What a lovely piece, Zina. And I think you’re right about the raw emotion/lyricism connection that I was unconsciously drawing. I’ll write more about that this week!
I am fascinated by percussion and bought myself a set of bongo drums a few years ago! Took a few lessons. Discovered I'm not very rhythmic but am having fun with occasionally beating out bass, tone, and slap combos. Unfortunately am also not astute in determining stresses in poetry. Is it BAnana, baNAna, banaNA? I think rap might be the modern evolution of oral poetics.
You know… you may benefit from a drum circle. You just follow what other people are doing, and you just fall into it. There really are therapeutic effects. I used to be a belly dancer and it is cool to have live accompaniment, which works just with one instrument: the drums.
As far as I know, it’s baNAna—perfectly fine word for iambic pentameter. It can take a bit of practice. I don’t naturally hear stresses either.
Rap is totally oral poetics. It’s more poetry than a lot of modern poetry.
Totally groovy. I've always been drawn to rhythm and poetry, so your reflection resonates with me very much. I do enjoy poetry without a metric pattern, but you're right in saying that we all memorize the metered poems and songs so easily. My Mom favors limericks; quite catchy and pithy, like her Irish humor.
I'm curious about whether you're familiar with the Korean sijo. Kids in our country learn haiku, but I'd never heard of sijo until recently, when I discovered a Korean literature professor's YouTube channel.
I love Richard Wilbur’s poetry so much! When trying to decide on a title of this Substack I almost chose a name inspired by one of his poems. I settled on The Beauty of Things. Jeffers won out. David, I am so glad you liked this post!
What a lovely piece, Zina. And I think you’re right about the raw emotion/lyricism connection that I was unconsciously drawing. I’ll write more about that this week!
I am fascinated by percussion and bought myself a set of bongo drums a few years ago! Took a few lessons. Discovered I'm not very rhythmic but am having fun with occasionally beating out bass, tone, and slap combos. Unfortunately am also not astute in determining stresses in poetry. Is it BAnana, baNAna, banaNA? I think rap might be the modern evolution of oral poetics.
You know… you may benefit from a drum circle. You just follow what other people are doing, and you just fall into it. There really are therapeutic effects. I used to be a belly dancer and it is cool to have live accompaniment, which works just with one instrument: the drums.
As far as I know, it’s baNAna—perfectly fine word for iambic pentameter. It can take a bit of practice. I don’t naturally hear stresses either.
Rap is totally oral poetics. It’s more poetry than a lot of modern poetry.
Totally groovy. I've always been drawn to rhythm and poetry, so your reflection resonates with me very much. I do enjoy poetry without a metric pattern, but you're right in saying that we all memorize the metered poems and songs so easily. My Mom favors limericks; quite catchy and pithy, like her Irish humor.
I'm curious about whether you're familiar with the Korean sijo. Kids in our country learn haiku, but I'd never heard of sijo until recently, when I discovered a Korean literature professor's YouTube channel.
I enjoyed that. Thank you! Richard Wilbur would approve. It helps persuade me further down the path to a reconciliation with prosody.
I love Richard Wilbur’s poetry so much! When trying to decide on a title of this Substack I almost chose a name inspired by one of his poems. I settled on The Beauty of Things. Jeffers won out. David, I am so glad you liked this post!
What a fun read, Zina!
Thank you, Josh!