Moving Poems
Dave Bonta’s Moving Poems blog is a wonderful source of video adaptations, animations, and readings of poems. For a sample, try these clips of Anne Sexton reading and talking about her work.
The regulars
Ash Bowen's poetry has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Blackbird, and Black Warrior Review, among other publications. He lives and works in Texarkana, AR.
Jennifer Jabaily's poetry has appeared in Mannequin Envy and Fickle Muses. She's a second-year MFA student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Ashley Anna McHugh is a third-year MFA student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Measure, DIAGRAM and Memorious as well as other publications.
Johnathon Williams's poetry has appeared in Best New Poets 2009, the Pebble Lake Review, and Unsplendid. He lives in Fayetteville, AR, with his wife and daughters.
Irving on the future of the book
Were he starting out as a novelist in today’s publishing world, John Irving would be tempted to shoot himself. But he still believes that books have a future.
Design to delight
YouTube – Piano stairs – Rolighetsteorin.se – The fun theory.
More things in the world should be designed to delight.
A sonnet a day
From Adam Tessier comes Our Daily Sonnet, a cool new project that promises to post a daily video reading of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, each by a different reader. Adam describes it thus:
The project came out of a terrible cold I had a week ago — I was home sick from work and my eyes were bothering me and rather than read the sonnets as I was planning to do all day as part of my homework for Bennington I thought I’d listen to them on Youtube or something first, before going to the text when I felt better — surely there must be videos of people reading these poems out there. There are a few, but I realized quickly, not nearly enough.
Adam’s posted six so far, and he’s looking for more. If you’d like to submit a video, email ourdailysonnet [at] gmail [dot] com.
Adam’s poem “Jacob’s Dream” appeared on Linebreak on Nov. 11.
via YouTube – Sonnet 5.
Dead poets. On video.
Once, I despaired that zombies and poetry would ever find their proper relationship. Today, I despair no more, thanks to this YouTube channel in which famous dead poets read their work. A few favorites: Wilfred Owen reading “Strange Meeting,” Gerard Manly Hopkins reading “The Leaden Echo,” and Anne Sexton reading “The Truth the Dead Know.” Computer animation or necromancy? You decide!
Here’s my vote for the creepiest of the bunch, Dylan Thomas reading “Poem in October:”
(via Kottke)