David Berman

[sweatboard]

This is the complete poem, that Jim uses a passage from on Acoustic Citsuoca.

http://plagiarist.com/poetry/4813/

[MMJ_fanatic]

hey--nice sleuthing 'board!

[sweatboard]

I've read a few of his poems now, and I love the way he writes.  His word's don't look like poetry but they work like it.  I also love the fact that he's not afraid to use new words and ideas.  New, meaning- Potato Chips, Airport, Saturday Night Live, the Marriot, emolyees must wash hands before returning to work, carports, white courtesy phones, etc.  I guess he sums it up when he says

"I am trying to get at something
and I want to talk very plainly to you
so that we are both comforted by the honesty."

and it's true, there is a very comforting feeling I get from reading his stuff.  I guess he makes it seem like were living in the same universe, alot of poetry makes me feel so distant from it.  David talks about comedy becoming dated so quickly, but is still brave enough to not get caught up in trying to make timeless poetry, I remember reading some of Jim Morrison's poetry and being real put off by it.  It seemed to me like mabey he was trying a bit to hard to make it look like poetry.

[EC]

I hear you, sweatboard.  I hated poetry (all of it) until a few years back, and that was only because a boyfriend was really into certain angsty poets, and we got all wrapped up on ourselves drinking red wine and smoking and lighting candles and feeling awesome about all of it.

And now I feel like there are certain poets/poems for certain occasions.  Like, if I feel like a clever kind of a thing, I'll read a little Oscar Wilde or Shakespeare, or if I feel like a nice feeling about the Universe I'll flip through my collective of zen/Japanese/haiku poetry (actually, some of it's American, I guess), etc.  My Aunt and Uncle are English PhD's - both having specialized in poetry, and I have to tell you, that when I lived with them, and we'd sit around at dinner, and they'd discuss poetry - it didn't jive with me.  Sometimes I like to read something because of the way it feels in my mouth if I read it out loud, and sometimes I like to read something because the image of the light that it describes reminds me of a certain memory.  

And the damn class structure, Academic high-browing of poetry is just so boring and stupid and, for me, completely ruins the joy of the poem.  Because what is something if you can't find meaning in it just for you alone?  Why dissect something to the author's original intentions if it only takes the loveliness of the thing farther and farther away from you?

Not to say that studying poetry in Universities and Colleges is a bad thing.  I think, though, that it's a bad thing when Academics make it a contest to see who can find the most obscure reference, and then lay claim to the fact that their knowledge is the "right" knowledge.

I'm going to shut up now, but I wanted to thank you for posting that poem, because I really liked it, and it's put me in a nice frame of mind to get jivey with my thoughts.

[sweatboard]

I've been listening to David Berman's record "American Water", and I would suggest that if you have not given it a listen you do so immediatly.  Then when you've listened to it once listen to it again because it's the type of album that gets infinitly better with each listen.  I think you can check out some stuff at the following site but American Water is an album that must be listened to straight through to be fully appreciated.  The guitar on this album will blow you away and the whole album has a tinge of country vibe.  Berman's lyrics will entrance you in thier world.

http://www.weeblackskelf.co.uk/cordsuit/