First Few Weeks Of A Poetry Class
moultano
Creator of ns_shiva. Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Creator of ns_shiva. Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10806Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Gold, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">kinda intimidating.</div> So for starters, I'm a cs major. I don't know terribly much about poetry.
My professor is hardcore about poetry, we're talkin chromed steel balls hardcore. His speech the first day went something like this.
"I started college as pre-med. I gave up a hell of a lot of money to write poetry, because poetry Saves. Peoples. Lives. If you think computer science is more important than poetry, then you can walk out right now. If you are in this class to do fingerpainting, you can leave right now. If you want to learn to become better poets you can stay in this class. I am 35. I just won the best book of the year award for poetry. I'm 35. So when I say I know something about poetry, I'm telling the truth. We have the best poetry department in the world here, and we're going to live up to that."
He went on at this level of intensity for around 20 minutes before getting into the logistics of the course. Now poetry is kinda cool, but I'll be damned if I think its more important than computer science. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
At any rate, I'm sticking it out. We turned in our first poem today, a Ghazal. Ghazals are form that originated in seventh century Arabia. The first two lines end with the same word, and every second line thereafter also ends with the same word. The syllable before the repeated word rhymes. The poem is broken into a series of couplets, which often have independent meaning. Seeing is how one of the stated goals of the off topic forum is to post poems, I thought I would show you guys.
<!--QuoteBegin- Freedom Ghazal+ Ryan Moulton--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ( Freedom Ghazal @ Ryan Moulton)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
Glowing pixels blur into an image of younger eyes.
Deadening, familiar type rests, glimmers on older eyes.
The hope, the story, the promise, the end: a hall of mirrors.
Sun land, dust land. Across the ocean, bits to staggered eyes.
The frosting spring grasses hold echoes of gibbous moon.
Fears speak in tight deep stares, quick sharp breaths. He kissed her eyes.
Mottled granite moves from a pleistocene hitch into shade.
A stream turns around it, lichen sits, but no other eyes.
A deep cathedral of stone and water, within, a spire,
dark drip built, millennia built, breaks, but no other eyes.
An unknown unknown carves a nameless moment from the sun.
Soft ears break and whine, concentric waves shatter light; blister eyes.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
My professor is hardcore about poetry, we're talkin chromed steel balls hardcore. His speech the first day went something like this.
"I started college as pre-med. I gave up a hell of a lot of money to write poetry, because poetry Saves. Peoples. Lives. If you think computer science is more important than poetry, then you can walk out right now. If you are in this class to do fingerpainting, you can leave right now. If you want to learn to become better poets you can stay in this class. I am 35. I just won the best book of the year award for poetry. I'm 35. So when I say I know something about poetry, I'm telling the truth. We have the best poetry department in the world here, and we're going to live up to that."
He went on at this level of intensity for around 20 minutes before getting into the logistics of the course. Now poetry is kinda cool, but I'll be damned if I think its more important than computer science. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
At any rate, I'm sticking it out. We turned in our first poem today, a Ghazal. Ghazals are form that originated in seventh century Arabia. The first two lines end with the same word, and every second line thereafter also ends with the same word. The syllable before the repeated word rhymes. The poem is broken into a series of couplets, which often have independent meaning. Seeing is how one of the stated goals of the off topic forum is to post poems, I thought I would show you guys.
<!--QuoteBegin- Freedom Ghazal+ Ryan Moulton--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ( Freedom Ghazal @ Ryan Moulton)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
Glowing pixels blur into an image of younger eyes.
Deadening, familiar type rests, glimmers on older eyes.
The hope, the story, the promise, the end: a hall of mirrors.
Sun land, dust land. Across the ocean, bits to staggered eyes.
The frosting spring grasses hold echoes of gibbous moon.
Fears speak in tight deep stares, quick sharp breaths. He kissed her eyes.
Mottled granite moves from a pleistocene hitch into shade.
A stream turns around it, lichen sits, but no other eyes.
A deep cathedral of stone and water, within, a spire,
dark drip built, millennia built, breaks, but no other eyes.
An unknown unknown carves a nameless moment from the sun.
Soft ears break and whine, concentric waves shatter light; blister eyes.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Comments
likewise <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I like pottery...
Poetry on the other hand... /me stabe John Donne!
True, I speak of dreams, which are the children of an idle brain.
Poetry is for people who can't contribute to society. (Edit: Shakespeare, yet? How ironic)
Everything. Coding is an art.
moultano, just combine your geekness w/ CS.
I prefer story writing myself rather than poems, but I successfully combined video games and/or computer stuff on many occassions in my college creative writing courses.
Hell, I wrote a story called Q2DM3. Guess what it was about. :P
Everything. Coding is an art.
moultano, just combine your geekness w/ CS.
I prefer story writing myself rather than poems, but I successfully combined video games and/or computer stuff on many occassions in my college creative writing courses.
Hell, I wrote a story called Q2DM3. Guess what it was about. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
KFS getting owned despite claiming q3dm6 was "his turf"?
(twice)
Not that I'm bashing your being in a poetry class. I think that's cool, and I wish I had the same talent for writing you (appear?) to have. Like everyone else, I'll skip on the analysis. But after reading it a few times over, I'm very impressed. It'd help if you'd prod us philistines along in the right direction, though.
Rapier7: Romeo and Juliet was a play.
Everything. Coding is an art.
moultano, just combine your geekness w/ CS.
I prefer story writing myself rather than poems, but I successfully combined video games and/or computer stuff on many occassions in my college creative writing courses.
Hell, I wrote a story called Q2DM3. Guess what it was about. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You are definitely on to something there. I'm intending my next poem to relate signal processing, quantum physics, and sex. The way I figure, I'm using the images from my life, which happen to be technical.
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I always get intimidated by the poetic/lit types. They made me feel (probably unintentionally) that there was something I didn't get. I can appreciate poetry, but I don't have the same fascination some people do with it. (Maybe you can tell me. Am I missing something?) I've come to the conclusion that you shouldn't neccessarily feel any obligation to be a very poetic/literary person. Judging by the stuff most of my peers in creative writing pumping out (oh fate, why art thou so cruel? stab me in the heart, for my angst transcends that of the gothic clique!), most people should avoid poetry like a politician avoids real issues.
Not that I'm bashing your being in a poetry class. I think that's cool, and I wish I had the same talent for writing you (appear?) to have. Like everyone else, I'll skip on the analysis. But after reading it a few times over, I'm very impressed. It'd help if you'd prod us philistines along in the right direction, though. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
There's a bit of adverse selection going on with most of the people you'd describe as a poetic/lit type, particularly in highschool. It seems like that wanes as things get more professional, and people outgrow their narcissism. One of the funnier comments my prof made earlier in the semester was "I like teaching non English majors. English majors tend to <i>think</i> they know something about poetry." Don't let the style and the personalities of the people you associate with it turn you off to the subject matter. I've encountered similar types of attitudes, mostly from people who, when they find out I'm in cs, assume I can't talk about anything else. This drama student one time tried to make conversation asking "So what does your computer do?" Hilarity ensued. I think the general arrogance comes from the idea that literature is about life, so therefore, those who read more of it have had more "life" experiences, and those who don't like it aren't really alive.
I'm not terribly well versed in poetry myself, but the value I get out of reading it is the pleasure of seeing an idea stated particularly well. I haven't written much of it, mostly because I tend to think things can be expressed better when stated plainly. Every so often though there is something that really needs more stylized treatment. Some thought or idea that really would be of value to someone else if you could only find the words. That I think is the primary value of it, aside from entertainment.
Not that I'm bashing your being in a poetry class. I think that's cool, and I wish I had the same talent for writing you (appear?) to have. Like everyone else, I'll skip on the analysis. But after reading it a few times over, I'm very impressed. It'd help if you'd prod us philistines along in the right direction, though.
Rapier7: Romeo and Juliet was a play. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, Romeo and Juliet (along a bunch of others) were plays but they're also really long poems. They're written in iambic pentameter (or something like that). Except that Juliet in its modern pronouciation breaks the rhythm, so it's generally considered to be Jul-et instead.
...or something.
[Note to people: something resembling a rant may appear ahead]
Anyway, poetry is boring. Apparently I'm pretty good at writing poetry (I've got one in a book somewhere), but pffft, it's boring (except riddles, riddle poems rock [amd if you want to go with "Songs are just poems set to sounds" or something, songs and story poems are good poems too, then <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ]). Plus, a lot of them are so ambiguous you could pull any meaning you want to out of them. Not a big fan of restricted poems either. Anything that hinders ideas with terrible limitations is just bad. Like Haikus, ooh, focusing on set numbers of syllables and lines makes my poem oh-so-much better - yea, or not...
Plus, the teachers tend to be the 'artsy-fartsy' type, which really get on my nerves with the 'holier than thou' routine, because they think writing words ripped from a thesaurus makes them special in some fantastical dimension. Sure, there are people out there who like the "patter, clandestine, zephyr, pearl" crap poems where they just throw important sounding words together. Or the ones that throw ambiguous words together, in attempt to formulate some kind of development or progress of story or idea...that never happens because they have no idea what the hell is going on in their own writing. Then memorizing the thesaurus becomes their scale of poetic achievement, "Damn, I can use azure for blue!"
On that note, Edgar Allen Poe's poems are good. They've got substance, and meld plot and rhythm seamlessly to form a gripping experience. Which is probably why people in the 1800's were scared at 'the Raven'. Plus his life in itself is really exciting (in the "Wow, how could that happen to one guy?" sort of way).
Of course, that's just all opinion, just like how I think abstract art is crap, too. If you can't paint it within the realm of reality (or at least make it look really textured or featured - like you put some effort into it) - why are you painting it? Like that one crap picture that's a 2 big boxes of yellow and orange.
I'm just glad I tested into upper level English, so I only have to take one class my entire college career (plus: no math to take either). When I've got a job and a cool computer and a stop, years after college, then I'll write whatever I want, and be unrestricted doing it, so pffft to poetry classes.
[Although: good for you for having the patience to sit through one.]
<!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Everything. Coding is an art.
moultano, just combine your geekness w/ CS.
I prefer story writing myself rather than poems, but I successfully combined video games and/or computer stuff on many occassions in my college creative writing courses.
Hell, I wrote a story called Q2DM3. Guess what it was about. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You are definitely on to something there. I'm intending my next poem to relate signal processing, quantum physics, and sex. The way I figure, I'm using the images from my life, which happen to be technical.
<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Welp, here it is.
<!--QuoteBegin-Fourier+ Ryan Moulton--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Fourier @ Ryan Moulton)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
Light years resonate
deep in the cold dark
with a slight touch of harmonics
give light to our eyes
Deep in the cold dark
flecks of neon magnetism
give light to our eyes
ripple through black rubber
Flecks of neon magnetism
purple cycles of white rhythm
ripple through black rubber
through the crowd of waiting bodies
Purple cycles of white rhythm
beats thump in our muscles
through the crowd of waiting bodies
we touch, oscillate, dance
Beats thump in our muscles
our steps, pulses intertwine
we touch, oscillate, dance
with rising action potential
Our steps, pulses intertwine
wind lays cycles on flushed faces
with rising action potential
trembling steps align, phase shift
Wind lays cycles on flushed faces
silent door opens, closes, quivers
trembling steps align, phase shift
Heisenberg’s lovers
Silent door opens, closes, quivers
cool fingers arc, clench, merge
Heisenberg’s lovers
the wave beats, slips between the wells
Cool fingers arc, clench, merge
wide eyes open in sinusoid
the wave beats, slips between the wells
uncertain shadows
Wide eyes open in sinusoid
these waves build everything
uncertain shadows
concatenating, convolving, overwhelming
These waves build everything
with a slight touch of harmonics
concatenating, convolving, overwhelming
light years resonate
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Everything. Coding is an art. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Turn in a poem written in BASIC.
Or, write an epic using "Hello World" as your motiff.
moultano, visit these forums. it's a poetry workshop that includes poems ranging from the complete newbie to the very advanced.
the admins here remind me of your prof, and perhaps that's a good thing or maybe bad too; but they are none-the-less genuine hardasses, and if you send a poem that is not qualified into merciless sections, well...expect that poem to be moved with a comment of...
anyways, i suggest you go there, because you could learn many things, and not have to deal with your prof later on. he does sound like a hardass!!!
There is no doubt, that the guy is a boasting ***hole. Someone needs to bring him down a peg or two. Go Moultano! <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->