THE MOVIES. HOME LIFE. CHILDHOOD. PAST CENTURIES.I feel like I could read this all day. Or at least for the length of the poem. In the context of a poetry book, words in caps don't feel like shouting, they just feel uniquely flat, uninflected, like a ticker tape of poetry, like a telegram from space. And in a way this makes them more poignant. It's like watching a robot cry.
FACES AND TALK. PAINTINGS AND SENSATIONS.
STUBBORN SHYNESS. BRIGHTBIRDS FLOWERING
MORNING. ORSON WELLES. CITIZEN KANE.
MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN.
DAVID COPPERFIELD. TREASURE ISLAND. THE KID.
ORPHANS. POPPY. MISTAKEN IDENTITY. LIGHT IN THE
HALLWAY. ROSES OF DAWNING OVER THE SHOULDER.
POE. POE. NOT EVEN DARKNESS. NEVER GIVE A SUCKER
AN EVEN BREAK. AND THERE IS NO TIME, NO TIME. NO.
WITH THE CAT HOWLING TO BE LET IN. NO NEED TO
WRITE. ONLY THIS WHAT I'M TELLING YOU. TELLING
MYSELF. THERE IS A BEGINNING TO ALL THIS. AN
OCCASION. SCOTTISH BAGPIPES ARE ITS EQUIVALENT,
BUT IT BEAMS DOWN IN SPECKLED LIGHTS. SPOKEN
LIGHTS. I WOULDN'T SAY. GOAT LIGHT. SAWDUST.
Karl Parker's Personationskin , which I reviewed a while back, also has a long section written mostly in caps. Here's what I wrote about it then (you can read some excerpts in the full review):
Flipping through Personationskin from back to front (as one may do with poetry collections, which needn’t necessarily be read in consecutive order), one sees first a section nearly all in caps. Since I decided to read from front to back as presumably intended, I was dreading this last section (titled “Horn o’ Plenty, or Notes Toward a Supreme Cornucopia”; in a previously published version, the alternative title was “A Poem in Sticky Notes”), fearing the worst. But it’s a delightful kind of tantrum, a Tourette’s-like explosion of pseudo-jokes and semi-notes after the controlled play that comes before it. And the Caps Lock effect actually renders the outbursts and name-games more hilarious.One more example, from "Some Occurrences on the 7:18 to Penn" by Ana Bozicevic:
And the stars go:See? That's how stars talk.
THINGS ARE NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR US
MOLESTED BY HAIRCUTS ON LAW AND ORDER AND WHATS GONE WRONG
WITH THE SKYLINE, WHY,
INSTEAD OF READING A BOOK YOU READ STAR OR THE TOOTHPASTE, LOST IN AN ANCIENT ALMANAC
ANNE CARSON IN HEAVEN NERVOUS DESPERATE STUDENT
HER WINDBREAKER FILTHY CLUTCHING THE TRAIN SEAT SO TIGHT WE
SAW HER WRISTPULSE IT WAS
LIKE SEEING HER HEART IN COUNTDOWN
ITS NIGHT. THE ELEPHANT OF POETRY
WE MIGHT BE ON AN INVISIBLE PLANK
ABOVE THE DARKNESS AND IT MIGHT BE
A BLESSING, ANNE WHATS THE WORD FOR
BRANCHES DUMPING THEIR SHINE ON YOUR HEAD, WE THINK OF IT EVERY
TIME WE SEE A BOX. HER NECKS SHADOW
TRANSLUCENT, SHE TURNS TO…
NOTHING TO LOVE: CHEEK CLOUDS, EYEBROW NIGHT
WHAT PASSES FOR EUROPE
BOMBS. JUST LIKE US, PASSING FOR LIGHT
this is something i'll never be able to get into. same with centered poems. i always skip them.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually something you see a lot?
ReplyDeleteit's something i see occasionally
ReplyDeleteTo me it makes no difference whether a poem is in all caps, all lowercase, or written in different ink colors. I wouldn't like e.e. cummings any more or less if he followed the Chicago Manual of Style. It's the choice and arrangement of words that counts. How would any poet convey the use of all caps at a reading, anyhow?
ReplyDeleteI don't think performance has primacy over the poem on the page. In fact, the reverse. Far more people read a poem on paper than ever get to hear the author read it, for the most part.
ReplyDeleteStylistic choices don't necessarily make a poem better or worse, but they certainly have an effect on how I read/receive it.
Have you read Ariana Reines's blog? Not exactly poetry (the heck it ain't), but a pretty great use of caps lock nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteMorgan, Hi -- I hadn't read it, but I just found it and will start. I like the one about WOW NEW YORK IS SEXY
ReplyDeleteMichael McClure's characteristic poems have lines and phrases in all caps scattered throughout, though I've never seen a whole poem of his in all caps. His poems also (at least all the ones I've seen that sporadically use all caps) are centered on the page.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the all-caps phrases are coherent English, sometimes they are (or include) not-quite-words, or almost-words, or what appear to be sound-effect words (things like GRAHHRR and RRROWRRR, not quoting exactly here but that flavor of thing).
I've heard a recording of him reading a couple of his poems. He said that the poems included "animal noises," and when he read the poems, he read the all-caps words and phrases louder, and (I guess I'd put it) more wildly.
McClure years back did an album of recordings of him reading poems accompanied by Ray Manzarek (the keyboard player from the Doors). I haven't listened to it, I just know of it. I suspect it's at least worth a listen.
I write my poems almost entirely in lowercase, with irregular left and right margins. I didn't start doing that for any particular reason, I just tried lots of different things early on, and that seemed to work.
a la Matt's aversion to centered lines: Melvin Tolson's Harlem Gallery is entirely in elaborately centered stanzas and MAGNIFICENT (tho I agree it often ain't).
ReplyDelete