Thursday 31 March 2011

Creating lyrics poems. LovePoetsxxx - discovery workshop.

Hi all, hope everything going well for you.

Went to first meeting last Tues of local poets group in Northampton - LovePoetsxxx. Theme of the workshop was "discovery".

I drew a spiderdiagram; placing discovery in the centre and then drew in some legs labelled: internal, external, "Love travellers" (i.e. a relationship of discovery) known/unknown, life journeys, places. Basically aspects of what discovery can mean.

As an aside: T.S. Eliot, From Four Quartets, "Little Gidding":-
http://www.tristan.icom43.net/quartets/gidding.html

"We shall not cease from exploration


And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."


Did the person change or the place? Perhaps both.

In my library; Music CD's on exploration:

Vangelis 1492 Conquest of paradise
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1492-Conquest-Paradise-Vangelis/dp/B000025SL5/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1301560802&sr=1-1

Jean Michel Jarre, Waiting for Cousteau (title track)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waiting-Cousteau-Jean-Michel-Jarre/dp/B000025CDD/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1301560868&sr=1-2-fkmr0


...back to the workshop, theme discovery...

I decided to cut up the word discovery itsself to see if I could work the bts into some sort of poem, here's my attempt:-
Dis me not, me real.
No mask or cover.
Roots riddim @ tha disco
stranded in a corner,
red spotlit cove.
Very in tha light, naked
found discovered.

I believe that David Bowie, used a similar technique in cutting up old diaries and re-arranging the words.

I also tried to do the first draft of a longer poem, realising afterwards that Shakespeare had written a line in one of his love sonnets  - Sonnet 19 - re "times antique pen".
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/19.html


Yet I Don't Know Yet (working title!)

All attempts are pointless
In time my skin became the map
all creased, furrows, lines.
Places inked: "here", theresville",
"boredom gulch", "lovers rest".
All attempts pointless, to map before time.
You'll try - we all do-
It's no crime.
Be patient, my tip for you.

I think I'll also try to work in /develop the idea of experience leaving a mark - internal watermark on us. I will just mention the book by Philip Roth,  The Human Stain as well worth reading:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Stain-Philip-Roth/dp/0099282194

I will round up with one of my own poems - "Beachcombing" - keep safe till next time. Louis :-)



Beachcombing



Beachcombing out my life,

Of ends of cheque books, written and spent.

Leaving stubs,

Of events and costs recorded,

The pages rent.



Though the tides recede, these things rest and mingle;

With the tidemarks in myself,

As sifting through life’s shingle I find:



Some photos of a last day out,

Last letter from Mother before his death,

Grandfather’s pit recorded;

Some rosin for the doghouse bass,

To let the bow grip the string, give breath.



When next at St. Bees beachcombing

Beside the sand and seaweed frond;

I “think on” as my Gran would say,

Of strands that link before and now, to beyond.



And my wind and April sun blessed ears listen;

As the sea speaks murmuring,

Through breakers’ foam and glisten.



This Blog contents © Louis J. Casson 2011   All rights reserved.

   


 

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Rhett Aycock- Singer Songwriter / YouTube poem lyric

Hi Everyone,

Looking at YouTube Link, singer songwriter Rhett Aycock's track Anyone But Me: I like how the vocals and guitar come over: it's always a plus when a song comes over stripped down and unplugged with minimal tech used, then it can only go higher improve when the producer/studio develops it (get the basic tune & lyrics right - quality content is essential)

This naturally sparked a piece based on the idea of songs posted on YouTube, why do this, the idea of relasing a song into the "wild" as it were. So here is my poem Lyric. Some general tune was in my head while making the verses and chorus; but in reality the finished version produced by me and the tunewriter would probably vary a little...

YouTube




YouTube clips released,


to tickle ears of listeners, satisfied unknowns.


Guess the internet can’t listen, care for critics groans.


Keep on playing my songs, got the feeling still in my bones.



YouTube, You’re sometimes, the only one there.


You Tube, dumb maybe, still you’ll hear this prayer.


YouTube; I’m posting, for someday out there you’ll care.




Pictures slightly fuzzed up,


but the feelings, from the heart are just right.


From a little darkened room, I sing to the light.


No matter the tech, got the guitar and vocals all right.



YouTube, You’re sometimes, the only one there.


You Tube, dumb maybe, still you’ll hear this prayer.


YouTube; I’m posting, for someday out there you’ll care.




Just exactly who’s listening,


the faces of each of you, I’ll never know.


Gives a morsel of pleasure, then the seed‘ll grow.


Placing nuggets, gifts for unknowns, these I bestow.




YouTube, You’re sometimes, the only one there.


You Tube, dumb maybe, still you’ll hear this prayer.


YouTube; I’m posting, for someday out there you’ll care.



 
NB This Blog: All contents © Louis J. Casson 2011   All rights reserved.

Monday 7 March 2011

Lyric poems - versions / My new Behance site / Reggae Riddeema, for the H project (taster now online)

Hi and welcome to this month's Blog!

Lyric poems - versions.

Who said you can't re-mix your own poems to make them different? (a bit like in music where there are variations on a theme). The following is an example where a more straight literary level piece is then adapted to a more lyric form with use as a finished song in mind.
Original poem (from: “Sharing a Soft Small Star”)


Ebony Sweet

Against the fluted pillar she leans,

Classical and beauty meet and meld.

Her skin so black.

I see her eyes; she smiles,

Twin rows of pearls me greet.

Ebony girl so sweet.



“Riddim” version:-


Ebony Sweet

Ebony sweet, each day mi greet

so fine.

Ebony sweet, mek mi so complete

so fine.

Ebony sweet, in mi dreams your lips

„gainst mine.

‟Gainst the pillar of the restaurant she lean,

Her beauty meet and meld,

wit the world, supreme.

Her skin so smooth an black.

gimme heart attack.

I lost, I see her eyes;

she smiles,

Twin rows of pearls mi greet,

I know my heart‟s complete,

Ebony girl so sweet,

so sweet.

Ebony sweet, each day mi greet

so fine.

Ebony sweet, mek mi so complete

so fine.

Ebony sweet, in mi dreams your lips

„gainst mine. 


My new Behance site.
http://www.behance.net/LJCasson

Easy to set up. I've included tasters of my books published for sale on Amazon Kindle.

Also of interest to potential poets lyrics writers are the links to my podcasts with Morgen Bailey - you can go and dowload theses podcasts for FREE @ Apple iTunes (follow the lnk, or cut n paste into your browser).

Reggae Riddeema, for the H project (taster now online -
see my project on my Behance site)

After the "eye of the storm" passed as it were, the media 's eye has moved on largely to other matters. But the needs of the people of Haiti are still present  - and will be for some time to come.

This is my gift of a collection specially selected from my poems lyrics; with new Reggae Riddim pieces added, for the Haiti H Project. For more details on LifeStraw NOW! and the LifestrawNOW Coalition, go to:

http://www.lifestrawnow.org/

Coalition@LifeStrawNow.org

Help Haiti. Please join them on Facebook and Twitter .


I'll close with another taster from "Reggae Riddeema", A Loving Sleep, till next time take care...


A Loving Sleep


Sometimes when you are away,

I‟ll snuggle for my naps

with your dressing gown.

I say it keeps me just right,

not too warm or hot.

Yet its softness, and the faint scent

of you and your perfume,

keeps you still here.


Other times we journey

through the night, and I hold you

my driftwood pearl.

Against the nocturne current,

safely close to me.


A loving sleep;

and over us

a billion soft small stars,

In love our bodies, our souls shall keep.

Two dreamers drifting to the dawn,

a loving sleep.
 

All contents © Louis J. Casson 2011  All rights reserved