Geof Huth's Blog, page 46

elevenuous

imnsomnia

Sleep as a Form of Dreaming it through to Morning

Geof Huth, "What We Breathe and Say Together" (4 November 2010)Some days, I think I'm a poet, but not tonight. I am a man who simply draws out the urge toward word, or actually I'm simply the man who points to (who paints towards) how I did this yesterday, during an electronic records symposium in Victor, New York, for I am a person of many facets (for I am a human person living humanly). Why, even I have to ask myself, do I see this as writing? Because it tells us, I answer myself, about how writing makes us supremely human.

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vulna

Jörg Piringer Comes to Schenectady to Play Vegetables and Talk

Jörg Piringer, Schenectady, New York (2 November 2010) Only a few days ago, Jörg Piringer, one of whose visual poems was featured in a visual poetry portfolio I edited for Poetry magazine a couple of years ago, and who is the developer of the iPhone app abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz, dropped me a line to tell me that he was coming to Schenectady to give a performance at Proctor's Theatre with the famed Vegetable Orchestra of Vienna, Austria. Never has anyone in the past ever come to Schenectady and then contacted me so we can meet. (It is, to put it delicately, highly unlikely that anyone would ever have a reason to come to Schenectady, so rare that people I know who come here come only to see my family and me.)


Jörg Piringer and Geof Huth, Schenectady, New York (2 November 2010)
I invited Jörg to the house for dinner, Nancy made a great meal, and we spoke for hours about music, poetry, performance, the allure of language, countries we had visited, creating musical instruments out of vegetables, the Vegetable Orchestra's strange 2010 tour of the United States (consisting only of Schenectady and Indianapolis), and the metric system. Jörg was terribly jetlagged, and his body was telling him it was 3:30 in the morning when I drove him back to his hotel, but still we had a great time for six hours.

Jörg Piringer Explains Himself in Schenectady, New York from Geof Huth on Vimeo.

In ninety seconds, Jörg Piringer tells us who he is in the home of Geof Huth in Schenectady, New York, as Geof Huth asks him a couple of questions.
And before Jörg left, he was nice enough to explain himself, his work, and his interests in 90 seconds. Tomorrow, we will experience the Vegetable Orchestra, along with at least 500 others from New York's Capital District. 

Can Flattened by Use into Poetry

richard canard, "Readymade Asemic Poem" for Geof Huth (22 Oct 2010)It happens that I have been focused over the past few days on organizing my papers, those still inhabiting my house, for donation this year. I am an organized person but don't necessarily keep anything organized during use (not in a kitchen, and not in an office), but I clean up everything in the end. And that's what I've been doing, primarily focusing my work on four years of partially filed correspondence.

And one of my frequent though not constant correspondents over the years has been richard canard (a mailartist and reader of this blog whom I once crowned with the name dick duck, possibly to his discontent). Richard sends me interesting mail, usually postcards and sometimes in response to postings here. But today there arrived at my home a quite unusual piece of mail: a small flattened box inside of which I discovered a flattened beverage can, which richard, in the manner of R. Mutt, signed, though he also gave it a descriptive title, a dedication, and a date.

Quite a wonderful piece of found asemic writing, and I particularly like the way the ink of the can has been worn away, apparently from being driven over, thus creating the illusion of letters where the color has disappeared.

I have nothing else to say. I just hold the piece in my hand and enjoy it. And I've filed it away properly, as I plan to do with mail as I receive it, at least through the end of the year.

ecr. l'inf.

Books Read in September and October 2010

The last two months have been slow for reading, only about a book every other day, and mostly books that were particularly slender. Still, I might actually be close enough to my goal of reading a book a day for this entire year.
@font-face { font-family: "Century Schoolbook";}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0in; }ul { margin-bottom: 0in; } September 1, 2010
1.                Carson, Anne. The Beauty of the Husband: A Fictional Essay in 29 Tangos. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2001.
2.                Moseman, Lori Anderson and Thomas Moseman. NO oar   NO oracle / performed at the 2010 Subterranean Poetry Festival at the Widow Jane Mine, Rosendale, NY . Lute & Cleat limited editions: [Ithaca, N.Y.], 2010.
September 2, 2010
3.                Bervin, Jen. Nets . Ugly Duck Presse: Brookly, N.Y., 2004.
4.                Howe, Susan. Souls of the Labadie Tract. New Directions: New York, 2007.
September 3, 2010
5.                Larkin, Maryrose. DARC. Privately printed: np, 2009
6.                Liszkiewicz, A. J. Patrick. Alphabet Man: Concrete Poems . Slack Buddha Press: Cincinnati, 2010.
7.                Bennett, John M. Zabod . Tonerworks: Portland, Me., 2010.
8.                Finlay, Alec. mesosTic TEA . Slack Buddha Press: Cincinnati, 2010.
September 11, 2010
9.                Guillevic. Geometries . Translated by Richard Sieburth. Lost Literature Series. Ugly Duck Presse: Brooklyn, N.Y., 2010.
September 14, 2010
10.             Williams, John Moore. ui. Xerolage 47. Xexoxial Editions: LaFarge, Wisc., 2010.
September 25, 2010
11.             Dunnewold, Jane. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
12.             Basinski, Michael. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
Helen, White. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
14.             Colón, David A. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
15.             Liszkiewicz, A. J. Patrick. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
16.             Ramon, Renaat. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
17.             topel, andrew. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
18.             Deed, Martha. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
19.             Fierens, Luc. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
20.             Knotek, Anatol. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
21.             Mavreas, Billy. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
September 26, 2010
22.             Conrad, CA. The Book of Frank . Chax Press: Tucson, 2009.
September 29, 2010
23.             Minor, William. tree on the outside . Coracle Press: Ballybeg, Ireland, 2010.
September 30, 2010
24.             Martone, John. Forest Frottage . chapbookpublisher.com: np, nd [2010].
25.             Martone, John. scrittura povera . np: np, 2010.
October 29, 2010
26.             Ashbery, John. A Worldly Country . Ecco: New York, 2007.
October 30, 2001
27.             Clowes, Daniel. Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron . Fantagraphics Books: Seattle, 1993.
October 31, 2010
28.             Işın, Serkan. Dada Korkut . Ebabil: Ankara, 2009.
29.             Baker, Ed. Things Just Come Through . Red Ochre Press: [Silver Spring, Md.], 2005.
30.             Kharitonov, Evgenij V. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
31.             McCann, Sarah B. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
32.             Dencker, Klaus Peter. this is visual poetry . np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
33.             Kempton, Karl. this is visual poetry. np: chapbookpublisher.com, [2010].
ecr. l'inf.

drempty

Six Songs with Sounds of Words

I have discovered recently that people believe my productivity is manic, which may not be a good thing. I think of it as obsessive, which certainly must not be. But the question that I always have is How are we supposed to be good at something we are not obsessed with? I can't figure it out. I'm similarly productive, and supposedly obsessive, in my professional life. Production is important.

And it is constant, or nearly so, in my life. I am almost always prepared to create a poem, and poems come in so many forms for me that I can create them as I participate in a meeting at work or while I walk up the small hill to my workplace each workday morning.

Right now, I am experimenting with my voice, creating little poemsongs, sometimes with words, sometimes without, in my workplace, at home, while walking somewhere. I do these with my phone, so I can create them without any notice at all, as soon as a tune or a scrap of a lyric invades my skull. (The Martians, those of us in a constant state of inspiration say, are responsible.)

In the last few weeks, my poemsongs have moved from being nothing by glossolalic systems of sound, to extemporaneous songs complete with words and even rhyme. I've actually done this for most of my life: create songs on the spot. But only now have I really begun to record them, and almost never has anyone experienced them. Sometimes my family, at least once my friend Karri Kokko on our trip to the mythical Finnish city of Tartantie, and once in a vanful of colleagues heading west to Ellicottville.

The question that people ask me about certain creations of mine is why I consider them poems. Why are these not simply songs? Or music? My answer is the answer of a person obsessed with poetry: Because it is the word that is in my blood, it is words that are blocked from moving through my body when my arteries are clogged, everything to me is about language, can be reduced to language, is finally understood and conquered via language.

So the songs below have lyrics, so they are poems set to a tune. But some of my songs have nothing by invented words, nonsense sounds, yet I'd argue that those are still words, and I'd note that language is more than simply words. Language is the meaning that exist in the particular expression of certain words from a certain person's mouth and body. And, when it comes to visual poems, language is also about systems of marks held on a page or vibrating on a screen. I sing only because I am a poet. I am certainly not a singer, as each of these poemsongs will prove.

Below are some of my recent poemsongs, but only those with words, and none of the four I created today. Remember, when you listen to them, that they are poems.




Backyard Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
An atypical poemsong by Geof Huth, one with real English words that fit into a quite regular lyric pattern, but still one in which all the words are invented during the creation of the poem. This poem is sung in his backyard in Schenectady, New York, just after he had walked up out of his basement to find himself singing the first line of the song.




Dining Room Wall Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
On 30 September 2010, Geof Huth has a little confrontation with a finger and sings a poemsong about the walls of his dining room. Actual English words are included in the song.




Blue Moon Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
Geof Huth sings, about and from within his kitchen, a song, sort of in the form of a poemsong with words, but quite a bit like a country and western song, and after finishing it he recognizes the tune.




Garden Crush, Wind, and Shadow Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
On 9 October 2010, the morning of the day when his daughter Erin Huth and her beau Jimmy Long marry in Schenectady, New York, Geof Huth sings a song in his fall garden that somehow becomes a song for their wedding.




Kitchen Counter Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
In the style of a 1930s crooner, Geof Huth sings a song as he examines the kitchen counter of his house in Schenectady, New York, on 13 October 2010.




So Sad and Lonely Song from Geof Huth on Vimeo.
At the end of the day, on 27 October 2010, in Schenectady, New York, Geof Huth sings an extemporaneous song in the dining room of his house.

ecr. l'inf.

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