Sunday, January 5, 2014

TWENTY ONE POETS

An old friend, artist John Shaw, made a little film of twenty-one poets reading or reciting, a poem of theirs into his camera and recently put it up on Vimeo (it's called TWENTY ONE POETS, without the hyphen). He filmed me for it I think in 2012 or maybe even 2011.

Anyway it shows I was still recovering from my brain operation and not as quick as I was before it, and my memory wasn't as easily accessible, so if I look a little unprepared (I could have had just one photo for each decade/stanza and on stiffer paper, and at least run my fingers through my hair, which is the only combing of it I've ever done since the 'sixties, and used cue cards so my brain wouldn't glitch like it does at one point, and worn a nicer shirt, etc. etc.) blame it on that. (And on the other hand, it captures a real moment and the truth of that moment, with one of the points of the poem being about aging anyway, so ultimately it couldn't have been more real.)

Although some of these poets are old friends and favorites and others I was unaware of until this film, I think John did a great job of selecting, filming and editing them, making all the poetry seem relevant to the moment, and often not just engaging but entertaining. See what you think.

Twenty One Poets from john shaw on Vimeo.

9 comments:

Mary Winch said...

Wonderful break from NPR with the morning coffee. Thanks, Michael Lally you didn't miss a beat.

Lally said...

Thanks Mary.

JenW said...

Hey I enjoyed that so much- each poet uniquely expressive and impressive too!

richard lopez said...

Hi Michael:

I enjoyed the video very much. You were wonderful. My favorite part is at the end when you tickled the ivories and gave out a joyous laughter.

Anonymous said...

You rock DaddyO

Lally said...

aw, t'anks folks

Bob said...

Enjoyed this very well done poetry video. I've always liked seeing poet's living spaces and abodes, as in some of the pieces, pausing the video to look around and visit.

And your reading was quite good and had flare. Poets are often their own worst critics, of course.

Thanks for posting this.

williammcpherson said...

This is a great video and you are great in it, Michael. I like what you say about it, too. You're a truly remarkable man.

Lally said...

Bob, thanks and Bill, look who's talking.