Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Electronic Poetry Network



The Electronic Poetry Network is a project of the Shreve Memorial Library of Shreveport, LA. I'll let Carlos Colon, the editor, explain what it is:



The Electronic Poetry Network (EPN), founded in 1997 and edited by Carlos Colon, uses the work of poets from around the world. In addition to being featured on this web site, the poetry is displayed all day or all weekend long on an electronic message board located on the first floor of the Main (Downtown) Branch of our library. If you wish to have your poems considered for the EPN, please send 5-10 short poems (no longer than about 50 words each) to ccolon@shreve-lib.org. The poems do not need to be haiku. They just need to be short and suitable for the general public. Previously published poems are acceptable.



This week the network is featuring 5 short poems of my own. There is no online archiving function, so after this week, poof, they are gone. Click the above link to see them. The entire week's worth may be viewed by clicking each individual day.







The no-archiving function got me to thinking about a retrospective exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein that was done in New York back in the 80's. It was put together in a loft space downtown in the Village and Lichtenstein recreated some of his most famous paintings on the loft walls. I believe the exhibition lasted the standard month or so. After it was over they simply painted over the art.

They painted over the art.

A little like the great Buddhist mandala creators. Poof.









Which triggers another memory, this one of a story Gail Levin told in the introduction to her book Hopper's Places, a book about studying place (probably the central character in Hopper's work) in the work of the great American painter, Edward Hopper. The research for her book consisted of going out to the various locales she could find, whether homes, buildings, landscapes etc., that Hopper painted and photographing them. She then compared how Hopper had visualized his subject with its actual appearance, taking into account that things change. She recounts the tale of how she had been searching for quite sometime in a particular neighborhood when she spotted the home she had been looking for. Jumping out of the car, she went up to the house and encountered a house painter. In her excitement she said, " Do you realize that Edward Hopper painted this house?" And the painter replied:

"Lady, I don't care who painted it before. I'm painting it now."


best,
Don

9 comments:

  1. Funny story about the house painter. I'm off to check out your poems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good stuff. I really really liked the Tuesday's "October Rose" poem. Very lovely. My second favorite was the weekend piece on the importance of "being."

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey! look what via the magic of this machine's connection:

    http://www.gardendigest.com/poetry/haiku6.htm

    well
    a company just rescued w the $700 billion last week
    just today 6 days later
    declared bankruptcy

    p o o p h !

    ReplyDelete
  4. a link to this Issa site via that previous link that I sent over..

    http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa.html

    just
    so
    many
    full
    moons
    then:

    pooph!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a cool site and cool thing - displaying poetry electronically for the public - Times Square ought to take note.

    Don - your poems are beautiful. Like Charles, I, too, like the dying poem best. And the first one - those yellow leaves at the feet - really nice image. Thank you for sharing this site with us. I discover something cool at your site almost every day.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the EPN link and congrats for the five wonderful poems in such an interesting format! That was cool. I printed them off before they blow away next week . . .

    I was intrigued by the "weekend" Ted Hughes poem. By the way, what do they do on Friday's in Lousianna? Maybe the weekend begins Thursday evening? Not a bad thought at all. Anyway,I wondered whether it should have been "than" instead of "then"? I'm guessing so. A marvelous poem.

    Best Regards,


    J.L.S.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Charles, yeah, I love that Hopper story, it's just so right. Glad you liked the poems.

    Ed, loved the just so many full moons poem!

    Lisa, thanks for the very kind words, they mean a lot.

    J., really glad you liked the poems and picked up the typo, which I sent along to the site administrator. He spotted a few typos before they went up, but missed that one. It's amazing what can happen when something passes through a few people's hands.

    Don

    ReplyDelete
  8. Don, Being out of the loop for a bit, I missed the link to your poems. I think "Against Ted Hughes" must be read by many; it must have a home in print. G

    ReplyDelete
  9. Grant:

    Thanks for your kind words. "Against Ted Hughes" was originally published in a small magazine called Cotyledon in an issue that featured my work. It was picked up from there by David McNamara of sunnyoutside and published as a letterpress postcard that appears to still be available from him. I have a few and will send you one.

    Finally, Ed Coletti reprinted it on his blog - I'm not sure where he got it from but here's the link.

    Don

    ReplyDelete