Sunday, May 02, 2010

All Aboard the Poetry Bus



Who could resist?  This week's driver is (are?) The Watercats, who has assigned the intriguing topic"Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll" (any or all thereof).  There was more to the assignment than just writing and posting the poem. We were to record ourselves reading said poem. I tried. Honest I did. I downloaded "Audacity" and succeeded in recording my voice, but that's as far as I could go. If anybody knows how to get the recording from there to my blog, I'd be grateful for yet another lesson in the mystery that is (are) the interwebs.

Meanwhile, though, channeling Gracie Slick, here is my contribution - entitled

"Better Than Sex".

The sex was just
mundane, you know,
stowed away back seated
behind the rocking of the
music and the pulsing
otherness of flashing lights
and the sound, 
 grinding sound that moved
in the belly
like a four-month foetus,
like something alive,
demanding, commanding
attention, even fealty,
sewing bone to sinew,
then tearing them apart,
making something altogether new.

I'm off now, to see what everybody else has to say on the subject(s).  Thanks to the brilliant and handsome  TFE for running this behemoth of a bus company.  It's a dirty job, I know...

Oh - oh - oh Frabjous Day! I figured out how to embed my podcast in the sidebar - not sure how to get it right here in the post, but never mind. Baby steps...

17 comments:

Batteson.Ind said...

BEOOTIFULL!.. and congrats for persevering with the podcast :-)
I think hearing the poet read the their poems brings a whole new light onto them, brings them to life! This is a "fabjous" poem :-D
I love the reference to music in the guts like a feotus, there's something quite disturbing and very rock and roll about that image.. thanks a million for hopping aboard, cheers!

Tess Kincaid said...

Hey, this is a fine piece!! I thoroughly enjoyed this. Brava.

Rachel Fox said...

Enjoyed hearing you read. It's good for the skim-readers amongst us (me for sure!) - makes us slow down and listen properly.
x

Glen Byford said...

a very good and quite simple and intuitive player is soundcloud.

and getting that in your post should be no harder than just copying and pasting the code that they provide. it's what i use on my blog

got no speakers at the mo but i am intrigued and will check back to check out the poetry

Glen Byford said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kat Mortensen said...

"Even fealty" and the last line are my absolute favourites, Sandra. (How wonderful to hear a fellow-Canadian voice on the ol' podcaster!)

Well done!

Kat

Enchanted Oak said...

I liked this very much. It was visceral, with that fetus and all. I especially liked the "grinding sound that moved in the belly." I'm so glad you persevered with the reading. It was nice to hear you read it. And I used the "otherness" too in my poem for today. Odd.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Welcome back on the bus!

You reading is rich and wonderful and adds real meat to the bones of the (excellent) poem. You have a great voice and read really well, I loved it.The slight white noise in tha background adds a certain gravitas ,like an old poetry classic.I think one day this will be.

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Lovely poem and read with an equal loveliness, Sandra.

Niamh B said...

This is really lovely, enjoyed listening to you reading too.

Argent said...

I echo my commenting forbears - I liked the idea of music in the belly and your reading was spot-on. You can paste the code for your podcast into your main post. If using Blogger's editor, click on the edit HTML tab, paste the code, and then you can go back to compose mode by clicking compose (or whatever the other tab is on the editor).

Sandra Leigh said...

The watercats, I love "fabjous"! Don't we have a rich language, though?

Hunchbakk, thanks for the recommendation. At first glance, Soundcloud seemed like overkill, so I went to PodOmatic instead -- but I'll have another look at Soundcloud.

Willow, Rachel, Jeanne Iris, Niamh B, thank you for your kind words.

Kat, I never thought. I should have ended the poem with "eh?", eh?

Enchanted Oak, our othernesses were very different, but you're right. It was odd that the assignment inspired the same word in both of us.

TFE, thank you. I'm not sure where the white noise came from. I had to remember to turn off the Baroque music station before I read, so when I was reading, it just sounded really quiet in here.

Argent, thank you. I'll try your technique next time.

Karen said...

Brilliant poem, Sandra! The references to guts and sinews really rocks!

Sandra Leigh said...

LOL! Karen, I must confess I never said guts. That was The Watercats. I said belly - and bones and sinews - but not guts. Next time I write this poem, maybe Iwill say guts - it is more visceral a term, isn't it? Or maybe not. I rather like belly - as in 'fire in the belly'.

Peter Goulding said...

Yes, music is definitely primeval and dark and part of us. An absolutely brilliant take - loved it.

Titus said...

Really enjoyed this, and it took me straight to how I felt about the music and the dance. Fabulous imagery, and the readings this week really are the icing on the rock cake.
Nice to see you back on the Bus too!

Unknown said...

Well done! The reading really brings it to life (as reading usually does). & congrats on embedding a soundfile in Blogger--not something they make easy to do!

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