Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Nothing Rhymes with Orange



I’d like to mention, again, that I don’t spend all my time dancing in clubs. I do other things. I do poetry for example. So I was delighted to discover a poetry reading to go to. I think I arrived (wearing a brown jacket with leather patches on the elbows, of course) with a few misconceptions though – for example that they would actually read my poem to the crowd – so my oeuvre about an agile, partly nocturnal, quadruple carnivorous animal with smooth fur and retractile claws that was reclining on a piece of coarse, woven material used as a protective covering for floors went unheard.

At the start I also failed to realize that the poems were being read over voice chat so I was a bit confused about all the applauding going on, but not really: Poets = Substance Abuse (see pic to the left as proof: Those were the people at the reading).

Having figured that out I proceeded to sit through a number of well read but slightly confusing poems. I was also a bit annoyed that they were reading poems from avatars who weren’t even present at the event – and I couldn’t find D.H. Lawrence’s or Margaret Atwood’s profile in search either! But I still hoped I’d hear the presenter saying “And now a poem from someone here. This is from Eaton and it’s called ‘The cat sat on the mat’”. But nope, she went on to read something called Clovis by Klannex Northmead – who was actually there and got two of his or her poems read. One was about being a Clovis arrow tip, if I remember correctly.

For being such a poetically inclined crowd the people there weren’t really that eloquent. “Applause!!!” and “Applauds!” seemed to be what any poem merited. I asked if we actually discussed the poems and was told that we didn’t, just listened. That’s poetic license for “shut the f**k up”, I guess. But they did talk a bit about ampersands for a while – which I personally believe should be read aloud as their ASCII number, but I guess I’m the minority view on that.

With a last poem from the presenter things closed down. I wanted to go away with everybody to a nice pub to discuss the poems – and maybe quickly tell them my own. But my suggestion fell on deaf ears. Snotty, snub poet lovers!


2 comments:

Adele Ward said...

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy Sounds of Poems. We had terrible tech issues the day you were there and one of the hosts couldn't get on so I was busy trying to help sort that out and didn't see your questions. For the same reasons notecards weren't passing easily so we couldn't have our usual event with mostly poems passed by the audience. When this happens we read poems already in inventory and these are often by known poets as we have to ask permission to read poems by avatars. There are different events for discussion and we have events most days. Sounds of Poems is just for readings but usually we stay around to chat after it. The Writers' Circle on Wednesdays is the event where avatars read out their poetry and fiction and we discuss each piece. We also have workshops and other events so it's a question of finding the one that suits you best. There are also free residences for people who come regularly and a beach party on Saturdays, so it's really friendly. Take a look at http://www.writtenword.org.uk to see all the things we do for writers at all levels, and it's all free of charge. Plenty of ways to display your writing too, on the area and on our website. I'm sorry I was tied up by SL tech issues and couldn't make you feel more welcome. That's not how people usually feel. If there are any ways I can help you or your readers with your writing or to join in with the writing community then contact me. - Jilly Kidd on SL

Eaton said...

Dear Adele/Jilly,

Thank you for your comment. I'm sure that you can see from my other posts on this blog that I tend to go for a more tongue in cheek approach to things in SL. And to be honest I did enjoy Sounds of Poems. I'm sorry if it seems I was poking fun at things - I can only hope that most of the pokes were at me!