~ Videopoems ~
Videopoetry, filmpoetry, cinepoetry, poetry-film… the label doesn’t matter. What matters is that text and images enter into dialogue, creating a new, poetic whole.
Words by Yahia Lababidi
I’m having a hard time keeping up with the videos Swoon has been making for Lababidi’s poems. This one incorporates Dutch sign language by Marjan De Cuyper and painting by Arlekeno Anselmo for a truly multimedia and multinational exploration of, and exploring through, language.
Wygnana (Expelled) by Bozena Urszula Malinowska
http://www.vimeo.com/21089942
Another film by Marcin Konrad Malinowski for a poem by his mother, the late Bozena Urszula Malinowska. Here’s the translation Marcin supplied. I think he’s open to suggestions on how it might be improved, but this is certainly enough to let the non-Polish viewer understand how the film images relate to, and play off of, the text:
Expelled from paradise
by me
by me alone
expelled
I’ll bury my sin in my heart
I won’t drop to my knees
in hope, that there
behind the gates
I’ll find silence and peace
Today I expel myself from paradise
With a curse
that’ll crush my heart
and I won’t yearn,
cry, wait and dream
I expel myself from paradise
So I can
live again
The post about the video on Marcin’s project blog reproduces a hand-written draft of the poem.
hollow by Peter Stephens
A Moving Poems production, with the cooperation of Nic S. at Whale Sound, who agreed to let me use her reading for the soundtrack, and the author, who perhaps unwisely gave his permission without any constraints whatsoever. Read Peter’s original text at his blog, Slow Reads. I think it’s a spectacular poem, and I hope my video does it justice — or at least excites interest in the poet and the reader.
I found the rest of the soundtrack at ccMixter, and a public-domain film to poach footage from at the Prelinger Archives (just two of the many online resources I’ve found for videopoem makers — check out the whole list).
A Fire in Ice by Marly Youmans
Paul Digby designed and created this video, which I am slotting into the “concrete poetry” category (even though the text is in rhyming couplets) on the strength of its last few seconds, which to me also perform the essential function of suggesting additional meanings beyond those immediately obvious in the text itself. Marly Youmans reads her poem, which is from her new collection The Throne of Psyche.
Die Farben dieser Welt (Colours of the World) by Rainer Schippers
Rainer Schippers is responsible for the music as well as the poem. George P. Schnyder “Filmed with the GH1 and a Sony HC1 (for the 8mm Stuff).”
Prodigal by Kona Macphee
Alastair Cook‘s 11th filmpoem. His description at Vimeo is worth quoting in full:
Prodigal is a film of Kona Macphee‘s poem, which was born from Andrew Philip’s project for the second Hidden Door festival, held in Edinburgh in October 2010: I was asked to record a reading of the poem. As I read it, I felt its power and resolved to make a filmpoem. I commissioned a cello piece from Rebecca Rowe and we performed this live at the Poetry Association of Scotland‘s meeting on 9th March 2011, at the Scottish poetry Library. A new direction for these perhaps, the addition of live performance… but the work is as dark and mercurial as ever.
My Love for You is So Embarrassingly by Todd Boss
Deb Kirkeeide designed and animated this motionpoem for a poem by Todd Boss.
Cet Amour (This Love) by Jacques Prévert
I didn’t expect to like this, but I did. Noah Oros directs. English subtitles are included.
Condition of Fire: seven poems by JL Williams
Condition of Fire is the debut collection from JL Williams, published by Shearsman. The author’s reading of seven poems from the book is combined with a commissioned sound work by Luca Nasciuti in this new filmpoem by Alastair Cook.
Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
Ten minutes of campy goodness: a silent-film-style adaptation of the classic poem directed by Adam Gollner, and starring Liane Balaban, Dave Lawrence, Tamar Amir, Miska Gollner, Jonathan Shatzky and Tracy Martin. You will probably either love it or hate it.
The complete poem, together with a free audiobook, is here.
