Poetic License

Crow stolen from here

Soft! What dulcet verse
From yonder 'puter gush?
'Tis a wondrous podcast
Of contrast rare...

Yep, this week Contrast Podcast gets all poetic on yo' collective arses, Dearest Friends. The focus is on the words, the images, the cadences, the syntax, as each contributor offers up a poem of their choice for your delectation. But of course there's always music, and each plate of verse comes with a side order of song, carefully selected to complement the main dish. You can download it all here, and pen your own poetic responses here.

Of contrast rare
And wordsmiths fair:

(00:00) Dorothy Parker - I shall come back
Hungry Lucy - Love vigilantes

Adam from Pretending life is like a song

(06:19) Richard Brautigan - Map shower
Johnny Powers with the band of Stan Getz and Tom Cats - Long blond hair, rose red lips

ZB from So the wind won’t blow it all away

(08:37) Shel Silverstein - Hug O War
Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs - Hug you, kiss you, squeeze you

Natalie from Mini-Obs

(12:02) John Cooper Clarke - I wrote the songs
Jodi Jett - Greasy

Tim from The face of today

(16:05) John Anderson - Blair Bush news conference on Iraq
Barenaked Ladies - Fun and games

James from Appetite For Distraction

(20:21) Janet Paisley - Glen Village
Passenger - Night vision binoculars

Greer from A Sweet Unrest

(24:31) Carl Sandburg - Stars, Songs, Faces
Shearwater - The hunter’s star

Linda from Speed of dark

(28:19) Mountain - Nantucket sleighride

Lyle from Mentok the Mind-taker

(35:05) Ted Hughes - Lovesong
The Fugitives - Haunted

FiL from Pogoagogo

(41:05) Joyce Maxtone Graham - Evening
Counting Crows - Colorblind

Marcy from Lost in your inbox

(45:14) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - The Erl King
Hannah Fury - Beware the touch

Victoria from Muruch

(50:20) C.P.Cavafy - Despair
Japan - Despair

Conrad from White Car Records

(55:14) John Betjeman - Loneliness
Joy Division - The Eternal

John Q.

(01:01:35) Attila The Stockbroker - Nigel wants to go and see Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode - Leave in Silence

Tricia

(01:06:32) Robert Burns - Despondency: An Ode
The Smiths - I know it’s over

JC aka The Vinyl Villian

(01:13:35) The Undertones - Teenage kicks

Dirk from Sexy Loser

(01:17:10) Edgar Allan Poe - The Lake
Antony and the Johnsons - The Lake

Agnes from It all started with carbon monoxide

(01:23:12) E. E. Cummings - Love is more thicker than forget
Elbow - Newborn

Mark from Cinema du Lyon

I chose a Ted Hughes poem because, although the man was a cad and a bounder, I find his words electrifying, uncomfortable, mythical, and revelatory. And he wrote about crows, wot are one of my favourite birds. The piece I went with, Lovesong, brilliantly captures the anguish and horror of all-consuming lust/love. But there were other contenders:

Billy Childish - The Huddie Poem (buy here or e-here)
Childish is not only a garage guitar hero, but also a painter, author, and poet. But he's no posey art-school fop, Dearest Friends; for starters, he's entirely self-taught and his work --in whatever medium-- is pure and authentic and uncontrived. This piece, relating the birth of his son Huddie, squeezes my soul until tears of love seep out.

Ivor Cutler - I Believe In Bugs (buy here)
I wasn't really in the mood for Dadaist whimsy this week, or else you might well have gotten a delightful dose of Scotland's finest.

As for the music, well, The Fugitives fairly leapt up to be chosen. I've mentioned them in passing before, and I thought the slam-poetry-peppered music purveyed by these shining Canadian youngsters would be most complimentary to Teddy Boy's verse. Here's another track of theirs, one that's abit more upbeat about this whole love thing:

The Fugitives - French Tattoo (buy here)

And here's the video for Haunted, so you can see what they look like. Well, sort of.