http://vimeo.com/67852968
A Vimeo find. The description reads:
Poem by Joshua Stewart.
Video by Fraser Jones.
Scenic views by The United States of America.
Grayson Cahal was in the 3rd grade (in Chatham Elementary School, Lodi, Ohio), so 8 or 9 years old, when he wrote this astonishing poem. Ruth Turner did the animation, and the accompanying poster was designed by Ryan Sprowl.
This video is one in a series – part of the second Healing Edition of the Traveling Stanzas project which is a collaborative effort between the Wick Poetry Center‘s outreach program and the Glyphix design studio at Kent State University.
http://vimeo.com/66795826
This film is called drawing, and its maker, Paul Mounsey, notes only that it was shot on 16mm film. The text may be found online here. The Poetry Foundation has a very good page on Richard Wilbur, along with a generous selection of his poems.
A film by Swoon for the poem “Witness” by Lissa Kiernan, recorded for qarrtsiluni‘s Animals in the City issue. This is Swoon’s 11th film for a qarrtsiluni poem. A couple of snippets from his blog post about it:
The track I wanted to lay this podcast in had to be a bit dreamy but also suspenseful and foreboding (with a small hint of mysteriousness) […]
The images had to be lush, but with a hint of decay. I had a vase with tulips, way past their ideal point of freshness. The petals falling gave me the idea for this video…
The first time I watched this, the images Swoon chose to accompany the text struck me as possibly a bit too random. But now they strike me as a subtle but inspired match. And the poem is, after all, directly concerned with how we might view an odd conjunction.
http://vimeo.com/66443184
Artwork (for the accompanying poster) and animation are both by Alison Farone of Glyphix design studio.
The 2013 edition of Traveling Stanzas is a collaborative project between Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center and Glyphix design studio. This series combines the creative talents of KSU Visual Communication Design students with student writers (grades 3–12), health care providers, patients, veterans and professional writers to encourage dialogue about the connection between art and medicine, writing and healing.
Much appreciation to Dorianne Laux who graciously allowed us to us her poem “Moon in the Window” as inspiration for a poster design and poetry animation.
A film by Jerimiah Whitlock. Dena Rash Guzman writes in a blog post:
My poem “32 Warhol” is now a beautiful poem film. A story about childhood, art and hunger, the film was shot by filmmaker Jerimiah Whitlock, and was translated to German and narrated by Hong Kong based poet, editor, and publisher Bjorn Wahsltrom. I am awed by Jerimiah’s vision and production. The result reminds me of director Wim Wenders.
The poem itself was written on a farm in the Oregon woods, where I live, and the film itself was shot and produced in Colorado. The German translation and narration was provided by a Swede then living in Shanghai, China. The world is such a huge and tiny place.
The film made its debut at The Body Electric Film Festival in Ft. Collins, Colorado last month. We have plans to have it screened across the world.
The poem itself, previously published on Ink Node, appears under the title “Life Cycle” in my forthcoming book of poems Life Cycle from Dog On A Chain Press. That will be available in June.
In the post on Vimeo, Whitlock includes the following artist’s statement:
Poetry is traditionally disseminated by the written word or the act of the poet reading to an audience. By creating video poems that not only share the written word but illustrate it in layers of sound, visuals, vocals, and even translations to other languages, the artist hope to help put to rest the idea that poetry is dead. Indeed, it is a form or art that can live as anything from sculpture, to performance, to film. Poetry is one of our oldest known forms of structured communication. Our hope is to see it grow older by bringing it to wider audiences in modern ways. Poetry deserves the eternal life. One day we hope to see an elaborate library dedicated only to poetry in all its modern forms, including shelves and shelves of video poetry. Let no one hunger for verse.