Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/16

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Subject: Re: [Leica] 4'33" and silent poetry
From: Dan Cardish <dcardish@microtec.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 14:02:49 -0500

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
>
>