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lexiandliterature · 13 days

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let's talk about rupi kaur and why she's everything wrong with online culture.

i've heard many a good review about rupi kaur and her poetry and i will tell you right now that i confidently disagree. in case you don't know who she is, rupi kaur is a "poet" on instagram with over 4.5 million followers known for her short but impactful poems that captivate the hearts of millions of people around the world.

her rise to fame caught the tidal wave of internet virality as she self published her first collection, Milk & Honey, earning critical acclaim. I like to call it milk our money but i'll get to that in another post.

let's first define poetry for what it is. though this definition can depend on who you ask, i like to think of poetry in four main categories: theme, meter, form, and intention. theme is just the general topic of the poem and the way the poet goes about addressing it. meter is the rhythm and rhyme pattern; it's the way it sounds when you read it aloud and the way that sound hits your ear. form is the way it looks, the way it reads, how that affects the way you say it and the way the words are perceived. and finally let's talk about intention. how is she choosing her words, how is she placing them in an order that is interesting, and how is she using literary devices to aid her story?

(if you want to see these categories done well, then it will have to be a whole different post because this could take awhile.)

so let's talk about rupi kaur's poetry in these four categories starting with this 2 LINE POEM that doesn't have a title.

"and here you are living despite it all"

-rupi kaur

wow. inspirational. 2 lines, with no punctuation whatsoever. this isn't even a sentence. we're off to a great start.

so theme. this poem is about overcoming something difficult. what difficulty? i could not tell you. there is no more information. at least she has an idea. the "you" is likely addressing the readers, thus suggesting that the purpose of the line being so general is to appeal to everyone (this is another issue i'll get into some other time).

let's talk about meter now. there's really nothing to say, there is none. there is no rhythm, no rhyme scheme, no nothing. and i'm not saying every poem has to have these things, it's just to say that if she doesn't have this, her poem needs to be interesting in other ways (which spoiler alert it isn't).

now let's talk about form. she breaks this "not sentence" into two lines. this enjambment is random and without thought. there is nothing interesting about separating this sentence other than for aesthetic purposes. nothing about the shape of this poem is interesting and nothing about it has meaning.

and finally, let's talk about intention. she uses "you" to appeal to a wider audience which suggests that this poem is more likely written to be relatable than to be sincere. is the "you" talking about a friend? a lover? a sibling? a friend/lover that's a sibling? (im just kidding) like come one. give us nothing. the ambiguity of "all" has a similar connotation. what is she overcoming? a cold? the death of a loved one? spilled milk? what is it? i shouldn't have to give meaning to the poem FOR HER. THIS IS HER POEM.

so if we're grading this out of 4 points, we'll give her a point for theme (because at least i know what she's talking about), no points for meter, no points for form, and certainly no points for intention.

this poem is a 1/4 or a 25%. congratulations rupi!

if this is the standard at which we are holding one of the most POPULAR poets of our generation because her poetry is accessible, easy to read, and relatable, then we are in a bit of trouble.

taking time to understand why the words are put in a certain order is what makes poetry so beautiful and if we can't even stop to sniff the roses sometime, what are we even doing? nothing in life is easy, and we are slowly diluting everything difficult into something that is meaningless. part of the beauty is in the time you put into understanding its message. rupi kaur is a perfect example of someone marketing off of our short attention spans and our need for instant gratification.

what i'm getting at here is not that a poet i dont like is extremely popular but rather we're letting people profit off of mediocrity while also losing the essence of what that thing really is. we're letting it become easy and accessible and "relatable" when part of the beauty is often what makes it different. it's not that rupi kaur is the problem but rather an example of the ongoing issue.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

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kisaraslover · 3 months

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DO U HAVE ANY BLUESHIPPING FIC REC?????PLEASENIMSTARVINGKSKSKKS

anon kskkasak ITS FINE ILL SAVE YOU OK? here goes:

Scenes from a Kaiba Marriage and Temptation by my blueshipping queen @kisara-kaiba as the opening. the peak of modern life blueshipping fluff, very lovesick, when im reading them its heart full, head empty. youre gonna be lucky to start them now cuz ill be rereading and drawing scenes from them this week👀. itll be like premium fanfic reading.

Enjambment -> this fic might be the single best written blueshipping fic by the virtue of MIRRORING their encounter in ancient Egypt beat by beat, including BOTH of their character arcs and the netflix show vibe of suspense and the sharp, cold and bleak setting is chefs kiss. changed my brain chemistry. still one of my favorite portrayals of Kisara.

Maiden with Eyes of Blue -> Sometimes time needs to slow down and a single scene should be a character study/ hashing out of things you needed acknowledged by canon, the situation is ESPECIALLY dire for Seto Kaiba as ive made my feelings on his writing known many times. This is it. Kisara isnt reincarnated in this one though, but her love for him can be felt in the air. Ngl you could just incorporate this into post canon and it would be fine. canon compliant+ canon enriching.

Shades of Water, Ice, and Sky -> I'm skimming through each fic to see what they were about and i just gotta say: why so heart-wrenching if so short?? theyre in love your honor.

Their Promise: Book I -> ok gonna be honest w you i havent finished this one and the main reason is that i cant go past the SPECTACULAR first chapter. ive started and failed to draw it in its entirety. i open it, i chew on the first chapter like a rabid dog, i close it more often than not. the second reason is it has a lot more angst and heartbreak than most blueship fics do and im weak to that sort of thing. still, if we follow their ancient egypt encounter beat by beat, which is a fantastic way of following and enriching the canon, their first meeting needs to be as kids with him saving her from a cage. chefs kiss.

who are you? -> JUST the right amount of Seto Kaiba immediate fixation obsession on Kisara (which means insanely obsessed)

You Will Crave Your Ancient Roots -> this is so good and so heartbreaking man. Seto and Atem are shot back into ancient Egypt and Seto is only able to slightly alter the events around Kisara. hes fated to fall for that woman every single time and *starts sobbing*

Ancient Rules -> all i gotta say is this Seto Kaiba gives me brainworms. hes chuck full of Passion and Cockiness and Insanity. blueshippers sometimes take out his insanity. he is very unsettling here i love it. Kisara is truly at his mercy..

never forget your first dream -> fem!Set and Kisara in ancient Egypt, this story twists more than just Seto's gender. im a yuri seto truther so its great to have written proof of it. jokes aside, very well characterized Set and Kisara, rich writing.

One in Forty -> pretty short but this one fundamentally changed how i viewed Kisara's canon influence over BEWD cards and her constant and unbendable favor around Seto. canon compliant + canon enriching.

ok so these are the cream of the crop for ME personally, might have forgotten some in my other folders, i might have missed reading some, its probably not all encompassing. but frankly ive liked and saved fics for a single resounding line, single funny joke, one interesting implication about the story or the characters the author wrote up so in my heart theyre all worth checking out, always. fanfic writers are carrying this ship on their backs and theyre all 9 ft tall and im just walking around them, clearing the path, giving them a sip of water and snacks etc. so THANK YOU BLUESHIPPING AUTHORS I LOVE YOUUUUUU

#yugioh #ygo #kisara #blueshipping #ask tag #seto kaiba #not art #fic rec #some king i am!!!#no really the only reason ive been here this long is because of their writing. it sustains me. it keeps me alive. AND KEEPS ME DRAWIN #mwah #fanart is a single moment of emotion. single second of love. fanfics able you to WATCH them love yknow? howling at the moon #i gotta tidy my folders i have more blueshipping fics than this i know it #im missing some im sure

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ace-and-ink · 2 months

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the other day

(i almost called it yesterday)

i wrote a poem after class

called it a warm-up

called it cards

i did everything my professor said i shouldn’t

took advice from my writing professor

who said

“here are a list of writing rules

go break every single one of them”

i’ll take this one slower

because my theatre class got out early

and i got to eat this time

the soda fountain was busted

the cherry coke wasn’t that

we read of those who wrote

with inspiration of art

i’ll never write like

the way orphan made me feel

i hear i song

and i cry

and i steal half their lines

want me to do it again?

i’ll list what i’m listening to

“take it from me

i’m not looking for anybody

i’m sick of car rides

you lied while we lay back to side”

my friend (?????)

[for our audio listeners

if you’re ever out there

there’s a series of question marks

because i don’t know

what i want her to be]

said goodbye to me as she left

and i couldn’t catch her

i had to fix my desk

i sat with a pretty girl today

she reminds me of my old friend

the one i’ve written about before

the one i’ve compared myself to with a dying moth

i wish she’d look at me like she did

she smiled at the end

before fumbling her papers

and i almost relapsed on the spot

i saw a pretty girl in my building

she lives a floor above me

i think about how my elevator sometimes

doesn’t say what floor it was going to

and i always have to double check

i wonder what system it uses

or if it just didn’t want to say it

if it skipped a line on accident

if it just had too much going on at once

i don’t think i can call this a poem

what if i call myself a moth again?

i use dogs too often

my hair looked decent when

i left the bathroom this morning

i saw my reflection when the poem wouldn’t load

and i think i almost lost three years of progress

that girl was from here

in this city i’m familiar yet foreign to

i reread my own poem

and i’ve suddenly never used a metaphor in my life

i talked about rocks

and i wrote about moths

i’ll only be a hit online

- by online i mean i’ll get clicks

from my one online friend -

my roommate always keeps the door open

the same friend from before had her room rekeyed

i don’t know how to make this a poem

my professor would never take this

i keep getting snapchat notifications

of my old teammates from home

celebrating each other’s birthdays

i almost don’t even go home for mine

so should i use a simile?

should i add a metaphor?

i can’t say i agree with holly in that song right now

i can’t drive

but they’ve lied while we laid together

and they’re still going on about getting high

let’s see

what can i say here?

i feel like a fish in a fishbowl

- there’s my vehicle -

i can see everything i want

but i can’t get to any of it

- there’s my tenor -

my writing class made me feel

like i at least have a chance

so far poetry

has made me feel like i’ve been fooling myself

i can’t call this poetry

i can’t say i’m good at all

which isn’t the problem

it’s that i don’t feel like i can be

i’m laying in bed

the brain killer

and now i don’t want to go to geology

which isn’t for another hour

i’ll call this a warm-up

like i do

being the fraud artist i am

saying every piece i don’t like

was a practice sketch

so i don’t have to claim it

hey if i add a period here

can i call this all enjambment?

ah shit nevermind

there it goes

i’ll end it on this

anyway.

— warm-up: tenor

#the patron saint of asexual poets #poetry #poem #poems #original poems #original poetry #original poem #original writing #creative writing #poets on tumblr #writers on tumblr #lgbtq poem #lgbtq poetry #lgbtq poet #lgbtq poems

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utilitycaster · 2 months

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i am deeply intrigued by and invested in a certified utilitycaster brand roast of rupi kaur

So here is the thing: I don't think she deserves a full roast, and also I have not read much of it, certainly not recently, so it wouldn't be terribly informed.

What it ultimately comes down to is that she got published, at age 22, because she was popular on Instagram, and the vast, vast majority of people at age 22 write extremely annoying poetry (source: I took two semesters of poetry writing senior year of college). If she hadn't been writing poems that were, fundamentally, mediocre but not egregiously bad in the unbelievably narrow sliver of time when publishing companies were looking for anyone with a big Twitter or Instagram or YouTube following and passing out book deals she would have not become known for this; she just would have moved on with her life as "girl who wrote some blah poetry in her early 20s".

I mostly use her as a touchstone for a particular style though that is deeply influenced by like, 2014-ish social media vibes: that all lower-case, heavy on aesthetic imagery, simple language, and weird enjambment choices which again isn't bad but it's very derivative, and tired, and at this point in time reads to me as "this person has not found their own voice and is also not terribly creative."

In the tags I just had specifically the jibe is more about how an overly poetic style in prose meta-writing is often, though not always, an indicator you're going to read some overwrought nonsense. I think there's a place for more purple prose - truly, I do - but in actual poetry I lean more towards a plainer, prose-like style and so when someone goes really hard on a poetic flowery style in prose and specifically in meta or fandom predictions it tends to lose me because this is simply not a good writing style for making an argument. (It also usually loses me in fic unless you're really good because the thing about writing fairly plainly and directly is that if you aren't a great writer it still comes out okay, whereas if you're not a good writer and you start throwing what my sister refers to as "wickety-wack" into it, it highlights every weakness).

Back to sort of roasting though: I do think that Rupi Kaur got praised for being straightforward when that's not unique and plenty of poets did it better, of which Langston Hughes was just one example. One of my favorite poems, which was read at my friends' wedding, is Frank O'Hara's "Having a Coke with You" and it's very conversational and straightforward. Like, the most damning thing I can really say about Rupi Kaur is that she doesn't do or say anything new nor impressive.

#answered #burr-ell

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likeniobe · 22 days

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For this and other reasons, I should like to conclude these observations with a look at some lines from one of his [William Carlos Williams's], and modern America's, finest poems, one whose shape is still being used, or rather the outline of whose shape is still being used, by many poets. It is the first poem of his early sequence called Spring and All, and is a version of the reverdie, the traditional spring song which one finds in English verse from the thirteenth century on: By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast––a cold wind. Beyond, the waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees All along the road the reddish purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines–– Lifeless in appearance, sluggish, dazed spring approaches–– This is a poem of discovery, of the gradual emergence of the sense of spring from what looks otherwise like a disease of winter. The "contagious hospital" is both a colloquial usage, by doctors and patients, for the longer name, and a hospital that is itself contagious, that leaks its presence out onto the road. The cold wind will be revealed as a spring wind, but not before the poem's complex act of noticing has been completed. The meter here is a typographic strip about 30 ems wide with a general tendency to break syntax at tight points (lines 3 and 4 are normal, rather than exceptional); but notice the traditional use of discovery-enjambment in lines 2 and 3––"under the surge of the blue" because of its audible dactylic melody aims the syntax at a noun version of "blue," a metonymy for sky. But the next line discovers its mere adjectival usage, appositively with "mottled," and the hopefulness of upward motion, the brief bit of visual and perhaps spiritual ascendancy is undercut by the bleakness of the wintry scene, and the totality of its non-greenness, even the exclusion of available blue. For the buds of the spring do indeed look, at first glance, like tumorous nastiness of the branch. But the poem moves toward the avowal of the discovery: "Now the grass, tomorrow / the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf." Its real conclusion, however, is revealed in the final moralization: "One by one objects are defined–– / It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf." The action of the poem is specifically discovered to be one of focusing; as one rotates a knob on the consciousness, the objects are defined, both in the world of the poem and by the poem, by poems in general. [...] This is as visual a poem in every sense as one could find, a soundless picture of a soundless world, its form shaped rather than incanted, its surface like that of so much Modern poetry, now reflecting, now revealing its depths and, as the conscious wind of attention blows over it, now displaying the wavy texture of its surface. Put together from fragments of assertion, it has virtually no rhetorical sound. But its shape has become a familiar one––particularly for contemporary poetry of the eye––about its possibilities, betrayals and rewards, about rediscoveries of the visionary in the visual.

john hollander, from "the poem in the eye" in vision and resonance, 1975

#oof!#john hollander #texts #diss

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anglerflsh · 9 months

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re: your poetry post, can you give some pointers as to where to learn the rhyming patterns in poetry and the like? i only ever see poetry from the ideas/feelings perspective, but ive never learned the logic and structure behind it lol

I've learned most of it from my literature and grammar classes, it's taught in our school since elementary, so I wouldn't know of any books or manuals that talk specifially about it - but I can give you a rundown of how I do it, anon, if it counts for anything lol

Prefacing that this will be starting from italian poetica because that's what I know best: any poem, but specifically the pre-futurism/1910s ones (A Lot) will have some kind of structure aside from just the ryming scheme; The structure I am most familiar with is accentual-sillabic, so for example any single verso will have its stressed syllable in a fixed potision and occasionally a set number of sillables (eg. an endecasillablic metre means a stress on the tenth syllable, usually penultimate, equally to 11 total syllables), but there are also only accentual, or only sillabic verses, common in French poetry (?), all of which count as types of qualitative metre - as well as quantitative metre, which was more widley used in Latin and Greek poetry and which rather based itself on patterns of syllable weight (something that I know little about tbh; I think it's based on the lenght of pronunciation of the actual syllable).

this, of course, goes without even mentioning free-verse structure and less well-known ones.

Going back to the rhyming scheme, that also comes into play with structure in the sense that ... there are just a lot of them to pick from. The classic is the repeated AABB one, where each verse will rhyme with the one underneath (''kissing rhyme'' in italian), or the alterning ABAB, the crossed ABBA, the 'chained' or third rhyme ABA BCB CDC used for terzine, and plenty more! That's not all the ways to classify rhymes of course: you have plain rhyme between words accented on the penultimate syllable, cut rhyme between words accented on the last, sdrucciola with accents on the third-to-last, bisdrucciola on the fourth-to-last... etc etc

Then, of course, come the classifications in stanza lenghts! Groups of three verses are a terzina, well known for being Dante's favourite number (joke inserted to lighten this infodump), groups of four a quatrina, etc -

and depending on the number of single groups and on the type of verses in them, you have further classification as canzone, ode, madrigale, carme, filastrocca, ballata, sonetto... the latter for example is made of fourteen endecasyllabic verses grouped in two quartine, one in the beginning and one in the end, in crossed or alternate rhyme, and two terzine with any kind of rhyme structre.

this of course doesn't touch on the inner things and games of poem structure like the falling rhyme, spaces in between groups, enjambement, alliteration, allegorical figures, anafore, onomatopee, and all that fun stuff! Essentially when you see a poem look for the number of syllables in each verse, where the stressed syllable falls, how the rhymes are put, how many verses are in each stanza and strofa...

#et cetera et cetera #poetry #DISCLAIMER HI. I AM NOT AN EXPERT THIS IS JUST STUFF I USE TO READ POETRY FOR FUN.#[.asks]#anonymous #it's so sad for me that people only talk about the feelings side of poetry as an art form because! What about the structure! The words!#methinks this is why I don't like a lot of modern poetry #It lacks the acknowledgement of ALL this work that goes behind making good verses!#and ofc free verse is a thing but I will be problematic here and say I don't like free verse or free-rhyme. I'm a hater

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lohstandfound · 18 days

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gems from my poetry notebook

transcriptions [and some commentary] under the cut

concrete imagery bitch

i dont know anymore

could just remove instead of replace --> fuck it, remove these. no replacements

nah, original

draw on my 'wonderful daring feel for the erotic' for this part a little [a comment i received on an early draft of this collection i did for a class]

needs some better energy & shit

IMAGERY

okay maybe there's a lot i can work on

[screenshot from a comment i recieved] 'a great title for this poem. i so enjoyed the unapologetic eroticism and 'blasphemous' toying with religious iconography' [the poem was called 'blasphemy'. it was about fucking a girl in a church]

what is this??? you dumb bitch

do like, not sure will leave in for now

nah, no enjambment there --> maybe see how it looks --> yes enjambment

irony is the fact [redacted] only did photography for the art portfolio. it wasn't 'her thing'

valid, my beloved ['valid' was the first poem i performed, it is a very important poem to me]

def. not necessary

do not refer to your friends as twinks in work you're gonna publish please

what if it was a lot more like a cliche breakup poem? [this was a poem titled 'breaking up with god while coming out to him]

i don't wanna write this one anymore

[pencil drawing of a girl with an eyepatch covering her left eye and a sword strapped to her back, on a blue background with a gold boarder]

yo, what if i wrote a poem where it's literally ritualistic cannibalism? [this was a poem about my first communion called 'committing ritualistic cannibalism at the ripe age of eight'. i did end up writing a version called 'actually committing ritualistic cannibalism at the ripe age of eight'. google doc with both poems are available upon request]

#lohst.txt #there are so many poems in here that are just *covered* in red ink #where i basically just rewrote the entire thing

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grandhotelabyss · 2 years

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Neoreactionary Curtis Yarvin makes an extended case for the Oxfordian answer to the Shakespeare authorship question. Or what passes for a case anyway. Mostly this great hater of democracy and populism just demagogues for his presumedly puerile audience, labeling Shakespeare—as in the actual Will from Stratford—a “rentboy” and an “illiterate Ghanian immigrant.” His clever idea is to set up the Stratford thesis as an anticipation of today’s diversity-and-equity critique of the canon.

Then he assails a straw man, the supposed Stratfordian belief that Shakespeare was a “democrat,” which nobody believes. Shakespeare fully expresses his view of “people power” in Julius Caesar’s popular sparagmos of Cinna the Poet. And if Julius Caesar held the early American stage and then became the staple American high school text, it was because the drama celebrates not democracy, which Shakespeare didn’t distinguish from resentful and fanatic mob violence, but republicanism in the tragic figure of Brutus.

As for Shakespeare’s overall politics, well, it’s always hard to say with a dramatist, who stages conflicts rather than enumerating theses, and this chameleon poet makes it harder than most. Yarvin quotes every reactionary’s favorite passage, Ulysses’s hymn to degree from Troilus and Cressida, but this is the utterance of a single dramatic character. Rosenkrantz—a sycophantic idiot—argues the same case in Hamlet while kissing Claudius’s ring. By contrast, that play’s hero pronounces what I suspect to be closer to the poet’s own political credo: “The king is a thing of nothing.”

In my reading, Shakespeare is a political nihilist, placing his faith in no institution and no ambitious men. He’s lyrical, where he is lyrical, only about love and private life and nature: precisely the quasi-anarchist (not democratic) anti-politics I find throughout modernity in writers who hail from the lower middle class—Yarvin, like a Marxoid polemicist, abuses the bard with this label too—from Keats to Dickens to Joyce (see my essay on Les Murray for a longer explanation).

But the strongest argument against Oxford’s claim is literary. Does de Vere’s da-dum da-dum doggerel really “rock” like Shakespeare? I count only one potential metrical inversion: in the first foot of the first line, “is” may be stressed for interrogatory emphasis, mainly because the line is short a syllable. But even if you read all the interrogatives as stressed, which you don’t have to, that’s hardly a poetically surprising reversal. Otherwise, the thing tick-tocks robotically like a metronome. Similarly, “the way he plays with the caesura”—what way? The caesura is precisely where we’d expect it to be in each line, not least because Oxford punctuates six of the 10 lines right in the middle, between two balanced sets of iambic feet. I can only conclude that Yarvin relies on an audience ignorant of his subject.

Ulysses’s speech, by contrast, is in Shakespeare’s general style, or at least his mature style, gnarled and enjambed, bristling less with neat Metaphysical paradoxes than with a careering rush of concrete and mingled tropes. Here is play with the caesura, sound mimicking sense: “And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets...” Likewise, I recall that Frank Kermode thought hendiadys the Shakespearean rhetorical signature, sign of his copiousness and bounty: “Divert and crack, rend and deracinate / The unity and married calm of states.”

A more sophisticated reactionary would say that this apparently disordered and undisciplined style is just what we’d expect from a half-educated rube off the farm who could only read the classics in translation. But what do I know? I myself am just a scion of the anarchic lower middle class, while Yarvin, as he likes to remind us, is a descendant of that very oligarchic bureaucracy from which he promises, eventually, to deliver us.

#william shakespeare #curtis yarvin #edward de vere #literary criticism #neoreaction #poetry #english literature

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swordfaery · 1 year

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Hiii i was tagged by @protectoroffaeries

Rules: shuffle your ‘on repeat’ playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then list 10 songs you really like, each by a different artist. then tag 10 people to do the same thing.

i wanted to talk about everything so im putting it all under a readmore

on repeat:

good girls don't get used by beach bunny (ok so i listen to a lot of beach bunny. like a lot. i dont know why but it has that bpd swag and literally no else feels this theyre like its just cookie cutter straight girl music and Maybe It Is but i like. big fan of sports also would not surprised if that also crops up)

crooked teeth by death cab for cutie (this is my current favourite song. literally i hear it n im like hehe my song, n idk why i dont really like any of their other stuff)

steady, as she goes by the raconteurs (this is just bcos i like indie rock)

what went down by foals (ok. ok. this FUCKING album i have so many emotions about im like wow this album is literally about me for real and it is not in the slightest but anyway if you also like it talk to me about it im always like i am going to ANALYSE THE SHIT out of this album n ill get to like. birch trees n realise i dont know shit about music i just like the way the repeating motif combines with the sense of regret and going back to ur roots n shit)

up to no good by the hoosiers (literally i just love the undulating instrumentals in this ESPECIALLY the intro)

like sexy dynamite by orion expirience (im such a slut for orion expirience i love all their jazzy stuff n again. feels bpd coded n idk why potenially just the art of writing a song about being obsessed with someone and all the emotions in music are kinda close to how my intense bpd times feel. sorry ive been trying to tone down my bpd talk bcos i think its not helpful or fun for anyone but w music its like. oh this is bcos im boarderline this is bcos im boarderline. this post is gonna be so long im so sorry i will tag it)

chevvy thunder by spector (im just a big fan of this it goes so hard n the. suicide fakeouts w the enjambment really fuckin. i just love it)

goodbye mr a by the hoosiers (again. hoosiers got a great sound)

curses by the crane wives (musically very intersting i love the up n down of it idk how to explain it but it feels like sort of. a bobbing kinda dance)

little dark age by mgmt (i tried to get into dubstep bcos of donnie from rise tmnt. i do not know what dubstep is. it isnt this)

like all by different artists. this doesnt have to be different from artists in the og list right? i hope not

dance music by the mountain goats (i discovered this song like yesterday and oooh boy)

supermassive black hole by muse

lonely hunter by foals (again. what went down album. iconic. this one has the line love is not a gun in your hands though and aughhh)

i dare you by the regrettes (literally just a delightful love song that isnt about being gay but i think it is)

the main character by will wood (bpd)

cold weather by glass beach (bpd)

oh girl your the devil by mika (the no place in heaven album is fucking. chefs kiss. im obsessed with its like being gay, religious trauma, pop but with a funky style. incredible)

bad idea by girl in red (im just gay and make bad sexual decisions)

i dont care by fall out boy (bpd)

moth man by dirty bynam (this one is just fun)

okayyy im tagging @phantomxblood @teddybear-tebbydear @lemondoddle @alfredolover119 @lasilhouetteinbianco @jamesspidercat @kirkwords @thatsrightzoeyeyye @morgan-is-here @bookshelpwithmysocialanxiety

#im so sorry that this is ten million words long i really like talking about music

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elytrafemme · 1 year

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hi :]! I am awake at ungodly times but! I’ve been thinking about uhh sibilance (sibilant sounds?) recently and I forgot the words for the other ones bc I know that’s only the repitition of s sounds at the start of a word etc etc. But sibilant sounds and all that -> it makes me think of poetry even though I think it’s more often in prose? or at least I think I saw it more in prose back when I was doing classes on that kinda thing. idk. I keep accidentally doing it though (not just with s sounds) and wondering what that makes the sentence sound like since it’s usually used to give off a particular vibe and I’m not meaning to give it any particular vibe o(-(

was wondering if u had any opinions on the whole thing -> I do like it bc it makes the sentence flow nicely like a little waterfall or something. although some of them aren’t supposed to right? I feel like some are supposed to sound a little harsh. just pulling from my memory though so idrk .Some make a little ssss sound like a snake 🐍 that’s fun

anyway hope u are doing well ! wishing u the best as always :]

HI BRACKETT sorry im just now getting to this HAHA but ty for reminding me to respond earlier :>

I've never heard about this but its super super cool!!!! alliteration is something i only really explore in small doses as the farther i push it i feel like the more muddled your intent actually gets, which i think is sort of similar to this! (since it's like... alliteration with s but more specifically that sound of s, like a hiss) i've never seen it as a vibe giver persay but more as something that drives you forward -- if you think about the rhythm of a piece, it's going to fall in a very specific way when you get to words with alliteration (usually quicker in my experience) which kind of stops you in your tracks while reading and then reorients you as you continue. it's the kind of thing you want to use either as you build up to a very near peak (like the next line or two you say) OR at the height of your peak, though i would encourage the first one more or at least write that way. but with everything its like do whatever the fuck you want etc etc this is just ! my takes and stuff

rhythm is so fucking hard, like the recent stuff i've worked on has been a nightmare in a rhythmic sense because it mostly is meant to be poetry writing in a prose adjacent style. as a whole ive been thinking more about the small choices people make in poetry, though; was reading a poem that had a very specific stanza break while also having enjambment at that part and i was reading it like ... why is that where you put the stanza break? etc it's really interesting and can be frustrating but u gotta just trust that people write what they wanna write and everything!

but yeah! in terms of vibes i also think that alliteration and similar stuff like sibilance give off that sharper vibe -- if we're looking at alliteration with b or p or k or t is absolutely feels like the kind of thing you announce very crisply which is mostly refreshing, versus s and f and so kind of slow it down OR speed it up in a way that feels like it has a drawl to it. maybe just bc of where i live and the kind of peotry im TRYING to get into more but it gives me US southern energies a bit.

anyway!!! srry for the delay i hope this ramble kinda answered what u were trying to ask me HAHA,thank u for telling mea bout this bc ive literally never heard of this before but it is so so cool!!!!! <3333 always good hearing from u my friend

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vanirgo · 1 year

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i'll send this here for topical reasons: top five lines from doors songs? ignore how predictable i'm being

really sorry for being an annoying eng lit student about this one. it’s in my nature

i know this is an entire verse and it’s highly predictable of me BUT morrison himself said “it could be almost anything you want it to be” so i’m using that to my advantage. it reads like a poem on a page, and he says it that way too (granted that could just be due to circumstance rather than intention lol), enjambment scattered, and then he and then he and then he….. ironically, it’s endless. the story chases itself, runs in circles, then builds to a horrific climax. and of course it does—how many times will we read about a son killing his father? how many times will he fail? how many times will he do something so much worse? and, like oedipus, is he fated to do it? i don’t KNOW i have lots of thoughts none of which are coherent lol

okay i know i reblogged these lyrics yesterday but i’ve been thinking about them since. like how brutal is that imagery? violence/fragility… predator/prey… but then it becomes human with “stuck her with knives”… oh my god. i’ll be here forever

sorry it’s a verse again but i feel like the morning/noon/night lines lose power on their own. but he was SICK for the last line. i love how it’s so calm but lined with panic. temporality…. time running away and being frozen at once…. reminds me of siken

WHAT the fuck. “nestled in your hollow shoulder” ??? do i actually have to say anything ??????

would you believe my shock when i found out this was written by krieger. anyway i know it’s pretty simple but there’s just something so tragic about it. idk. when i first heard it it gagged me a bit

put “top 5” anything in my inbox

#sorry i suffer greatly from can’t shut the fuck up disorder #really did try !!!!!#thank you <3 #ask games #harry

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caltropspress · 1 year

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RAPS + CRAFTS #8: Rhys Langston

1. Introduce yourself. Past projects? Current projects?

My name is Rhys Langston, also known as the Polite Force of Nature, Pale Black Negative, Freelance Eccentric from Los Angeles by way of Langstónia and the Estate of the Lord Chocolate Davis. Though fluent in other disciplines, my most notable musical releases have been efforts such as Aggressively Ethnically Ambiguous, The T.C. Wash Suite, Language Arts Unit: a Rap Textbook, and Stalin Bollywood.

I recently released an album called Grapefruit Radio, which is a series of 11 thiamine-rich diagnostic exercises in rhyme. To aid listeners across the rap frequencies I employed in those songs and exercises, I also wrote and published an 85 page book called the Grapefruit Radio Operator’s Manual to accompany the project.

2. Where do you write? Do you have a routine time you write? Do you discipline yourself, or just let the words come when they will? Do you typically write on a daily basis?

The least likely place I’ll write is the desk I’ve configured to be my “writing space,” because with writing (and much of my creative pursuits) I graze. Meaning, about the house, while I mozy about or do things, I make sure that the notebooks and pages all around my living quarters are ready for me to put something down. Out in the world, I always carry at least one notebook with me, in the hopes I’ll find (or take) a moment to jot down any minor or major revelations.

I’ve had moments of discipline and attempts to impose time-based structures/strictures on my writing process, but I’ve come to accept that, especially with the necessities of having an unrelated day job, I write when and where I can.

3. What’s your medium—pen and paper, laptop, on your phone? Or do you compose a verse in your head and keep it there until it’s time to record?

I prioritize writing longhand, for a few reasons. The most important is an attachment to the physical aspect of writing (well mid-draft back pain can suck it). Whether or not it’s true, it certainly makes the process feel more real and like I’m channeling something from nothing. Also, I find in notebooks and with paper and pen, I’m less liable to be scrambled by technology, being without interfaces of hyper-connectivity, noise, and color. I’ve written whole pieces on my phone or computer, but it’s not my inclination— and the few times I’ve freestyled something (that has ended up being released) it’s been a rare moment of magic.

4. Do you write in bars, or is it more disorganized than that?

I tame my words and flows every single time. There are a number of songs in my catalog which bear maybe more rectangular, geometric, or formal bar structure, but those were also carved out of larger masses of un-enjambed lines that went past the bar and beat. The less structured-sounding songs and bars actually involve a level of just making the syllables I have work— in the sense that the rhythm and feel will at first be unruly, but I know through practice and massaging of the words around the instrumental, I will eventually freak it.

On the actual pages I write, it is a fucking visual storm. Whole blocks will be scratched out, things will be circled with arrows darting from them, words or phrases will be inserted, etc.

5. How long into writing a verse or a song do you know it’s not working out the way you had in mind? Do you trash the material forever, or do you keep the discarded material to be reworked later?

My instincts as a documentarian and word collector often serve me well. Even if something is trashed, it can always be resuscitated, because fragments might find themselves fitting into a future piece, that is, pieces in notebooks from months or even years prior. That’s happened countless times, where I find myself stuck or uninspired in the midst of something, and a word, phrase or even a whole couplet I have not read in ages will come to mind. I’ll find the notebook or its source and things will just snap together perfectly.

However, sometimes I’ll have a whole ass song written (or even recorded and mixed) with a lot of doubt surrounding it. In my mind, I’ll be thinking that it should stay on my hard drive forever, until I might run it for a friend who drops by my studio. There have been several moments where I do this and the friend’s exclamation or particular comment on the song/verse gets me to reevaluate my criticalness. And in a lot of instances it’ll end up being a song that people really gravitate toward.

That’s to say, distance and reevaluation are important as someone who values a high level of scrutiny in the drafting process.

6. Have you engaged with any other type of writing, whether presently or in the past? Fiction? Poetry? Playwriting? If so, how has that mode influenced your songwriting?

Writing a poem to my liking is actually the most satisfying artistic act for me.

As a poet I write lots of contemporary free verse, I would say in the lineage of the Beat Poets, the Black Arts Movement, and some work by the Language Poets.

Being a poet first and foremost, I can tussle with the rap form, because it often challenges the economy we value as poets. Meaning, in rap sometimes you gotta just rattle shit off and expound and stretch the words out, whether that’s by virtue of filling out an instrumental or feeling carried away in a flow, musically or egotistically.

As well, I should say, I wrote a novel in high school (and it reads like it), so I’ve always had the inclination to draft words in a more formal, traditional, paginated sense. I’ve written a bit of prose in my short time on this earth, and I continue to this day, whether that’s personal journaling/narrativization, analytic essays, or short stories.

Currently, I’m applying to MFA programs for some cross-disciplinary literary degrees, but also in more traditional poetry programs. All of my literary training and experience has benefitted my lyricism, so I don’t see this being at odds with my music “career.”

Though I love working in music, I do need to work with words in other ways. Practice with formulating words in any capacity leads to a facility in all forms, rap included. As well, due to my writing in other mediums and disciplines, I don’t feel the pressure to say everything in rap— or feel the need to make sense. I can say what I want how I want!

My 2020 project Language Arts Unit: a Rap Textbook was a prime example of that. I got to fit a lot of personal details and feelings into the lyrics of the album, while the 104 page book I wrote to accompany it allowed for more clear social commentary, scholarship, and wit.

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

Man I used to work almost interminably on songs, investing hours into rehearsing words to the instrumental, doing line edits on printed out versions of the lyric sheets. However, now I have a pretty good balance of writing and recording some songs on the spot and lingering with others, not even recording them until six months to a year from their point of inception.

8. Do you write to a beat, or do you adjust and tweak lyrics to fit a beat?

I will mostly write to a beat, and it often isn’t the beat that I ultimately use. I find that this results in the most interesting rhythms. A lot of my verses have been completely “off” and uninspired rhythmically over their initial instrumental, left in notebooks until somehow I found the right beat for them. A recent example is the track “Marinara In The Marianas” from Grapefruit Radio. I wrote those lyrics to an instrumental I produced, but they came out sounding very mangled. Then, when I got an instrumental pack from Randal Bravery, the idea came to try the verse atop one of his compositions. And here we are.

However, oftentimes I’ll write rhymes or very slanted rhymes and rhythms by themselves and I’ll end up massaging them into a particular song. For instance, this tongue in cheek pseudo-opera aria “Ballad Of A Fading Mumble Rapper” (from my drwg collaboration with Deathbomb Arc) I wrote one morning while substitute teaching a 2nd grade class. Obviously I didn’t have access to the instrumental at that moment, and so I just honed in on a general sensibility while kids yelled in my ear. Shit happens.

9. What dictates the direction of your lyrics? Are you led by an idea or topic you have in mind beforehand? Is it stream-of-consciousness? Is what you come up with determined by the constraint of the rhymes?

In all literary disciplines I find myself following the artful aspects of phonology and rhythm, alongside what I believe is an idiosyncratic kind of free association. Some would write off that free association as “a babbling stream of consciousness,” but it’s more linguistically experimental and intricate than that. It involves deconstructions of syntax, decoupling idioms and etymology, and employing functional shifts (like “verbing” a word that should not be a verb), counterbalanced with mashing shit together from the detritus of life. I’m a fucking mess and I feel and see a lot, but I have my tools to help me express myself.

In rap, the musical aspect of the form allows me to be even less linear than I already am, for better or worse. I never feel too constrained by rhyme. I used to follow concepts or find ways to be overtly “meta” about established ideas and tropes. However, through years of writing I’ve eased the pressure or premeditation, and have become confident that the threads I create will be tied up eventually— or if they are left hanging, it is for a reason.

10. Do you like to experiment with different forms and rhyme schemes, or do you keep your bars free and flexible?

To be frank, I sometimes am too free. I regularly ditch rhymes, get polyrhythmic, and even put on voices. That has just come with treating my words and voice like an instrument.

11. What’s a verse you’re particularly proud of, one where you met the vision for what you desire to do with your lyrics?

I think my closing verse on the “Afro-Eccentric Character Creation Screen” song with The Koreatown Oddity exceeded my expectations and desire to match the whimsy of Dom. Oftentimes I can get oblique and sullen, even with the wit in my writing. I was happy that summed up more playful energy and goofy wordplay in that verse than I imagined at first.

12. Can you pick a favorite bar of yours and describe the genesis of it?

“Rhys Langston type beat dissociating before a mirror meet and greet the Negus of Narcissus skin fade from a 3B intaking reflections fathoming a deeper chest heave”

One particular set of bars was very hard to choose. So here are 4 bars, from one of my favorite verse beginnings (“Rhys Langston Type Beat”).

I remember being very unsettled one day (won’t go into it), going through a particular moment of depersonalization, and these bars came to me. Ironically they enabled me to tap into the feeling, laugh at it, and then feel a little more connected to myself.

13. Do you feel strongly one way or another about punch-ins? Will you whittle a bar down in order to account for breath control, or are you comfortable punching-in so you don’t have to sacrifice any words?

This relates a lot to #7, as I used to only record everything in one take after endlessly going over it— and I’m talking like 5 minute songs with choruses. That early focus on the musicianship of rap led to a masterful degree of breath control and dexterity with my vocal tone, alongside a high degree of manipulation in dynamics.

This was the result of being enamored from the jump by MCs like Freestyle Fellowship, The Pharcyde, Talib Kweli (pre-harasser stage), Busdriver, DOOM, and several others in that lyrically dextrous camp. Because of my efforts to try and live up to this lineage, I got my chops (and lungs) up and never felt the need to edit words out for breath control.

On another note, I record, engineer, and mix all my music, so I have complete control over my vocal production. That is to say, these days not only can I mouth off for 200 bars, but behind the boards I can punch-in if needed and make it sound seamless (even in the midst of the most polyrhythmic, jazzy of flows).

Now, if I started with a punching in approach early on, I don’t think I could say the reverse. For me being able to rock fluidly from start to finish and also being able to punch-in are both important.

Without much finger wagging, my personal opinion is this: to claim the title of a rapper, you should be able to rap your verses with as little help as possible.

14. What non-hiphop material do you turn to for inspiration? What non-music has influenced your work recently?

Without sounding like an "I'm not a rapper" type, the non-hiphop inspirations are often more frequent than the explicitly hip-hop inspirations. But historically I feel like that's often been the case (easy examples being Wu with Kung Fu ephemera and P.E.'s inflections of rock music and pro-Black revolutionary politics).

Now personally, the non-hiphop music I gravitate toward most is alternative music. I grew up hearing a lot of alternative 80s and 90s rock and trip hop. It might be a more subtle influence in terms of my lyrics, but as a producer and songwriter, a lot of Talking Heads, TV On The Radio, Smashing Pumpkins, Massive Attack, etc. has made its way into how I arrange songs, build structure, and utilize texture. In terms of non-musical inspiration, literature and video games impress upon me the most ideas, tangents, and revelations. For example I had a recent series of bars I wrote that were mutually inspired by Haryette Mullen’s Sleeping With The Dictionary and playing the whole Bioshock trilogy front to back on Nintendo Switch.

15. Writers are often saddled with self-doubt. Do you struggle to like your own shit, or does it all sound dope to you?

(See #5)

16. Who’s a rapper you listen to with such a distinguishable style that you need to resist the urge to imitate them?

I used to have this problem (where my early work had a lot of demonstrable influence from early Talib Kweli [again, sorry], Busdriver, milo, Saul Williams, and others of that ilk), but this situation no longer really comes up. This is especially true since my work has become confidently multi-genre and rap just happens to be my instrument of choice. If anything, I try to not imitate or replicate a past version of myself.

17. Do you have an agenda as an artist? Are there overarching concerns you want to communicate to the listener?

Besides the goal of living off my art, my more lofty ambition is to redefine what we think of as “accessible.” I hold near and dear a lyric and quote from Saul Williams, “Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand.” As I’ve matured and learned about myself and the history of the rap artform I practice, I’ve embraced this uphill battle, especially in an ever-anti-intellectual age.

Yet I’ve realized that I exist in this unique space where my music remains inviting to a more casual listen while being conceptually robust. A lazy reading of my music has commented on my extensive vocabulary for the sake of commenting on it, which belies the ways in which I actually utilize it: in compelling hooks, in rhythmically pleasing flows, in delicate melodic passages, and in genuine humor.

But you know, an agenda needs artillery to advance it. For now, I’m the best kept secret’s best kept secret, and I’m just focusing on getting even better.

RAPS + CRAFTS is a series of questions posed to rappers about their craft and process. It is designed to give respect and credit to their engagement with the art of songwriting. The format is inspired, in part, by Rob McLennan’s 12 or 20 interview series.

Photo credit: Emily Berkey

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megacrashcourse · 10 months

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Press Roundup for Periodic Boyfriends

Analog Science Fiction & Fact: "The land of the dead, like the realm of the microscopic, may be invisible to the naked eye, but it’s still there." (interview)

Chelsea Community News: "The poems run the gamut from sneakily humorous to outright hilarity to loss and longing, and sometimes encompass all of the above in a single entry."

CultureSonar: "...a masterpiece of love, lust, loss, and acceptance."

Full House Literary: "This collection of poetry should be on your must read list."

GCN: "...strangely beautiful in its resolve."

Highland Park Poetry: "Pisarra is skilled at emulating the classic moves of the Shakespearean sonnet, deploying enjambment to dazzle his audience..."

John V’s Eclectic Avenue: "...eloquent and masterfully constructed sonnets."

Loch Raven Review: "Much like punk culture, the most provocative, daring, and honest art often comes from the LGBT+ community. Periodic Boyfriends is no exception to this rule."

The London Grip: "Rabelaisian, witty, wistful and intelligent, Drew Pisarra’s poems are a delight to read."

Misfit Magazine: "Pisarra has written a one-of a kind collection of gay 'love poems' that even a straight person can love."

Modern Literature: "...there is no time better than now for reading this voluptuous collection of sensual poetry."

Modern Literature (part 2): "Why do you always write about sex?" (interview)

Ocean State Review: "If you want to celebrate pride by reading something by a queer author that will make you laugh, gasp, and give you what the kids call 'the feels', and make you go, 'Huh? Huh!', then I highly recommend it."

Other Terrain: "The humanness of this collection is striking, that cannot be understated."

Out in Print: "These poems exist beyond their origins, all 118 of them." Ovunque Siamo: "Pisarra shows not only a keen understanding of chemistry theory and poetic craft, but of psychology and human relationships. These poems are, by turns, incisive, beautiful, salacious, wistful, and flat-out entertaining." (not online)

Penumbra Journal of Literature and Art: "The work is sexual and heady, but brings much more than that to the table the deeper one reads."

Sacred Chickens: "It’s a rare writer who can combine laughter and tragedy, light and darkness, not only in the same poem, but in the same sentence. Drew Pisarra is that writer."

Vagabond City: "Pisarra’s poetry playfully explores a wide swath of experiences and feelings, making the collection’s specific vision all the more impressive and admirable."

The Washington Blade: "...like hanging out on a summer’s night with the acclaimed queer poet Frank O’Hara and Dorothy Parker."

Your Impossible Voice: "Everything changed for me once I’d experienced Jean Genet’s Our Lady of the Flowers." (interview)

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wrongpublishing · 1 year

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Review: Lindsay Hargrave's "paragloria (Judgment)"

by Robert Hamilton.

It’s summer, and the news is once again full of talk of historic wildfires—on the west coast of North America, in southern Europe, in North Africa—and it hardly feels like we got a break from last year’s apocalyptic conflagrations. Given that this is all happening on top of a pestilence that we can’t seem to elude, there’s no doubt that news broadcasts, and even our daily lives, feel historic, perhaps even biblical. It’s difficult to think of a better summary of this feeling than the opening lines of Lindsay Hargrave’s fine poem “paragloria (Judgment)”: “Every day is judgment day so I’m / not sure what you’re waiting for.”

Of course, the 2020s are not the first time we’ve collectively worried that the world was about to end soon, and Hargrave knows it. “Your hills,” she writes, “have been burning for / centuries.” Medieval apocalypticism was largely religious in nature, and Hargrave’s poem is steeped in religious iconography: “judgment day” itself, “Hades,” “angel brass.” But this is not the whole story: other images arise as if from everywhere and nowhere; I am certain no one has written lines quite like these before, and yet, in their beauty, specificity, and terror, they make perfect sense:

[...] Rise! open your eyes and feast your bare guts on a white sun molting to black dwarf beginning at wildfire sunsets.

If you think you’re in for an ultra-saturated, Baroque poem after reading these furious lines, well, you are—but that’s far from all Hargrave has to offer. She is just as adept at managing bathos in a way that grounds the poem in our own shared spaces of banality, even gives it air to laugh a little. Watch as a high-flown vision of the after-life (not religious, but simply “life after this”) morphs into something far more quotidian, easier to relate to:

Rise rise rise and draw up a tub for next life’s bloodletting. You could live in a moon colony. Find out which friends were imposters all along and invent new ones. Finish scrapbooking.

Reducing the old religious judgment day, in which all things are revealed, to petty concerns about friends and unfinished tasks does not in any way dampen the poem’s effectiveness. Rather, it enhances it, and paves the way for a brilliant conclusion in which the quotidian and the apocalyptic perfectly merge: the flames and suffering are quite real, not spiritual; the voice seems to be that of a first responder at a fire, but of course we all know something more is going on: intentional, maybe inevitable destruction; a world steadily growing unrecognizable; all of the lurid trappings of a Dantean inferno, but right here, right now. This is a poem that storms to its conclusion in breathless, heavily-enjambed free verse, that endlessly varies its flexible tone without losing momentum, that by its final lines makes the mythic terrifyingly real.

Still, this is not a poem of pure despair: “Rise!,” it commands, over and over again. There is something for the audience to do; whether we are to rise and flee, or rise like the dry bones of Ezekiel, is left open. Open, too, is that beguiling title, “Paragloria.” In Spanish, “para gloria” is “for glory.” Para- is a common Greek prefix denoting something that is alongside, accompanying, parallel to. And Perixera paragloria is a rarely attested binomial denotation of a rather nondescript moth—something that maybe, just maybe, has the power to flap its drab wings, rise, and get the hell out of all this." Read Hargrave's poem in Wrongdoing Magazine's first issue:

#review #poetry review #gothic poetry #poetry #gothic literature

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