As Is by Jim Murdoch

Scottish poet and novelist Jim Murdoch recently had three poems added to The Poetry Storehouse, and remixers (including Murdoch himself) have taken to them with enthusiasm. I don’t generally care for poems about poetry, but the self-reflexive nature of “As Is” poses an intriguing challenge to filmmakers. Marie Craven was the first to make a video for this poem, and I rather liked her simple text animation. Then Lori H. Ersolmaz made this video, which blows me away. The moments of darkness between lines (read by Nic S.) is reminiscent of a trailer for a blockbuster movie, and the taut, rhythmic correspondence of (mostly) abstract images to words, combined with the dramatic soundtrack, added to that impression. Poetry is an edge-of-your-seat adventure, this film suggests. Well, I’ve always thought so.

2 Comments

  1. Reply
    Jutta Pryor 3 September, 2014

    Evocative … perfect

  2. Reply

    […] Poems . – A Lori Ersolmaz video remix of a Storehouse poem by Jim Murdoch was featured at Moving Poems. – A Nic S. video remix of a Storehouse poem by Jessie Carty was featured at Moving […]

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