Week 11

The poems I did for week 11: "Digital and Visual Poetry" were the first things I posted here before I started going in sequential order. So find the link for the labels week 11 on the right, and it should bring you to them.

Week 11: More Visual Digital Poetry, Danse Macabre + Halloween Poem

This is more of the same work from the experiment promt:
§Try a "digital" poem, or poem in programmable media, or indeed one using links or HTML as a fundamental dimension
I was pretty stuck as to what to do with this this time around. I couldn't really find another poem that someone else wrote that was immediately striking to me. So I went back to some things I have written before and came across a little poem I did a while back around Halloween. It was written for my friend, Ben, who understands all things grim. I love Camille Saint-Saens' Dance Macabre suite, so I decided to incorporate that into this. Honestly, I am not entirely happy with the way this worked out. I wanted to work on it a bit more to reconfigure the text so it is actually part of the image, not separate from it. But I need more time to fool around with that. I just got a brand new laptop, and it involves the latest version of Windows that I am still getting used to. Anyway, here's the poem. Same deal as with the cowboy poem below.


(from Wikipedia) This image is the Dance of Death in the German printed edition, folio CCLXI recto from Hartman Schedel's Chronicle of the World (Nuremberg, 1493) thought to be created by Michael Wolgemut (b. 1434, Nürnberg, d. 1519, Nürnberg). There was also a Latin printed edition of the same year. It seems not to be by Hans Holbein the Younger, as often stated. He was not alive at the time of its publication in 1493.



Grim Tidings, What Ho!

Or

Symphony Composed for My Dear Friend Ben in Anticipation of All Hallows Eve

I: Music Most Macabre

(Listen to Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" Suite)

Rotting corpse giggling, laughing beneath the full moon.

It spins, dancing to wretched fantastic grim tunes.

Such as those of a skeleton choosing the key

A ribcage with heart strings still intact, plucked with glee.

It sings lines and such rhymes which cause mortals to swoon.

A black adder sounds lower bass pitches o’er way

By headstones molded over, dead flowers decay.

The tick tock of the clock the bell tower chimes twelve

Ancient hour of mischief, souls helpless do delve

Into magic most evil, most horrid they say.

Soon the soldier of doom and much merciless pain

Will strike down these sounds sinister, witness the rain

Washing over and over commanded by he

That cares not if you rot for all eternity.

Slowly singing halts. Thunder booms o’er the refrain.

‘Tis the end of this song, decrescendo my dear

For this storm will wreck all of our practice, I fear.

Deathharmonic struck down by a tempest and flood.

And our maestro dear Satan will cry tears of blood

Till he hears we’ll be here Hallows Eve every year.

Week 11: Visual Digital Poetry Part 1: Cowboy Poetry

      For this week's seminar we are exploring digital poetry. Using the prompt:

      §Try a "digital" poem, or poem in programmable media, or indeed one using links or HTML as a fundamental dimension

      I decided to try this out. One of my favorite movies is one that I saw just this past semester, Dances with Wolves (1990, Kevin Costner). And one of my other favorite films of all time, and one I consider to be the best film of the 2000-2010 era (Oughts, whatever you want to call them) is There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson). I knew I wanted to connect the two together in some way. I combined the awesome font from There Will Be Blood (found at and a credit to Mr Fisk Fonts) and the recommended YouTube video that plays the theme of Dances with Wolves, and a wonderful landscape picture to accompany a classic "Cowboy Poetry" poem, The Spell of the Yukon Gold," by Arthur Chapman. Unfortunately, I got the font to work on my computer, but when I checked from a different computer that didn't have the font installed it didn't show up. So I'm going to e-mail it to the class attached as a PDF. (If you aren't in English 111 and still want to read it, let me know and I'll e-mail it).
      Cowboy Poetry is a subgenre of poetry, and apparently it has a long history that I didn't know much about until my mom mentioned it (kudos to Mom!). It's interesting as hell. I think compiling all of these components made the poem more moving. You were given sensual stimuli on so many fronts--a visual, a text, a font that conjurs up associations with a certain genre and time period, and a song from one of the most beautiful soundtracks ever. I'm pretty happy with it, and I hope you are, too!

The Spell of the Yukon Gold

By Arthur Chapman

(to be read while listening to The "John Dunbar Theme" from the Academy Award winning soundtrack from Dances with Wolves (comp. John Barry)

Out among the big things-   The mountains and the plains-
An hour ain't important,    Nor are the hour's gains;
The feller in the city    Is hurried night and day,
But out among the big things    He learns the calmer way.

Out among the big things-   The skies that never end-
to lose a day ain't nothin'    The days are here to spend;
So why not give 'em freely,    Enjoyin' as we go?
I somehow can't stop thinkin'    the good Lord means life so.

Out among the big things-   the heights that gleam afar-
A feller gets to wonder   What means each distant star;
He may not get the answer,    But somehow every night
He feels, among the big things,   That everything's all right.

For more about Cowboy Poetry, see this useful site: The Classic Cowboy Bush Poetry of the Range Writers