As quirky events go, an event I participated in a few weeks ago in Paris, organized by Paris Lit Up
was certainly right up there in terms of full blown quirkiness. It was a part of the global 100 Thousand Poets for Change movement.
A gathering of poets had to complete a poem in a hundred seconds, if not they would be
ignominiously cut off with the sound of a musical instrument and jeers (well not quite this excessive) from the audience.
Poets would passionately read from their phones or books or scraps of paper. There were some interesting poems, on a range of subjects, including love that had sour, a bitter revenge poem.
The venue had been double booked and and the poets who had bravely turned up to participate, were joined by some Goths, who were putting up an exhibition and milling about in their black attire. There was a slight clash of culture, but the two groups managed to tolerate each other. A rota of poets were called, some spoke in French and there were other languages besides, standing on a window sill in front of an animated audience.
When this poetic onslaught needed a break, the participants could venture outside, to the noise of a busy Parisian street, with motorbikes tearing at breakneck speeds and eat carrot cake, provided by the organizers, who had previously engaged in a flurry of baking.
We left with a feeling of having enjoyed listening to other people’s work as well as being happy to be given the chance to share our poems.
What is your perception of poetry? Maybe to some people it is this stuffy closeted medium in which deep thinkers put together meaningful words in rigid styles. Maybe to some, this is off-putting…but wait a moment…
Poetry can take many forms, one of these forms can be the double combination of poetry and wit.
It takes a special talent. To melt the two together Wit can be used as a weapon to attack and mock the establishment, think of Oscar Wilde attacking the stuffy society in which he lived. Poetry can be funny but at the same time carry a serious message.
It can be used to take the sting out of a dark situation, obviously in the present moment we have the shadow of the Corona Virus. With the anthology “Together Behind Four Walls” which is still going through the process of being compiled, there are some very witty poems. Perhaps one of the skills of a funny poet, is to turn a mundane subject, into a funny subject. Neil Zetter subjects include clearing out a garden shed and social distancing and manages to whip up humour. Professor Elemental manages to find humour in “homes schooling” with his poem “The Difficulties of Homeschooling an Orangutan”
Poetry can be used as a way to make children laugh and entice them to enjoy reading. I must have read endless times the poems of Dr. Seuss, whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel. Accompanied by his wacky poems were equally creative illustrations. Some poets have the magical quality of creating a special unusual world for children to delve into.
Somebody who seemed to have a really great understanding of a child’s mind is Roald Dahl. His work encompassed darkness with humour, take his poem “The Three Little Pigs,” the poem feeds off two well known children’s stories Three little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. The poem ends up with Little Red Riding Hood being the villain of the piece, as she shoots the wolf and kills the pig so she can have a pig skin travelling case. Roald Dahl even reworks the story of Cinderella, giving it his treatment, making it sinister and dark.
Ogden Nash was an Americn humorist poet who was very prolific; writing over 500 poems. An example of his work is “The People upstairs” It starts off
The people upstairs all practise ballet Their living room is a bowling alley Their bedroom is full of conducted tours. Their radio is louder than yours,
I don’t know about you, but I have experienced some annoying neighbours, while living in Paris, in an old apartment, on the one hand we had the noise from a jazz club, which was most pleasant, where as the sound of the neighbours was as annoying as a wasp at a picnic.
If you are feeling melancholic, go and search for some witty poetry, it might put a different complexion on the world.
Hello, I am pooling together with writers and poets, artists, comic creators to put together a book, I suppose at the moment it would have to be an E book…with poems devoted to people’s thoughts on being isolated due the Coronavirus…I was thinking of putting a poetry anthology together of good meaningful poetry and short stories (it could be people experiences) proceeds to a worthy cause. Any thoughts, contributions, commercial advice much appreciated. Send me a message. Also if anybody has a photos or cartoons PLEASE SHARE THIS ON ANY BLOG. PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS WHO ARE POETS
If I could make use of a time machine, one person I wouldn’t mind acquainting myself with would be Vita Sackville West. It is obvious that there was much more to her than being an acclaimed poet and noted gardener. She appears to be a woman whose character resonates and sparkles, the Latin translation of her name is “life”. She was a woman who really “lived” her life. She loved to travel, she seems to be a born adventurer and her adventures included affairs outside of her marriage, well documented in a controversial book called “Portrait of a Marriage” .
Her life seems to be scandalized in tabloids even in the present day, check out this Daily Mail headline
“Stately home seductress who makes Downton’s wildest plots look tame: Vita Sackville-West was known to have affairs with men AND women but she is reveals she was more voracious than anyone thought
The beginning of the article states “Tall, dark and magnetically attractive, Vita Sackville-West had the dubious knack of inflaming passions wherever she went.
Marriages crumbled in her wake. Grown men and women threatened suicide. One lover even produced a pistol and threatened to blow her own brains out.
Yet, on the face of it, Vita led a life of serene Edwardian upper-class respectability. Feted as a poet and novelist — her most successful book was The Edwardians — she was a baron’s daughter who had married a diplomat and borne two sons.
All this despite the fact that she died in 1962, a year after I was born. People love to delve into the more “lurid” aspects of her life. I have vague memories of her husband Harold, a brief encounter in the garden at Sissinghurst. She was married to my Great Uncle. My Mother spent a lot of time during the war and has many fond memories of Vita and to this day loves to relates stories about her and was dubbed Vita’s favorite niece.
Here is a woman who had elements of her life being fashioned into a story called “Orlando” written by one of her paramours Virginia Wolf. The great love of Vita’s life, despite spending a troubled childhood there was Knole, a house with six hundred years of history, but a house she was not allowed to inherit, on account of being a woman.
Here is a woman whose relationship with Violet Trefusis, was dramatized by the BBC, Vita being played by the imposing figure of Janet McTeer.
Vita seems to represent a woman who was ahead of her times, married to a man who was homosexual and yet despite each partner involving themselves with other people, they still managed to sustain their marriage as well as bring up two sons, Ben and Nigel. It is hard to imagine they planned such an open marriage from the onset, but this is how it panned out. They must have had inklings about their sexual orientation before they were married, things were different in their era.
One thing is for certain Vita seems to have all the hallmarks of an eccentric, wearing her trademark jodhpurs, trying to pass herself off as a man, while on a amorous sojourn with Violet. She might have left a trail of pain in her wake, with her risky affairs, but she seems a spirited woman.
I have met people while living in France who are avid admirers of both Vita and the Bloomsbury set. Her legacy seems strong and enduring as ever…
Francis H Powell is a writer. His recently published book is Flight of Destiny, a book of 22 short stories.
Francis H Powell author 