I’m well behind the wave in discovering YouTube, but this week I visited just to put in odd terms and see what came up. With poetic forms on my mind, I tried some, and I found these three videos. What I like about YouTube is its democracy. These run from polished to amateur, but all have something to recommend them…and now someone to recommend them too.
“Spam-ku” (I think that’s the right term) really has little to do with haiku, hokku, senryu, haikai no renga, tanka, sijo, or spam. It’s more a love story.
I’m not at all sure why “Catalina: A Villanelle” would be considered a villanelle, except that it employs refrains as a means of dividing chapters.
Sestinas are notoriously challenging poems to write, but “Half a Sestina” takes advantage of the dreamy playfulness of the form…while also offering some William Carlos Williams words-as-pigment attention to text.
Videos were about all my mind was up to today, and I hope you can enjoy these too.
Filed under: Aesthetics, American Life, Art, Culture, Dreams, Form, Haiku, Ideas, Life, Literature, Poetry, Sestinas, Thoughts, Video, Villanelles, Visual Art, Words, Writing
If you like Billy Collins, there are some interesting animations that are done over his readings. I like the one for “The Dead” and “Forgetfulness”, but my favorite (although it’s more literal) is for “Some Days.”
Just search Billy Collins on YouTube and they come right up. We’ve watched some in my classes, actually
Ask your spy what she thinks.