Friday, April 08, 2011

Words, music, and national poetry month

robert burns statue glasgow scotland copyright kerry dexter

Music and poetry have much in common -- and many differences as well. As the United States is marking national poetry month in April, I invite you to reflect and consider what those connections and differences might be, as you also consider this statue of Robert Burns, taken on a foggy morning in Glasgow -- as he might be contemplating twenty first century Glasgow city center.

music to go along with these ideas
Music Road: Eddi Reader, Emily Smith, Robert Burns
Music Road: intersections: words, music, and Robert Burns


you may also wish to see
Songs Based on Literature

and
Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

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posted by Kerry Dexter at

10 Comments:

Anonymous carolina said...

didn't realize it was national poetry month, thanks for the reminder...and nice moody photo too.

9:49 PM  
Anonymous Sailor said...

Beutiful blog with lots of cool stuff.

10:38 AM  
Anonymous Casey@Good. Food. Stories. said...

Interesting to think that even as an English major and inveterate reader, I prefer listening to music to reading straight books of poetry. There might be more beautiful turns of phrase in a poem, but something about a perfectly crafted pop song will get me every time.

9:53 PM  
Anonymous NoPotCooking said...

I remember driving by that statue!

6:59 PM  
Blogger MyKidsEatSquid said...

Beautiful picture. I didn't realize it was National Poetry month either. My daughter loves writing poetry and it's so much fun to sit down with her and let her read it.

2:09 PM  
Anonymous Alexandra said...

Yes, writing poetry and writing lyrics are very different. When I wrote lyrics, I was given the melody first. That's one big difference. Interesting to note that poetry got a big push this year when someone famous, whose name escapes me, left a very large amount of money to the National Poetry Foundation, or whatever the poetry association of the USA is called. I always liked the project I witnessed one year in Paris, France, where poems were posted in the subway to encourage people to read poetry.

2:48 PM  
Anonymous Sheryl K said...

Ah, poetry. Something I keep saying I need to take up, as I understand it helps you to become a much more concise, thoughtful writer. Thanks for the reminder, Kerry. Beautiful, moody photo too.

9:40 PM  
Anonymous The Writer's [Inner] Journey said...

Poetry is an amazing craft/art...the words but also the meaning. Some poetry tends to be very literary and thus harder for the reader to find a way in...sometimes. In a way, when reading poems I have to kind of "let go" and let my mind relax. Then the meaning seems to emerge in a piece.

5:03 PM  
Anonymous Jane Boursaw said...

National Poetry Month! Very cool, and yes, great reminder to think about some of my favorite songwriter/poets. Does Tom Waits qualify? Yes, I think so. Alison Krause springs to mind, too.

10:19 PM  
Anonymous Kris @ Attainable Sustainable said...

My musician son is doing some songwriting. I'm trying to convince him that a poetry class would be a valuable use of his time!

3:18 PM  

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