Nationality: United States

Robots are Blue

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Not a video poem, but a short film about robots and poetry by Bill Sebastian. Enjoy.

Stealing Sugar from the Castle by Robert Bly

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Trick Photography by Aaron Fagan

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Poem by Aaron Fagan

Film by K. Erik Ino

The Soup by Charles Simic

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Poem by Charles Simic

Musical composition by Alden Jenks

Performed by the San Francisco Conservatory New Music Ensemble, conducted by Nicole Paiement, with mezzo-soprano Raeeka Shehabi Yaghmai

A brief peek into Yaghmai’s rehearsal with Jenks for the premiere performance of The Soup may be seen in this documentary about her from Bebin TV, starting at the 4:30 minute mark.

Tiara by Mark Doty

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Poem by Mark Doty

From Taylor Mali’s Page Meets Stage reading series at the Bowery Poetry club in NYC.

Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump by David Bottoms

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Poem by David Bottoms, video by Chris Lee.

Thanks to Laura Sorrells for the find.

Cleverly Framed by Linh Dinh

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Poem and video by Linh Dinh

Living and loving with HIV in Jamaica: four poems by Kwame Dawes

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I’m going to break my informal rule against featuring slideshows today, because I think these are exceptionally well done. The poet is Kwame Dawes, and the photographer is Joshua Cogan. The slideshows were produced by the Pulitzer Center, and are only one facet of a multimedia website, Live Hope Love, which includes interviews, audio of many other poems, and more. Dawes took three trips to his native Jamaica to collect materials for the project; it resembled a regular work of investigative journalism in every way, except for the fact that one of the final products was a collection of poems. His mission, according to the Pulitzer Center: “to explore the experience of people living with HIV/AIDS and to examine the ways in which the disease has shaped their lives.”

Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

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Poem by Randall Jarrell, read by the author

Video by picardposer
Music: “Elysium,” from the Gladiator soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard

A tad on the literal side, but nicely done, I thought.

Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

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A masterful treatment of Rich’s poem by YouTube vlogger U2bianSynic (a.k.a. Syd). The choice of music (by Tryad Listen) was particularly inspired. The recitation by the poet is from Audible.com.