Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]It is kind of sad when a great poet's career is deemed to have begun going downhill the instant he decided to actually start putting ink onto paper. Dan C. At 10:20 AM 16-03-00 -0800, Guy Bennett wrote: >>How about a poetry recital, where no words are spoken? Hey, I think I'm >>on to something! >> >>Sigh........ >> >>Dan C. > > >dan c., > >as far as i know, the first 'silent' poem was written by vasilii gnedov, a >russian futurist poet. the poem, entitled 'poem of the end,' was published >in his 1913 collection 'death to art.' aside from the title, the page was >blank. like cage's 4'33", it is considered by some to be gnedov's best >work. it was also his most popular piece, and he was frequently asked to >recite it at poetry readings. > >in his film 'orphée,' jean cocteau, who may have heard of gnedov from ilya >zdanevich (a russian futurist émigré living in paris who provided a direct >link between 'western' avant-garde poets and artists and their russian >colleagues), portrays a young poet who produces a book of poetry containing >only blank pages. > >so far as i know, these are the only instances of 'silent' poetry in the >western tradition. > >yo! > >guy > >