If you are like me, and like everything organized and straight in a row, then you will have ease looking around in Patrick Martin's Poetry Resource. The first page is a vertical list of links that are helpful to any poet or poetry lover. The are links to hundreds of poets, poems, publishers, organizations, forums, and what intrigued me was the link that grouped poetry together from each different country or region. This resource is user friendly and is a great guide to the poetry universe.
The Electronic Literature Directory is another online resource that is very user friendly. The links are also vertically organize and lead to an abundance of information. I don't know about you, but whenever I go to a website that has pictures, and flashing things, and scrolling things, and links scattered everywhere, I go ADD or something, I can't focus on what I am trying to do. I like to see the information and get right to the point. This resource does that, and I appreciate it because E-poetry is overstimulating as it is, or at least, when I am in ADD mode or something. Anyways, I read the poem, "ABC." It had flashing things, strange sounds, scrolling letters; you get the idea. Well, I was able to get to business and focus. I liked how the top left corner scrolled through the alphabet, and every letter represented a feeling of love for someone such a "J- We're Jack and Jill." Thus, meaning of the title is revealed. I love you from A to Z. At the bottom left there are pictures that change. I think it is the speaker. Over the face of this person, there is child-like writing that reveals things the speaker does not like such as: "that woman...that teacher." There is also a blue square that changes and is located above the picture's face. Perhaps, it is suggesting that the man in the picture is a square. On the lower left, there is a circle that shows clips of what I think is a picture frame. If this is the case, I suppose he and his lover are complete as a frame completes a picture just as how a circle is complete. There is also a computerized shadowy face that looks as though it is speaking. Perhaps, it is the speaker remembering his feeling of love at a young age because the other picture reveals an older man. Also, I think the fact that the handwriting looks childish and the expressing one's love through the alphabet reveals an immature expression of love.
For my final resource this week, I read the interview with Luis Erdrich, "An Emissary of the Between World," contains a great preview that reveals Erdrich's many works and suggests that all her works bring the questions of religion and identity together while adding a complex layer to a character. It is also suggested that Erdrich may be complex because she is from a German and French-Ojibwe heritage. She sheds light on Native Americans, in general. This culture is so overly stereotyped. Erdrich points out that every tribe has a different tradition, history, religion, and world view. I had never given much thought to the vast differences among each tribe. Each tribe has its own culture that can't be categorized under Native American. Erdrich explains that she is bringing awareness to the Ojibwe tribe, but not necessarily to all Native Americans because she only knows Ojigbwe culture. I am interested in reading some of her work to see for myself how she deals with complex issues in her writing and how she builds it around Ojibwe heritage. By reading these interviews, I have been made aware of different authors and types of writings that I have never been open to before, but these people behind the work seem so interesting that their work must be even more so and worth looking in to.
7 comments:
I also found Patrick Martin's Poetry Resource to be very helpful. One could spend hours upon hours on this site.
I have not yet checked out the Electronic Literature Dictionary, but I will have to do so. It sounds very interesting.
The first week, I chose the interview with Louis Erdrich because she is one of my favorite authors. If you are going to read her work, I suggest beginning with Tracks. It is an absolutely wonderful book that introduces you to the chracters who appear and reappear throughout the other novels. She also has a wonderful adolescent novel, The Birchbark House, that my students read every year.
Your blog is my last review for this week, and of the fifteen that I have now read over the past few weeks, I would guess that two-thirds of them have reviewed Patrick Martin's Poetry Resource. I found it very useful as well, and you are spot on when you say that it is organized well. I have it bookmarked for future reference in my English classroom. I found the Electronic Literature Directory useful as well, especially when my inadequacies in e-poetry are factored in. I need all the help I can get. I'm with you when it comes to sites that have too much flair going on all over the place. I feel like it's some pop up spam sometimes, and my instinct to close the site before it infects my computer takes over. I'm glad you stuck with this one to give us a review of what it has to offer. I'll have to check it out (after a large cup of coffee to focus). Finally, I have found all of the interview sites that are provided to be very interesting and insightful. They are now the first place I go when doing these poetry resource blog reviews. Thanks for the extensive, detailed reviews!
When I read/experienced the ABC poem, I felt it was an expression of complete love, like you stated about the circle. From A to Z it was an expression of devotion and no letter was left unexpressed. I enjoyed this poem and it seems to be a common format for poetry, I wonder if there is a special name for poetry that utilizes ABC. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that there are an insane amount of poetry types that we are not aware of.
Wow, a lot of people are reviewing the pmpoetry site for their second blog. All I can say is that I agree that it's a great resource site for all poets.
And I've noticed that drawback in epoetry too: that it can be overstimulating. The eye has to keep track of the moving images and the text, and sometimes the images are so short-lived and yet necessary that the eye spends a lot of work darting around. Granted, this isn't always the case, and some artists seem to do it better than others (like anything else, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it).
I keep being drawn to Erdritch's interview, but for some reason I look at other resources. She talks about the cultural diversity between the Native American tribes? Sounds interesting. I'll have to look up her interview for next time.
Everyone does seem to be reviem pmpoetry this week. I haven't had a chance to check it out, yet, but I will probably have to get into it next week.
I really like you description of the page links and page layout. I always get distracted by too much going on. I prefer everything all nice and orderly. Not so much ADD, but OCD.
Louis Erdrich is one of my favorite writers, but I am not that acquianted with her poetry. I might have to look into this site.
Patrick Martin and Electronic Literature Directory:
I, too, need things organized or I get overwhelmed and look elsewhere. You put it very well: the flashing lights and fancy distractors induce a certain level of ADD.
Louise Erdrich:
I personally didn't enjoy this interview very much. I tried to use it this week but just couldn't find enough meat in it for me to write about. It was interesting but net very impacting on my as a writer. If nothing else, I can agree that it makes me want to read some of her writing.
I liked Patrick Martin's Poetry Resource and what intrigued me is it was simple to use and simple to follow. Some of these sites we are checking into have so much information, it is visually impossible to stay focused in a specific direction. I get side-tracked onto a link I wasn't even interested in.
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