~ Nationality: United States ~
Swimming Into Winter by Freya Manfred
Another MotionPoems production, intriguing to me because of the minimalist filming (though I liked the poem too, of course). The note on YouTube says:
A poem by Freya Manfred interpreted and filmed by Gregory Winter. Edited by Jeff Stickles and sound design and music by Tom Lecher, Ross Nelson and Echo Boys Music. Read by Freya Manfred.
How cool is it that the filmmaker’s name is Winter?! Freya Manfred is a Midwestern poet and the author of six books of poetry, a novel, and a literary memoir. According to her publisher Red Dragonfly Press, “Her half hour poem for television: ‘The Madwoman and the Mask’ appeared on KTCA-TV, Channel 2, in 1991.”
If you like what Todd Boss and Angella Kassube are doing at MotionPoems, don’t forget to send some holiday cheer their way.
The Crystal Gazer by Sara Teasdale
Film student Casey Regan directs. (For the rest of the credits, see Vimeo.)
Leave It All Up To Me by Major Jackson
Another whiteboard animation for a Major Jackson poem by Bryan Hartzell (see also his version of “Migration“).
The Trees—They Were Once Good Men by Todd Boss
A stunningly beautiful animation by Emma Burghardt, who also animated “Old Astronauts” by Tim Noland. (Remember to support MotionPoems with a donation, if you can.)
Hate Poem by Julie Sheehan
High school student Wiyaka His Horse Is Thunder recites the poem as part of the Poetry Out Loud national recitation contest, in a slickly produced video directed by Tony Brave for KOLC-TV of Oglala Lakota College. As Sheehan notes in an essay about the poem, the poem has become a favorite with students in the competition.
Death By Water (art installation)
The artist, identified only by his Vimeo handle miaoniu, explains that the installation is so rigged that when anyone approaches it, the “Death By Water” section of “The Waste Land” is dunked into a tank of water, and slowly rises when the audience departs. “As time passed by the poem will dissolve and disappear finally.”
Call me simple-minded, but I love the literalism here. I only wish the video included a time-lapse segment so we could watch the wasting of “The Waste Land.”
Assault to Abjury by Raymond McDaniel
Raymond McDaniel reads a poem from his collection Saltwater Empire, which recently came under attack for its use of Katrina survivors’ words as “found poetry.” He defended himself here. It’s interesting that despite the huge volume of commentary both essays attracted, on the Poetry Foundation site and elsewhere, this video from his collection (albeit for a different poem than the lengthy one under attack) had been viewed just six times in the 19 months since it was posted on YouTube. It’s almost as if all the people criticizing McDaniel have never made even a cursory effort to familiarize themselves with his work.
Hum Bom! by Allen Ginsberg
This is Part 1 of the poem — a dramatisation which I think it is safe to say Ginsberg would’ve loved. The filmmaker, Caroline Petters, is a professional photographer.
Dirty Dinky by Theodore Roethke
I do believe Michael John Muller found the perfect text for this fun little experiment: the title poem for Roethke’s collection of poems for children.
