Friday, June 25, 2010

Movie

Using haikus as stanzas often leads to exceptionally tight writing, as here in Norman Schwenk's "Movie," on Poetry Daily today:

the twin towers shown
as an establishing shot
saddens many films

There's something to be said for capturing something in words that others might already have noticed but never quite fully registered.

I first read the poem on PD's new iPhone app, which is excellent.

Poetry-wise on the iPhone, I've also been enjoying Poem Flow and the Poetry Foundation's new app.

1 comment:

Donald Brown said...

I have to say I really dislike the third line, and since your point is how haiku-like and tight this is, I don't think it's a random observation. "saddens many films" -- first of all, obviously and ungrammatically, the films are not "made sad" in the sense that "saddens" means. Viewing them may be "saddening," in the sense that the shot "makes one sad," or makes viewing the film a sadder experience, but the films can't be "made sad" in and of themselves. Anymore than the films could be made "glad" when the towers were actually still there. Films which have a sense of whether or not their representations conform to reality? Films appalled at the inaccuracies they depict?

poets who use language
inexactly for emotion
sadden the reader