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1 April, 2003
I am a Limerick...who would have guessed. BUT if
I wasn't a Limerick I would be Blank Verse. —Prue Duggan
• Letter from Meg
• Your Plans for April 18
• wordsinhere.com Updates: the Newsletter
Splits in Two
• Versal: Submission Call
• April Event Picks
LETTER FROM MEG
Well, after the last newsletter,
Charles Weatherford (poetsforthewar.org) never wrote me again. I
suppose he wrote me off as a hopeless case of modern poetry and
went on to more productive (i.e. metered) pursuits.
Central to our conversation
— and likewise, central to the conversation he is currently
having with wordsinhere's own Cralan — was indeed not
the war but the definitions of poet and poetry. It seemed our respective
politics paralleled a similar divide between our aesthetic leanings.
Mr. Weatherford believes poets who write in traditional verse are
better and more accomplished than free verse poets. How strange,
as I believe both forms are equally challenging and, on the flipside,
equally susceptible to abuse and amateur misunderstanding.
So I've returned to an older
conversation, one I had with the wordsinhere workshop gang
last year, in order to respond (though he won't hear) to Weatherford's
challenge to modern poetry — for no other reason than that
the question is an interesting one, and completely unanswerable.
What is poetry?
One of the workshop folks asked
me how to write a poem. To answer her question I first looked at
what differentiates poetry from other forms of verbal and/or written
expression. I went back to all of my old university texts. I read
through some favorite and classic poetry. In the next few newsletters
I want to hand over some of what I came up with to you, and see
what you think. Thanks to an early reading of Rilke I am fascinated
with the question and uninterested in its answer, and that same
paradox is one which (un)defines poetry, the thing which many of
us spend our lives writing.
So to begin: what one thing
sets poetry apart from everything else?
I. The Line
What differentiates poetry
from other speech-acts is the line. It is the first element which
we encounter that is unique to poetry. Why lines? Take all or some
of the following as answers; in some way they each attest to a need
or anxiety in poetry which demands connection:
— a representation of
time - there is a beginning and end and it ends and begins again
continuously; the end of the poem gives rise to the beginning; the
line becomes circular; the human experience
— a remainder of the
ballad, the metered verse which lined accents (stressed syllables)
against unstressed syllables in order to make song
— the pivot of the poem;
its horizontal binding (as in 'line'); in blank verse (unrhymed
poetry with a meter, e.g. iambic pentameter) its only structural
trail
— the creator of the
silence and the simultaneous destruction of that silence; the creation
of silence is necessary for the creation of sound: poetry on the
page visually represents the tension between silence and sound (the
white space vs. the words); this is the same tension between death
and life
Let's talk lines. Jump on our forum.
NEWS
We're already closing in on the next Stanza,
the one with the big date snaffu, so be sure you come to Volta Friday,
April 18. If you haven't checked The Open Stanza out yet,
you still have plenty of time to catch this season's series of the
performance of words.
Click
here to visit our Stanza pages, including an archive of previous
shows!
At www.wordsinhere.com
we've given the main navigation bar a kick in the pants, adding
a Community page as our ideas and community grow. And, we combined
the old About Us page with Who We Are, which makes more sense anyway.
Have a look around!
The Links section is now organized into
more useful categories and a few new links have been added, so be
sure to check out the web spaces we visit and admire.
Also, we've created a text-only version
of the mailing list, for those of you who prefer a simpler newsletter
or for those of you (Hotmail) who can't see the purty HTML anyway.
If you're already signed up to the HTML version and would like to
move over to the text-only, please email Meg at meg@wordsinhere.com.
All Hotmail users have been automatically moved to the text-only
version unless you request otherwise.
CALLS
FOR WRITERS
The literary print magazine of wordsinhere
— Versal — is now accepting submissions for its second
issue out December, 2003. An international collection of writing
fit for your bathroom magazine rack. Accepted: up to 5 poems; 4000
word max for prose, essay, review. Simultaneous as long as you tell
us. Not accepted: what you already know can be published because
it has. Appreciated: urgent, involved, unexpected.
Full guidelines and online sample of our
first issue can be found here.
For questions and submissions, email submissions@wordsinhere.com.
We accept snail mail only with a SASE: Van Hogendorpstraat 123-I;
1051 BL Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The Open Stanza is always on the
lookout for writers who perform their work with risk, who give their
writings sound well-deserved, who take their words from print to
stage without something getting lost in the transfer.
Send samples of your writing (poetry, prose,
whatever) to openstanza@wordsinhere.com
or by post, Van Hogendorpstraat 123-I, 1051 BL Amsterdam. Upcoming
dates of The Open Stanza: March 21, April 25, May 23, June
20.
The Dubliner joins Eason Bookshops and The
Muse Cafes in supporting what US Poet Laureate Billy Collins has
called "The most exciting poetry competition of its kind."
Now in its third year and offering a total prize fund of €10,750,
the competition is one of the most valuable in Ireland and the UK,
with a first prize of €6,500 and second and third prizes of
€2,500 and €1,250 respectively. This year's competition
sees the introduction of a new prize of €500 for the best
poem by an emerging Irish poet aged between 18 and 21.
The closing date is 31 May 2003, and entry
forms, along with rules and guidelines, are available on Eason Bookshop's
website at www.eason.ie
or by sending a stamped addressed envelope to The Davoren Hanna
Poetry Competition, The Muse Café, Eason Bookshop, O'Connell
Street, Dublin 1. Forms will also be available from Eason Bookshops
nationwide and in the March, April and May issues of The Dubliner.
APRIL EVENTS WE'RE GOING TO ATTEND
Sunday 6 April, 2pm
Toussaint, Den Haag
The literary magazine Meander begins hosting
live literary readings parallel to the work and publication of their
magazine. Visit their website
for more information. Entrance: €4.50.
Sunday 13 April, 8:30pm
De Badcuyp, Amsterdam
Readings and performances from writers and
poets. Includes Barney Agerbeek, Jack Koehorst, Frans de Birk, Karel
Wasch. Information and reservations: 020 675 96 69. Entrance: free.
Friday 18 April, doors open 8pm
Volta, Amsterdam
The Open Stanza continues! Monthly,
living poetry on stage. Entrance €5. Volta is located at Houtmankade
336, near the Westerpark. Check The Open Stanza pages for
more information
as April's evening progresses. Wanna perform? Get
in touch with us.
Wednesday 23 April, 7:30pm
PleinTheater, Amsterdam
A literary encounter between Turkish readers
and writers with contrasting backgrounds in order to deepen the
acquaintanceship between the Turkish and Dutch literary worlds.
Entrance: free.
For the full list of April Events and for a listing
of regular shows, click
here.
aBOUT THIS LIST AND ADDRESS REMOVAL
This list provides news and information
about the wordsinhere community and its projects, as well
as a listing of this month's choice events in and around the Netherlands.
How do you get an event on the newsletter AND on the site? Email
it to us: calendar@wordsinhere.com.
Please feel free to distribute this e-mail
to those who you believe would be interested. Thank you very much
for your help and support.
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Copyright © wordsinhere 2002. No part
may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the specific written
permission of wordsinhere first hand and obtained. wordsinhere is
a registered association through the Kamer van Koophandel, Netherlands.
Number 34181684.
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