Visual-Poetry

the berlin poetry festival needs your help to realize this project:
http://wemakeit.ch/projects/wozu-poesie?locale=en

“what’s the point of poetry?”

do you ask yourself the same question? for that reason, we’ve collected 47 photos with answers from poets throughout europe in order to read, see, and understand its value. we want to present them in berlin in the exhibition: “what’s the point of poetry? / a european polyphony. on display.“

and here’s what happens…

47 poets from 47 european countries share their thoughts on the question “what’s the point of poetry?” in 47 photos. they’ve created slogans that comment on the state of culture and society in their countries while also keeping poetry in focus. this june at the berlin poetry festival (poesiefestival berlin), their very diverse poetic messages and points of view will be assembled in an exhibition. the photos are demonstrations and acts of solidarity at the same time. there has never been such an exhibition before. it offers the unique opportunity of bringing the variety of european voices and moods together in one place.

[read more]

help the berlin poetry festival to realize this amazing project:
http://wemakeit.ch/projects/wozu-poesie?locale=en

“what’s the point of poetry?”

do you ask yourself the same question? for that reason, we’ve collected 47 photos with answers from poets throughout europe in order to read, see, and understand its value. we want to present them in berlin in the exhibition: “what’s the point of poetry? / a european polyphony. on display.“

and here’s what happens…

47 poets from 47 european countries share their thoughts on the question “what’s the point of poetry?” in 47 photos. they’ve created slogans that comment on the state of culture and society in their countries while also keeping poetry in focus. this june at the berlin poetry festival (poesiefestival berlin), their very diverse poetic messages and points of view will be assembled in an exhibition. the photos are demonstrations and acts of solidarity at the same time. there has never been such an exhibition before. it offers the unique opportunity of bringing the variety of european voices and moods together in one place.

[read more]

»life doesn’t frighten me« (32 pages) by maya angelou (author), sara jane boyers (editor), jean-michel basquiat (illustrator)

»life doesn’t frighten me« by maya angelou

shadows on the wall
noises down the hall
life doesn’t frighten me at all

bad dogs barking loud
big ghosts in a cloud
life doesn’t frighten me at all

mean old mother goose
lions on the loose
they don’t frighten me at all

dragons breathing flame
on my counterpane
that doesn’t frighten me at all.

i go boo
make them shoo
i make fun
way they run
i won’t cry
so they fly
i just smile
they go wild

life doesn’t frighten me at all.

tough guys fight
all alone at night
life doesn’t frighten me at all.

panthers in the park
strangers in the dark
no, they don’t frighten me at all.

that new classroom where
boys all pull my hair
(kissy little girls
with their hair in curls)
they don’t frighten me at all.

don’t show me frogs and snakes
and listen for my scream,
if i’m afraid at all
it’s only in my dreams.

i’ve got a magic charm
that i keep up my sleeve
i can walk the ocean floor
and never have to breathe.

life doesn’t frighten me at all
not at all
not at all.

life doesn’t frighten me at all.

(listen to the poem read by maya angelou on soundcloud)

“fisches nachtgesang/fish’s night song” by christian morgenstern (1905) (+)

from the book “galgenlieder”

»tears« by anatol knotek

[ homepage | tumblr | twitter ]

Avec le temps…

Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
On oublie le visage et l’on oublie la voix
Le coeur quand ça bat plus, c’est pas la peine d’aller
Chercher plus loin, faut laisser faire et c’est très bien
Avec le temps…
Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
L’autre qu’on adorait, qu’on cherchait sous la pluie
L’autre qu’on devinait au détour d’un regard
Entre les mots, entre les lignes et sous le fard
D’un serment maquillé qui s’en va faire sa nuit
Avec le temps tout s’évanouit
Avec le temps…
Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
Mêm’ les plus chouett’s souv’nirs ça t’as un’ de ces gueules
A la Gal’rie j’Farfouille dans les rayons d’la mort
Le samedi soir quand la tendresse s’en va tout’ seule
Avec le temps…
Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
L’autre à qui l’on croyait, pour un rhume, pour un rien
L’autre à qui l’on donnait du vent et des bijoux
Pour qui l’on eût vendu son âme pour quelques sous
Devant quoi l’on s’trainait comme trainent les chiens
Avec le temps, va, tout va bien
Avec le temps…
Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
On oublie les passions et l’on oublie les voix
Qui vous disaient tout bas les mots des pauvres gens
Ne rentre pas trop tard, surtout ne prend pas froid
Avec le temps…
Avec le temps, va, tout s’en va
Et l’on se sent blanchi comme un cheval fourbu
Et l’on se sent glacé dans un lit de hasard
Et l’on se sent tout seul peut-être mais peinard
Et l’on se sent floué par les années perdues
Alors, vraiment
Avec le temps, on n’aime plus.

by Léo Ferré (1969)

listen to it on youtube (incl. translation)

»micrograms« by robert walser

robert walser was one of the most misunderstood and strangest yet most wonderful poets in german language. he spent 27 years in switzerland asylums, with no visible signs of mental illness - his form of exile…

in order to overcome his writer’s block, namely the fear of pen and white paper, walser filled already labeled, partially crumpled paper with a soft pencil and tiny cursive. in 1985, almost thirty years after robert walser’s death, the first volumes of the decrypted “micrograms” appear.

on the 25th of december 1956 he was found, dead of a heart attack, in a field of snow near the asylum. the photographs of the dead walker in the snow are almost eerily reminiscent of a similar image of a dead man in the snow in walser’s first novel, geschwister tanner. (source wikipedia)

»then« by anatol knotek

from my »anachronism« chapbook

»usually a book is just a copy - but not this one. every poem is individually written with my typewriter, so each single page is unique. out of about 50 poems i chose 16 for each book, therefore also the contents varies and is never the same.«

[if you are interested in buying this little book, please contact me on tumblr or via email: anatol(at)anatol(dot)cc]

by cia rinne (+)

from the book »notes for soloists« (download this book for free)

i
am
the
path
along
unseen
heather

Snowball (also called a Chaterism): A poem in which each line is a single word, and each successive word is one letter longer. One of the constrained writing techniques utilised by the Oulipo (Workshop of Potential Literature).
o
we
all
have
heard
people
believe
anything

Given the mathematical genesis of the Oulipo and the interest in the movement among other programmers, I thought that someone must have created a program to generate these, and I was surprised that I couldn’t find one even after some pretty thorough Googling. So I wrote one myself. The C++ code is here.
(via nossidge)

It takes input from a text file which contains novels from Project Gutenberg, scans for word pairs where the second word is longer by one letter, and builds up a poem using Markov chains.
i
am
the
dawn
light
before
anybody
expected
something
disorderly

The poems in this post were all created by the program. They have not been edited.
i
am
the
very
great
change


i
am
the
path
along
unseen
heather

Snowball (also called a Chaterism): A poem in which each line is a single word, and each successive word is one letter longer. One of the constrained writing techniques utilised by the Oulipo (Workshop of Potential Literature).

o
we
all
have
heard
people
believe
anything

Given the mathematical genesis of the Oulipo and the interest in the movement among other programmers, I thought that someone must have created a program to generate these, and I was surprised that I couldn’t find one even after some pretty thorough Googling. So I wrote one myself. The C++ code is here.

(via nossidge)