I wanted to have these poems posted after the following, but I can't figure it out. Here's what's up: I have written several poems from the language I've amassed from interviews. In the second found poem, I counted every fourth word (numbering technique). I played with form a lot more in this one than the first one posted. In the first one, I specifically wanted a very aligned and structured format. My poems vary significantly in form. Though a lot have a similar appearance, I'd like to think that the creative process calls for letting the language dictate the form I choose. That is, I have a conscious choice how I want to visually display the language, BUT the writing has in part been visually dictated by emotion and my subconscious.
Just to put in context once again, I am using language from these interviews and will be appropriating found text to create meaningful poems (I have paying close attention to form because I think the visual representation will be important). In my last post, I posted a bunch of questions. I have since added more questions that are configured to get a more personal response from the person being interviewed (versus merely their beliefs). Here is an example of one of the questions I asked, and one of the answers I got:
6. Gays can serve in the military, as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret. What do you think of our govt. in this context, and how do you think this enforced privatization of sexual orientation speaks to society? Do you believe sexual orientation is a private thing?
6. The privatization of sexual orientation speaks to the coercive power of our society. Sexual orientation is not a private thing in mainstream culture. Most heterosexual people wouldn't think twice about displaying photos of their partners or talking about their romantic relationships, because straight couples are the norm. But the enforced privatization of homosexuality keeps people in the closet. It forces queer people to hide their relationships and families from the public, so they have less power in society.
I'm thinking that the bigger the deal is made of something, anything, the bigger the deal is made of it. In China, the culture of which I've been studying a lot here of late, children go to the store, the market, and buy liquor for their parents and bring it back. That statement is considering that the kids aren't tempted to drink the liquor, like they would here in the states.
ReplyDeleteThere are no written laws governing under age drinking in China. It's implied and enforced by honor. Something missing here in the US. If it were allowed to be gay in the military under the promise that one's sexual proclivities would in no way affect one's ability to fight and die for one's country, then that should be given. The US is a litigious country in which everything has to be written down or the deal will be reneged, or at least feared to be.
Empowering people to be in their best of their own free will is the best and most effective way to make sure people are their best. Of course there is still crime and such in China, but on the whole there is less, and who says that one who is heterosexual isn't practicing a form of sexual endeavor that isn't way deviant and/or dangerous?
It has always struck me as amazing that we feel a need to have laws to define what's morale. It goes back to that old head-scratching question, "how can you be moral without religion?", but I digress. As if our obsession with laws has made us, say, less violent or kept us from needing a death penalty. You'd think something as individual and private would be the least of the American government's concerns. How and who defines what's morale anyway? But I think that's where form comes in, just the way everything is fairly uniformly aligned to the left presents a subconscious image that defines and contrast the two poems...
ReplyDeleteThe poems are wonderful, Zach! Especially the first one, I really like the lines "Morality is views spend willing/ Your laws on Us/ Queer display". I read these before reading your description of them and I can say it adds something to the work to know that they are found poems, material not just from the mind of the poet, but from the mouths of the oppressed. (heh, guess there's something to that element of authorship, eh?)
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see more of these, and I'm interested in whether or not you're still planning on an audio element to your final project. I think hearing these read aloud would change the way people percive them, and having both forms, written and read, could only strengthen the message.