Apr 17, 2009

New Media: honks, tweets and sassy talk

L.L. here, with Random Acts of Poetry— reveling in how New Media is inspiring new poetry and offering a shared space for old verse too.

It makes me wonder about statements like this one: "…virtual community is like playing the guitar with one string. You can make music; it’s just not as interesting or as good as music on a guitar with six strings.” (Shane Hipps, quoted by Marcus Goodyear's post Does Your Social Media Honk like an Oboe?)

Truth is, I don't have any "real-life" arenas that are nearly as lively when it comes to the writing and sharing of poetry. For me and poetry, "real-life" is the guitar with one string, while places like HCB and Catapult are the six-string— playing the verse I love, riffing stuff I never anticipated, in a room full of people who're tapping and clapping with me.

For instance, not long ago, our own Marcus Goodyear 'wrote' Ode to Twitter and Breakfast. But people like Tom Watson see poetry in Twitter too. Says Tom,

So I was about to pass on Twitter. And then, this message flashed across my Twitterstream:

Driving down to West Cork used to be a quiet pleasure.
Now it's a melancholy chore.
Still, the sky is absolutely full of stars.

Wow. Poetry. Quite possibly the best social networking post I'd ever read. And I thought, hmmm - this Twitter thing may have legs, but not in the way its founders or a few self-obsessed wired wonksters may think. See, Twitter is a poetry machine.

Then you've got fun stunts like Booker winner Ben Okri publishing his new poem line by line on Twitter. It is New Media which makes this possible. (I can hear the six-string now!) And it is New Media which makes possible this sassy little poem by HCB'er Steve McCoy:

This is Just to Say

I left
an insulting comment
on your
blog

when you
heartily
recommended the new
U2 album

Forgive me
I was already
logged in
and have functioning ears

If you read the poem at Steve's original post, you'll see the old William's verse that became a platform for the new. And maybe that's the point. Or part of the point. In the best of worlds, old and new work together, in a give-and-take process that eschews fear or disdain and strums for the community what is truly worth hearing.

If you would like to participate in Random Acts of Poetry, read here for instructions.

Six-String photo by Sara B. Used with permission. Post written by L.L. Barkat.

Poetry around the network:
Cindy's Mysterious Gentleman
Monica's This Wrath He Bore
Ann's All Things New
LL's I'm Following You Now
Steve's Just to Say
Erica's Bend
nAncY's Therapeia
Laure's Not Yet Conceived But Gleaming
Jim's Twitter Poetry
Deb's When Quiet Needs Song