Flash Poem

July 31, 2005 12:08 PM

Why do you stay up so late?
posted by srboisvert (44 comments total)

Nice graphics.
Shitty poem.
posted by jmccorm at 12:16 PM on July 31, 2005

Ditto... I kept clicking because I wanted to see the visuals, but I soon got tired of the actual poem, so I didn't bother finishing.
posted by Robot Johnny at 12:18 PM on July 31, 2005

jmccorm nailed it. Exactly like I was gonna post.
posted by Balisong at 12:25 PM on July 31, 2005

I went through the whole thing because I suspected it was going to be an add for some brand of alcohol. Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper.
posted by Citizen Premier at 12:26 PM on July 31, 2005

excellent.
posted by boo_radley at 12:27 PM on July 31, 2005

reminds me of Erik Loyer's Marrow Monkey

which is infinitely better.
posted by Substrata at 12:33 PM on July 31, 2005

i want my money back.
posted by ackeber at 1:05 PM on July 31, 2005

I can see how the flash-ification of poetry could become an art form. But garbage in, garbage out. Let's see some Poe. Or how about Blake?
posted by QuietDesperation at 1:22 PM on July 31, 2005

yeah, whatever, but that black goddess in the parade makes me want to move to nantes
posted by reality at 1:24 PM on July 31, 2005

Maybe it doesn't work in Safari. I'm going to bed (yawn).
posted by RichLyon at 1:35 PM on July 31, 2005

Metafilter: Your #1 source for grumbling curmudgeons with nothing better to do.
posted by fungible at 1:36 PM on July 31, 2005

I want my time back.
posted by buzzman at 1:37 PM on July 31, 2005

yeah: cool concept. nice graphics. nice effects. not so much digging the pretentious lyrical poetry. now, if someone did this with a good narrative poem, like cemetery nights by steven dobyns, that might be something.
posted by all-seeing eye dog at 1:56 PM on July 31, 2005

Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper.

In the same way that some poetry was meant to be read on the page, other poetry is written to be heard. I generally prefer to listen to the poetry of, say, Sekou Sundiata, than to read it.

I imagine that's what the poet is going for here. I actually didn't mind the actual poem so much, but the gimmickiness of the whole Flash interaction just made it seem clever to me. I think, like Citizen Premier, I would have preferred this poem on plain white paper.
posted by hifiparasol at 2:12 PM on July 31, 2005

Tough crowd around here today. Forgive me for not being so world-weary, but I enjoyed the whole thing.
posted by TBoneMcCool at 2:12 PM on July 31, 2005

Sorry, meant to italicize that first quote.
posted by hifiparasol at 2:12 PM on July 31, 2005

I think people got caught up in the "cool flash/bad poem" idea because the flash made you click to advance, and became more interesting to interact with than trying to sound out the poem in the mind.

Or maybe I like bad poetry.
posted by boo_radley at 2:28 PM on July 31, 2005

I don't get it... A shitty poem with a bunch of bells and whistles attached is still a shitty poem.
posted by mervin_shnegwood at 2:33 PM on July 31, 2005

Me, I didn't care for the writing so much but I thought the visuals and the soundtrack were pretty intriguing, sort of like Pink Floyd lightshow stuff. I wonder if that was an intentional use of the CGA palette.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:33 PM on July 31, 2005

This reminds ME of the Peter Kuper comic adaptation Kafka's Metamorphosis
posted by cyphill at 2:50 PM on July 31, 2005

I really liked it.
posted by ntk at 3:00 PM on July 31, 2005

Forgive me for not being so world-weary

I can see how we might come off that way. For my part, despite what I said, I did kind of enjoy the interactivity of it, but only for the first time. I'd like to read the poem again, but to do so would require going through Flash, which I don't feel like doing.

Is it possible to separate message from medium here? Or poem from medium?
posted by hifiparasol at 3:16 PM on July 31, 2005

As we're being picky:

Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper.

It's either '...set using a plain font...' or '...set in a plain typeface...' or '...set in plain type...'

The font is the description that makes the typeface (metal, code, film etc.) and the typeface is the collection of character forms of a certain design or, to quote James Felici, 'the font is the cookie cutter & the typeface is the cookie.'

Don't feel bad tho'. Nearly every fucker in the known Univers gets it wrong...

[/tedious type nerd]
posted by i_cola at 3:35 PM on July 31, 2005

The sad thing about digital literature is that (almost) no one with any talent is going to go into it. It's still see as too gimmicky. Which is too bad, because there are some interesting possibilities. The visuals in this were pretty great.

I'm with Quietdesperation. Good conversions of classics are the best way to inspire serious poets to take interest in the format.
posted by es_de_bah at 5:48 PM on July 31, 2005

im a poet and i had no idea
posted by Satapher at 6:43 PM on July 31, 2005

I thought the poem had promise with the "young poets re-enacting their senses" line (or whatever it was, exactly). Then I was disappointed, then annoyed. Actually, I began to suspect that this was one of those never-ending things and the verses were pulled at random.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 7:00 PM on July 31, 2005

i guess i'm a sucker for anyone who tries to do something cool. (because sitting on your ass and being a critic isn't exactly my idea of contributing to society. you either make stuff or you complain about the stuff other people make, i guess.)

and i think the point is to take the piece of artwork for what it is: interactive, potentially sappy words or not, laced with some nice sounds... i like it. i saved it. so nyah.
posted by RedEmma at 7:08 PM on July 31, 2005

I've never understood poets, writers and singers who write songs, stories and poems about the process of writing the song, stories or poem you are listening to. If they don't have anything to say, why are they saying it?

Self introspective poetry has always seemed misplaced to me. Stories are about thoughts, poems are about experiences.
posted by 517 at 7:17 PM on July 31, 2005

Personally I don't much respect poems that aren't written in plain font on white paper.

You should check out an illuminated Blake manuscript.

Metafilter: Your #1 source for grumbling curmudgeons with nothing better to do.

Grumbling about grumbling is still grumbling. That said, I usually reserve critical comment for stuff I like -- but this was a little, well, eh. Poems about writing poetry are an old cliche and it's fair game, as 517 does, to point out their essential emptiness (although, if 517 is right about poems not being about thoughts, we'd never have had Emily Dickinson or Robert Creeley).
posted by Toecutter at 7:51 PM on July 31, 2005

517 at 7:17 31

Slow green
and

green to be.
posted by Benway at 8:38 PM on July 31, 2005

Well said, i_cola.
posted by shoepal at 8:39 PM on July 31, 2005

It's not easy being green... I stay up late wondering why I stay up late in the first place.
posted by CG at 10:21 PM on July 31, 2005

three times as long as it should be, and in bad need of an editor. also, too much style, too little vision. but i think flash poetry is a medium with potential.

seven minutes to two a.m., here.
posted by ori at 10:54 PM on July 31, 2005

Liked it.
posted by weston at 11:07 PM on July 31, 2005

dug it.
posted by trinarian at 11:22 PM on July 31, 2005

i didn't even realize it was a full poem till the end...

it is what it is, man... late night thoughts put to really cool effect.

it would seem pretty half-assed if it was just him doing some flash background to Poe. This is the full thing... watching an artist in full control over a creation.
posted by trinarian at 11:25 PM on July 31, 2005

quite liked it :)
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:09 AM on August 1, 2005

EB-That's the line I liked, but then, not so much.
posted by OmieWise at 5:27 AM on August 1, 2005

Thanks for the link, though.
posted by OmieWise at 5:28 AM on August 1, 2005

The poem is by Marvin Bell, by the way. He was Iowa's first poet laureate (selected in 2000).

And I quite liked it.
posted by gramschmidt at 8:01 AM on August 1, 2005

Burma Shave!
posted by sonofsamiam at 8:08 AM on August 1, 2005

One thing I learned a long time ago as both a written and visual artist is that while there is huge potential in combining mediums, there is also the danger of masking the weakness of one with the other element. I think in this case the graphics are an attempt to mask a very weak poem. Just as others have said already.
posted by gm2 at 11:12 AM on August 1, 2005

The state of Iowa's poetry aside, however. . . nice graphixxx!!!
posted by gorgor_balabala at 10:14 AM on August 2, 2005

the artistic point in it is very iteresting.
the poem is just not good though...
unfortunately!
posted by seitensprung at 3:46 AM on August 26, 2005