Moving Poems

This is noteworthy in part because it aired on a major television network, but it’s also an effective poetry video, I think. It’s been up on YouTube for a while, so it’s probably safe to assume that ABC isn’t going to ask for it to be taken down.

Geoff Tarulli made this one. It’s kind of slow-moving, but maybe that’s the point.

There’s a video of Simic reading this poem, but it’s not as interesting as the two videos included here. About the musical performance above I could gather nothing, though it appears from the one comment that it may have been uploaded by one of the performers. I love the interpretation of the poem as a Sufi teaching, though I’m not sure how Simic would feel about it.

Brian Watterson is the filmmaker here.

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.