I've just come in from a most interesting day ...
I was filmed reading an ee cummings poem ... but of course.
Andy Fierens phoned recently, a lovely surprise on my cellphone. He had been given my name and told I was a native English speaker living in Antwerpen. He needed one for an exhibition about poetry and people here in the city, opening January 2007.
Andy's a whole other story it seems ... or series of interesting stories if google has served me well but more than that, he and Mario, the cameraman, made the experience of reading 'the' poem so much more fun than I could have imagined.
Anyway, for those curious here is the poem Di read ...
i like my body when it is with your
i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones, and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like, slowly stroking the, shocking fuzz
of your electric furr, and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,
and possibly i like the thrill
of under me you so quite new
9 comments:
Stardom is yelling your name Di. Always knew you had that star power in you. Go get them girl!
woooo hoooo.... that is quite some poem! I would have loved to hear you read it!
Manic noooooo, it was only that I was a native speaker of English ... nothing special, it was fun though and there was me, expecting to be slightly terrified.
Lol 'quite some poem', writes the blushing kiwi. I took along Erica Jong's poem 'Woman Enough' just in case I chickened out and wanted to offer a gentler alternative ...
The guys were so nice that reading it wasn't a problem ... even I was surprised at myself.
Welcome v-grrrl, I never thought of the resulting searches BUT coming down on the side of my victorian New Zealand heritage ... I'm thinking 'Who on earth would think to look for 'electric fur' ... on the downside, 'trembling firm smoothness' might cause one or two problems.
Lol, monster ... I hadn't thought of it.
I'm with traveller one : woooo hoooo! Cummings was a racey devil at times--electric fur indeed! But I guess it's that energy that I like in his poems--they are often so vibrant and awake with an almost childlike energy. Good fun!
Yowza. S. E. X. Y.
Do you think it's a nationality thing Harvey? I almost died when I realised what I had to read ... others were surprised I was a little blushy about it all ... but the Americans, Canucks and Kiwis all weighed in with a fairly across the board ... how did Pam put it, 'Yowza' ... which made me laugh outloud Pam.
I got curious and read some more ee tonight ... there's some delicious stuff, I can't believe I had overlooked him till now.
I definitely think it's a "nationality thing" - the Dutch never had problems with sexual connotations.
If you watch Dutch TV, you will notice that talking about 'electric fur and trembling firm smoothness' would be considered appropriate material for all ages ;-)
Gosh! That made me blush as well. I had no idea it was going to be THAT kind of poem, but I have to say I rather like it. ;-)
Are we going to see a video of your performance?
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