Editor: Sarah Jane Barnett
Apparently the words woot, sexting and textspeak have been added to the latest edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Personally, I try to slip woot into casual conversation. It is up there with squeegee in terms of pleasurable language. It's commendable (essential!) that the Concise OED keeps up with new words, because that's the great thing about language, it changes as we do. I am sure that someone said reading old English is a form of linguistic archeology.
For my turn editing the Tuesday Poem hub I wanted to feature a poet who makes everyday, or even ugly, language beautiful. Why? My high school photography teacher once said to me that it was easy to make a beautiful image of a beautiful object, but hard to make a beautiful image of an ugly object. That conversation stuck with me, and it's been my creative philosophy ever since. This is why I've posted a poem by Rives.
So, who is this Rives guy? John G., to be precise, is an American performance poet and children's author. He is a whizz at pop-up books, has been the US National Poetry Slam champ, and holds a patent for paper engineering. I first discovered him through TED where he performed the poem, "Rives controls the internet." He also appeared at the Auckland Readers and Writers Festival this year, so some of you might have seen him.
You can find out more about Rives on his website: http://shopliftwindchimes.com/
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Sarah Jane Barnett is this week's Tuesday Poem editor and a regular contributor to the Tuesday Poem community. She is a writer and reviewer who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. At the moment Sarah is halfway through a PhD in Creative writing, with a focus on ecopoetics.
Once you have enjoyed "Rives controls the internet", take some time to enjoy the other poems posted this week by members of the Tuesday Poem community. You will find them all listed in the right-hand sidebar.
6 comments:
Great fun! thanks for posting this.
What to joy hear a mind reaching in all possible directions. I would subscribe, regardless of cost, to Rives' internet. So glad you shared this, thank you.
And also for the link back to "The Time of Giants." The work itself, the background you provided and the comments make me want to cancel everything to sit and write.
Oh - so enjoyed this! Loved the cheeky rhymes and lovely wit.
How to read a poem 101. Such urgency, energy, wit, sweetness. I love the boy in the orchard. I love the boy in the orchard.
Thanks Sarah--I'd never heard Rives before today.
How could one not delight in the energy in this presentation - the writer's zeal, his up-to-the-minute poem. . . Loved it, thanks Sarah.
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