Time to post your answers

Hi everyone,

For those who played IN OTHER WORDS, it’s time to post the quote that inspired you so others can see if they got it right. Thanks for playing and thanks to Matt Forrest and Renee LaTulippe for providing the idea.

Mine, “I have no expectation that anything I write or read, no matter how well metered or rhymed, will rival the creative sap of an angiosperm or, for that matter, a plain old gymnosperm,” came from Joyce Kilmer: “I think that I shall never see/a poem lovely as a tree.”

As for the reading of my work yesterday: It rained during the night and began snowing early in the morning. Lots of wind and swirling flakes. The temperature hovered at 32. By 4:00 the snow had all but stopped. However, the wind continued to whip the cold air and the damage had been done. After discussing earlier in the day whether we should go ahead, we elected to hold the event. Sadly, one of the most pleasant experiences of my writing career was shared with only twenty-five people. We had a wonderful event. The performers were fantastic. What a joy it was to hear the voices in my head brought to life by such talented people!

For making the event possible, I thank Julie Bloodworth for putting the event together; Jim Baumlin for facilitating the sponsorship through the MSU English Society; Ray Castrey for making kid friendly music on just about anything he can rap with a stick, touch with his fingers, or huff through; Jenny Stoessner for her magic with puppets (and who can recite “Shirley the Shand Sark” far better and quicker than I can); and Sarah Wiggin, Maggie Marlin-Hess, Michael Frizell, and Kurt Heinlein for their splendid and spirited renditions of my work. Who knew that THE BOY WITH A DRUM could be read to rap!

The purpose of the series honoring Missouri authors is to help raise community awareness of R.A.E. (Resident Artist Ensemble) so I’m sorry that more people weren’t there to see what talented performers the members are. Nearly all of them are teachers, many with advanced degrees in their fields and years of experience both in acting and in teaching others. They’re also talking about finding another venue to try this event again, hopefully in better weather! I’m all for it. Again, my gratitude to everyone, including the brave souls who attended the reading.

David

Here’s a new challenge for you: IN OTHER WORDS

BULLETIN: Thanks to all for playing IN OTHER WORDS. We don’t have to stop but the blog posts will move on. I suggest that you post the answers to your contributions by Monday. How’s that?

Hi everyone,

Yesterday several of us were teasing Renee LaTulippe while she was trying to concentrate on the poem she was working on for March Madness. During the course of the chatter, Renee suggested to Matt Forrest that a remark he’d just made might make a fun poetry challenge for my blog. Matt followed through so here you are directly from Matt. My thanks to you both, Matt and Renee!

Hi, David,

Renee LaTulippe and I were just discussing our challenges in the MMPoetry competition, and we came up with an idea we thought you might like to pass along to your readers…since we know you’re always looking for unusual types of wordplay.

Her latest word that she has to write a poem with is ‘bifurcate.’ I joked that my first thought was, “Two roads diverged…” and she said she tried going down the Frost road, but it was a dead-end. (I told her that probably explains why it was less-traveled!) Anyway…just for fun, I rewrote the first two lines of that poem as thus:

“Dual avenues bifurcated near a burnt-umber forest / apologetic I could not navigate them simultaneously…”
So Renee thought it would be fun to rewrite classic poems in this sort of high-brow language, and then try to figure out which poems other folks had rewritten! I told her I’d shoot you an email and offer it as a suggestion…just thought it might be something different!

Here are a couple of others I did to help get things going:

“There is a location where the boulevard ceases
And the thoroughfare originates
Whence the meadow matures as cottony alabaster…”

“A liberated fowl leaps on the Zephyr’s hindquarters
And is buoyed by the southward currents of the rivulet…”

The answers are below (just to give you a chance to think about ’em!)…have fun, and I hope your readers do, too!

Matt

Matt Forrest VoiceWorks
http://www.MattForrest.com
http://www.MattForrest.Wordpress.com (blog)
http://www.Facebook.com/MattForrestVoice
http://www.Twitter.com/MattForrestVW
http://www.BostonCasting.com/MattForrest
http://www.Voice123.com/MattForrest
http://Soundcloud.com/MattForrestVoiceWorks (demos/samples)

So there you have it. Let’s see what you have to say about well known poems, IN OTHER WORDS.

David