Week 14

I recorded myself reading the poems I was considering reading for our performance, "Incidents in Cartography", "Odyssey", and "Roadkill". I was interested mainly in figuring out pacing. I had read all of these poems so many times that I already felt pretty comfortable with how they sounded in every other way, except for pacing. Listening to "Odyssey", I realized that I had to really slow myself down because the rate I was reading it in my initial recording wasn't allowing enough time for the images to seep. With "Roadkill", I discovered that the tone with which I read the poem was actually a decision I had to make. Did I want it to be sardonic at the end? Did I want it to be sentimental? I realized that I had to make the tonal shifts within the poem obvious with my voice, so I rerecorded myself changing the tone of my voice and the pacing with each quatrain and couplet. Finally, I realized that with "Incidents in Cartography" that one of the things I like most about it is the conversational tone in the beginning that then shifts to majestic, so I decided to read it as I would say it to any old buddy of mine and then slow it down and put more weight on the words as I neared the close. It was pretty interesting recording myself. I think my voice changes when I read aloud. Hm.

Week 13

C.D. Wright's "One With Others [I take one more drive across town thinking]" is, I think, elliptical. Again, I find the term confusing, but pretty much when I come across a poem that seems purposefully confusing I automatically connect it to the term. Mutual confusion is the connecting thread, apparently. Well, this particular poem begins in a fairly straightforward way. The speaker goes for a drive and let's us into her thoughts momentarily, because you know when you drive your thoughts run rampant. Well, it starts simple enough, but then it starts to veer. The poem alludes to segregation, but then there's all of this stuff about V and I really don't think I know what she's getting at.

       I attach V to my driving-around thoughts.           An object unworthy of love she thought she was.            It was a cri de coeur.            Those of our get had given her a nom de guerre: V.

This is where it stops making sense, which I suppose means is when it starts being elliptical. It's like she's referencing something that's an inside joke for her and her friends, expecting us to get it, but knowing that we can't. I mean, what is V? Am I missing something? I don't think this whole elliptical thing is really to my liking...