Poem by Theodore Roethke. Paul Sonnenberg, the creator of the video, says:
I stumbled across this little poem in my iTunes library this morning, and was inspired to create a video for it.
Source video from the public domain film “Manhattan Waterfront”. Drone sampled from Imogen Heap’s song “Locusts” on the compilation album Plague Songs. Pitch and duration of the sample altered.
Be sure to click “HQ” for a sharper image on this one.
it’s a great poem. “I fear those shadows most that start from my own feet.”
Yeah. Almost a micropoem, but packed with enough meaning to prompt repeated listenings.
I really like the video, great footage, strangely meditative and understated to say the least; and the poem too, especially because the poem feels strangely formal at first yet by the end not so much: “whose afraid of that?” And that last line is indeed priceless. Not to mention that overall this is a really cool site Dave. Thanks.
Hey, glad you like it! Yeah, this video poem is damn near perfect. My only complaint is that it’s a bit too small.
I love this. A dark-whiskey feeling saturates it. I love, “I keep a dog and bark myself.”
Roethke did alcoholism right, no doubt. In his poetry, I mean — God knows his life was a wreck. (I found a pretty good video for “My Papa’s Waltz,” too, which I’ll post at some point.)