Metaphors in Popular Music

A lot of my students, when asked whether or not poetry is necessary, respond with the idea that it is, if only for entertainment value. When prompted to go further, they argue that song lyrics are a form of poetry, and that music is entertainment. The discussion moves from there, and usually I prompt them to come to class armed with lyrics they feel are poetry. Inevitably, the ones that seem to be most poetic--rich in rhythm, metaphor, lyricism, etc.--are those of rap songs, often underground rap songs. Pop songs tend to be trite, at best, and despite lectures on imagery vs. abstraction, students defend them with thoughts like "well, you have to understand what she means. It's like interpretation."

That being said, to slam all pop lyrics as trite and unpoetic would be unfair. For example, Paul Simon greens me with envy every time I hear the opening line of "Graceland":

"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar"

which he later follows up with "My traveling companions are ghosts in empty pockets."

These two lines, in a song concerning a pilgrimage to Elvis's home and a search for community and redemption, are poignant.


or what about R.E.M.'s tribute to Kurt Cobain, "Let Me In," which begins:

"All those stars slip down like butter/and promises to keep."

The double vehicle of that simile, surreal and heartbroken at the same time, is another jealous moment for me as a writer. Also, the allusion to Patti Smith should not go unmentioned, either.

So, what are some other really excellent metaphors or similes (not just brilliant imagery) from pop music (not rap...that should probably be a different post topic) and why do you feel that they are particularly poignant. How do the vehicles of these figures illuminate the tenor in some way, or establish a particular tone that works even with out being sung or with musical accompaniment?

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Cleveland Thanksgiving

All the couches full

all the uncles drunk

football on the lawn

--Geoffrey A. Landis

52 Cleveland Haiku (45)

November roses

the last late blooms of summer--

wistful memories

--Geoffrey A. Landis

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Goose on Parma porch

warmly dressed in brown and orange:

must be football fan.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

52 Cleveland Haiku (43)

Fried baloney

with onions, cheese, two fried eggs:

Hinckley Tavern lunch.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for high school sophomores and juniors

Know any high-school age poets? This from the Kenyon Review:

The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers

The eighth annual Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers will begin accepting entries in November. The prize, which is open to high school sophomores and juniors throughout the world, is juried by David Baker, KR‘s poetry editor.

Nearly 600 entries were received last year, with the winner, Natalie Landers of Tarrant, Alabama, receiving a full scholarship to KR’s popular Young Writers summer workshop. The top two runners-up received partial scholarships to attend the summer workshop, and all three poets were published in the Fall 2011 issue of The Kenyon Review.

Students are invited to submit one poem via an online submission system. Visit KR’s Web site for a link to the contest submission page at that time. The contest will close on November 30.

High school teachers are encouraged to pass along this information to sophomores and juniors.

Guess What? We're All Rich!!!

According to this article, we as poets are raking it in, at almost $4,000 above average. So, the question is, how many of you are making money--like big money--off your poetry. If you are, what secrets do you have to impart. If you're not, why do you think that is?

Friday Poetry Spectacular in Canton!

The First Friday poetry event in Canton is always fun, but this coming Friday it's going all out.

The Poetry Spectacular will be happening all over the Arts District at Canton First Friday's Noteworthy November, happening November 4th. Here's a line-up for the multiple poetic performances throughout the evening:

• 5:30 PM - Diane Borsenik will be at the Canton Museum of Art (1001 Market Ave. N.)
• 6:00 PM - Jen Pezzo will be at MOLA Gallery (336 4th St. NW)
• 6:30 PM - Peter Hessman will be at Lynda Tuttle's Art Center (209 6th St. NW)
• 7:00 PM - Mary Turzillo will be at Carpe Diem Coffee (215 Market Ave. N.)
• 7:30 PM - AKeem Jamal Rollins will be at Elemental Arts (236 Walnut Ave. NE)
• 8:00 PM - Geoffrey Landis will be at MOLA Gallery (336 4th St. NW)
• 8:30 PM - T.M. Gottl will be at Lynda Tuttle's Art Center (209 6th St. NW)
• 9:00 PM - Arianna Cheree will be at Carpe Diem Coffee (215 Market Ave. N.)

And it's all embedded in the monthly Canton First-Friday art's festival, which will be going on all around. Visit http://cantonfirstfriday.com for a printable map and complete schedule of November's First Friday performances and events.

Check out their Facebook event page.

(No poetry slam at First Friday this month; but the First Friday Poetry Slam will resume in December with featured poet Zach Ashley.) And, this is all made possible thanks to Arts in Stark!

FREE FARM & MOONSHINE at Mac's Backs Boks
Start: 11/19/2011 7:00 pm
Larry Smith, author of The Free Farm and Marilyn Schraff. author of Moonshine: Illicit Spirits in the Appalachian Hills of Rural Southern Ohio will be at Mac's for a reading and booksigning. The Free Farm is a coming of age and love story novel about a working class kid who goes to college in southern Ohio during the era of the counterculture. "Written in a strong, sensitive but never sentimentalizing voice, Smith has penned a kind of spiritual being-of-age novel, while still providing a clear-eyed look at a turbulent, fascinating era of the American experience." C.D. White
Moonshine is a social history of moonshining and stills in Appalachia. Marilyn Schraff's family had stills and she interviewed over 75 people for this lively account of the importance of liquor-making to the culture of southern Ohio.
Marilyn is a retired teacher and water-color artist who is also the author of Appalachian Childhood.
Larry Smith is a fiction writer, poet, literary biographer and film writer. He is a longtime supporter of the Cleveland writing scene with books on d.a.levy and the Cleveland Poetry Scene. He has published several novels and volumes of poetry including The Long River Home (fiction), Tu Fu Comes to America (poetry) and biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Kenneth Patchen.

52 Cleveland Haiku (42)

Ghouls hang from trees,

zombies with light-bulb eyes:

celebrate sugar, and death.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

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October Sunday:

trees glow yellow in the sun;

leaf blowers roar.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

Halloween Poetry Reading

The SFPA has posted their Annual Halloween Poetry Reading of horror, Halloween, and science-fictional poems.

image "Alien Life" by Liz Bennefeld

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Swirls of autumn leaves

Dancing overhead; far off

Storm clouds on the lake.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

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The werewolf moon!

But we are safe

Inside.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

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Neon city night:

the sound of tires on wet streets,

snatches of music.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

Simultaneous Submissions and Their Rewards

A conversation at a writer's group brought to memory this article by Michael P. Kardos. While some of the sarcasm is palpable, Kardos does ask an important question: What are the ethics of accepting or refusing to accept simultaneous submissions?

I think this all the more valuable for poets because it seems that in MFA programs, for every one prose writer, there are at least half a dozen eager poets, all competing for those same magazine slots against all the other MFA authors, teachers, etc. I'm going to challenge Kardos, and argue that for poetry--good poetry--it's still only a 1% chance that a good poem makes it into a magazine. This seems to be true from my editorial experiences, but also acknowledges what many of the entries in Poet's Market write.

If I'm doing my math right, it'll look like this:

.99x = .01
log (.99)x = log (.01)
X log (.99) = log (.01)
X log (.99)/log (.99) = log (.01)/log (.99)
log (.99) log (.99)
X = log (.01)/log (.99)
X = 458.2 submissions

I'll round it down to 458, just to be optimistic, but assuming that there's a three month response time, and that most academic magazines only accept submissions within a semester, we're looking at 229 YEARS before a poem would be accepted. If we assume a three month response time, average, and find magazines continually that accept during Summer months, it's only 114 or so years--FOR ONE POEM TO GUARANTEE ACCEPTANCE!

I don't even know if there are this many academic magazines in the world, but the options seem pretty straight forward:

• Write the best damn poems you can, and pray
• Ignore academia and go the indie route, which may or may not affect your potential career as a poet
• Simultaneously submit anyway, and hope you don't shoot yourself in the foot
• Submit to only those magazines that accept simultaneous submissions, and pray
  

None of these are really good options, especially considering the indie route tends to be flooded with such a mixed bag of poetry that even the more reputable presses are sneered at.

Anyway, it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on this idea.

52 Cleveland Haiku (37)

First day of autumn

Cicadas sing.
On the sidewalk, one red leaf:
evening air turns cool.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

cicada song

red leaf

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In the gap between clouds,
one star;
your touch on my arm

--Geoffrey A. Landis

Ingenuity- a festival of lights and sound

Ingenuity-- a festival of lights and sound under the Detroit Superior Bridge.

• More photos on Facebook


• More photos from Vertigo

Ingenuity!

Ingenuity is here!

This weekend is the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival, held on the unused streetcar level of the Detroit Superior Bridge. Check it out-- this is an amazing space, part of Cleveland that is not ordinarily open to the public. If you've never been there, you really ought to see it.

Acts and music and video and theatre and art and even electricity! And, yes, there will be poetry, courtesy of Vertigo X and the PoetsHaven.

• Schedule
• Plain Dealer article
• Some suggested highlights
• Julie Washington's review of last year's Ingenuity

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Friday afternoon: the main Ingenuity website seems to be down at the moment. I assume it will be back up shortly, but for the moment, try the Ingenuity information at the cleveland.com website, the Ingenuity facebook page, or the Poet's Haven facebook event page.

A D'Elyrious Night with Alex Gildzen under the Stars on 9/15

As a young man, Elyria-bred Alex Gildzen was published by d.a. levy. Then his first full chapbook came out in 1969. Since that time, he's had lots of books published, including the recent The Arrow That Is Hollywood Pierces the Soul That Is Me (2011, Otoliths). Also a renowned mail artist and long time special collections librarian at Kent State University, Alex now lives and writes full time in Santa Fe, New Mexico. When I found out he'd be in town this month for his mother's 90th birthday (Happy Day, Helen!), I invited him to read with me on Thursday September 15th 2011 at the Lorain Arts Council's Sweet & Savory Bistro and he happily accepted. So come on out, hear some great Gildzen poetry and let's celebrate! (My wife's and my birthdays are this week as well). Alex is a treasure and one of my personal poetic heroes - and the LAC is a great venue (their Go Figure art show is still going on, too) - so I hope to see you at this very special event.


Lorain Arts Council (gallery & bistro)
737 Broadway
Lorain, Ohio 44052

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126196814145433
Gildzen's bio: http://cybermesa.com/~takis/AGBio.htm
His blog: http://arroyochamisa.blogspot.com/

Here's a clip of Alex reading a poem to commemorate the 80th anniversary of our Terminal Tower last year:

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Memory

In our memories
skyscrapers still burn:
black smoke
against deep blue sky.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour continues!

Maybe not the longest-running poetry reading in the Cleveland area, but it's gotta be darn close.

Despite the death of its long-time host location at Borders Books, the Deep Cleveland Poetry Hour reading series is still alive and continuing on its second-Friday readings, hosted by Joshua Gage, now in its new location:

Mugshotz Coffeehouse and Cafe

6556 Royalton Road

North Royalton, OH

Next reading is this Friday!

Friday, September 9 · 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The event will have Youngstown poet Karen Schubert as the featured poet, along with the traditional Deep Cleveland open mike.

Check the event page on Facebook

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Postscript (9/10): for those who missed it, John Burroughs has some pix up at his facebook page.

52 Cleveland Haiku (34)

Labor Day

Pale lavender flame
in darkness above the flats:
we're still a steel town.

--Geoffrey A. Landis

"The Flame," image by David Ploenzke, used with permission.

A New Book

I don't know if blatant advertising is allowed on this blog - but here is my new book. The Desire Path is a story for anyone who has ever felt like a misfit in the world. It is the story of one mother's sacrificial love and another woman's failure to love unconditionally. It explores the themes of family versus biology, the damage of estrangement, and ultimately forgiveness and reconciliation.

Please visit http://thedesirepath.blogspot.com or read some reviews on Amazon.