and the original typesetting of the poem.

Image found on Dali House--also there, a nice write up about Hugo Ball.

Here's a rendition I like a lot because of the dancing typefaces:

6 comments:

femminismo said...

As a lover of type, I cannot tell you HaOw MUch I LoVeD this YouTube video. What a poem, what a costume!

Fresca said...

Isn't the costume a hoot?
He could be in one of my homespun movies.

I've loved what we now call fonts ever since my parents bought me a calligraphy pen and nibs set when I was nine.

Lill said...

I envisioned my collected poem "Cyber Words" as being spoken aloud, or even better, sung. I wish I knew how to put that together in some way. I did sing it, but the recording part has so far eluded me -- maybe that will be my Poetry Month project.

A poem a day is more ambitious than I feel right now, but thanks for suggesting it.

I did write a poem recently, though. Here it is:

Funeral

when is a good time to die?
when broad leaves shelter
tiny lives singing, crawling, hiding,
as you should have sheltered,
or when loose dry leaves
swirl in a puff along the sidewalk
huddling like cold children.
perhaps when trees spread black,
naked limbs, appealing
for only a streak of light – or
when warmth comes, just a little,
enough so that when
those you have shadowed
return home without finally silent you,
there is one small,
pale
hopeful
crocus


Nancy L. Wade

Marz said...

Hail, Nonsense!

Photo: If I blur my eyes, I see a herring.

Fresca said...

LiLL: I really want to hear "Cyber words"!
And sung would be WONDERFUL!

You should learn how to record music for your singing group anyway, yes? I know little about it, but a friend lent me an MP3 recorder once and it was a cinch.

And oh my, "Funeral" is powerful.
Thank you very much for sharing it.
It both packs a whallop AND touches gently.
That ending crocus--so fragile yet relentless.

QUESTION: I wonder about the line
"as you should have sheltered,"
I want to read it "as you should have BEEN sheltered."

MARGARET: Me too! I'd have given Hugo Ball top billing in my herring film.
This actually made me feel proud of bink & my herring costumes.

Lill said...

Thanks for the comment and compliment on "Funeral".

I may check into the MP3 recorder idea. My brain is back in unwieldy 70's and 80's technology. My young men could probably figure out something easy for me.