RAC Rachel McKibbens lowhumcrush blew the socks off the Providence crowd tonight. She got a standing ovation from the crowd.
I confess it — I’m not a huge fan of the Providence scene. Very young and very much a “slamvoice” scene. Fun night though, with Rachel (and Holdie!) and ocvictor and javabill and cheesy_goodness and badgary and androidlustre and, of course, myainsel.
Whew. That’s a lot of tags.
I’m headed to bed now…the meds are doing me in, which is why I didn’t stay for the slam itself.
The new Zero Point Zero column’s set to be up on gotpoetry in the AM — an exploration of the distance between truth and fact in poetry; a reprint of an older column with some notes added.
Dark Matter 
April 23rd, 2004 at 3:26 pm
it was awesome
feeling old with you and all the worcester peops.
seriously. i would’ve felt really out of place otherwise.
even better was hearing you live your poem out loud.
it moved me.
and made me proud to be your friend.
pussy-ing out,
rachel
April 23rd, 2004 at 3:26 pm
it was awesome
feeling old with you and all the worcester peops.
seriously. i would’ve felt really out of place otherwise.
even better was hearing you live your poem out loud.
it moved me.
and made me proud to be your friend.
pussy-ing out,
rachel
April 23rd, 2004 at 7:13 am
Well…
both Annie and I really need to get healthy and stay that way for a bit before I commit to a tour, so no time soon…but it will happen, I promise.
April 23rd, 2004 at 7:13 am
Well…
both Annie and I really need to get healthy and stay that way for a bit before I commit to a tour, so no time soon…but it will happen, I promise.
April 23rd, 2004 at 7:10 am
So when are you going to start that Texas tour??? 😉
April 23rd, 2004 at 7:10 am
So when are you going to start that Texas tour??? 😉
April 23rd, 2004 at 6:20 am
Oh, you’re right of course…
on all counts.
I’ve got to go back and give a link to the poem. The site has been wonky, so the original links in the column didn’t carry over.
For the record, the “Poems” section is listed under “Topics” on your menu.
As for a poem needing to have truth — well, absolutely; either that, or it has to make you believe in its truth.
I’m not comfortable with the belief that the truth is always best found in the facts alone.
This is of course a hugely complicated issue.
It’s interesting: I watched a young poet (a poet whose work I generally like) last night read for ten-plus minutes a monologue that contained what were obviously painful facts about her life. I watched her followed by first Bill MacMillan and then Rachel McKibbens, who in any given three minutes told far deeper and more painful stories about the “truth”.
It comes with time and craft, of course…
April 23rd, 2004 at 6:20 am
Oh, you’re right of course…
on all counts.
I’ve got to go back and give a link to the poem. The site has been wonky, so the original links in the column didn’t carry over.
For the record, the “Poems” section is listed under “Topics” on your menu.
As for a poem needing to have truth — well, absolutely; either that, or it has to make you believe in its truth.
I’m not comfortable with the belief that the truth is always best found in the facts alone.
This is of course a hugely complicated issue.
It’s interesting: I watched a young poet (a poet whose work I generally like) last night read for ten-plus minutes a monologue that contained what were obviously painful facts about her life. I watched her followed by first Bill MacMillan and then Rachel McKibbens, who in any given three minutes told far deeper and more painful stories about the “truth”.
It comes with time and craft, of course…
April 23rd, 2004 at 1:34 am
In the column, you say that “Chrysler” is included in the “Poems” section of this website. So my immediate instinct was to go read it. And, well, maybe it’s a snake about to bite me, but I can’t find a Poems section. I’d expect, on a poetry site, to see a huge link that says “poems” or “click here to read poetry” or some such, but no dice. It took a bunch of clicking to find any poems at all. I eventually found “Chrysler” by using the search engine, but I just thought I’d mention that, with the way the site’s set up, the poems themselves seem secondary in importance. Just my take on it.
WRT truth in poetry. Most of the poems I’ve ever written have been confessional-style, and a great many of them have been fictional (even the ones written before I ever showed any of my writing to anyone). For whatever reason, I’ve always had problems with people (even people who know me) confusing the truths that I’m expressing in the works with the truth of the story of my life. I used to try to explain to people that the events had “really happened” in a way, since I had to live the stories out in my head in fine detail in order to be able to write about them, but that not all of them “really happened” in “real life”.
So, coming from my biased position, I agree with you that it’s more important for a poem to be moving than to be “true”. But, honestly, I don’t think a poem can be moving unless there is truth within it. It just might not be the kind of truth it may initially appear to be.
April 23rd, 2004 at 1:34 am
In the column, you say that “Chrysler” is included in the “Poems” section of this website. So my immediate instinct was to go read it. And, well, maybe it’s a snake about to bite me, but I can’t find a Poems section. I’d expect, on a poetry site, to see a huge link that says “poems” or “click here to read poetry” or some such, but no dice. It took a bunch of clicking to find any poems at all. I eventually found “Chrysler” by using the search engine, but I just thought I’d mention that, with the way the site’s set up, the poems themselves seem secondary in importance. Just my take on it.
WRT truth in poetry. Most of the poems I’ve ever written have been confessional-style, and a great many of them have been fictional (even the ones written before I ever showed any of my writing to anyone). For whatever reason, I’ve always had problems with people (even people who know me) confusing the truths that I’m expressing in the works with the truth of the story of my life. I used to try to explain to people that the events had “really happened” in a way, since I had to live the stories out in my head in fine detail in order to be able to write about them, but that not all of them “really happened” in “real life”.
So, coming from my biased position, I agree with you that it’s more important for a poem to be moving than to be “true”. But, honestly, I don’t think a poem can be moving unless there is truth within it. It just might not be the kind of truth it may initially appear to be.
April 22nd, 2004 at 9:44 pm
>Current Mood: I don’wanna be sedated
Did I remember to tell you that the WAG art fest had Joe Strummer & Joey Ramone votive candles?
They also had the boy-with-turtle Worcester shirts, alas, that we didn’t have cash on hand…
April 22nd, 2004 at 9:44 pm
>Current Mood: I don’wanna be sedated
Did I remember to tell you that the WAG art fest had Joe Strummer & Joey Ramone votive candles?
They also had the boy-with-turtle Worcester shirts, alas, that we didn’t have cash on hand…