My First Dada Poem

[Nazz]

Sun goes down like big blotchy blood boiling.
Larynx goes up like a statesman's yodel, deft.
Stately lately, the gutteral moans of butter fly.
Pick a century, any century, cut up the news.
Shuffle and glue, reprehensible.
Grab a sensible weapon.
Quick.

[Doreen Peri]

I love this!

sounds great... and that's my most important test of a poem.. seriously...

what exactly do you think makes it a dada poem?

[Nazz]

oh I dunno, Doreen. Must be my 'punk' roots.. Dada is supposed to be the 'Anti-art', but there's abitta wordworkin' here. Probbly just another hybrid. Got the cut-up thing from Tristan Tzara..

Thanks.

[Doreen Peri]

i've been doing cut-ups for a long time.. long before i even knew the technique had a name

as far as dada goes, many of your poems fit the definition, probably.. this isn't your first

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada

I donno who Tristan Tzara is... hmmmm.....

will look it up.... again, enjoyed your poem

[Nazz]

Thanks Doreen. Pretty sure it's not my first. When was my first? I'm not sure I'd even recognize it. What is it about it that makes it it?..

Yes, the ol' guns 'n butter equation-- from Econ 101.
Only so much energy in the system to feed both..
Tristan wrote a poem about how to make a Dada poem--
by cutting, shuffling and re-assembling a newspaper article.
Hmm..

[constantine]

tzara was a poet and theorist of the dadaist movement per se. he wrote a dadaist manifesto - which, to me, seems like something a dadaist would not do. good poem naz, whether dadaist or not.

[constantine]

they did sound poems and simultaneous readings - lots of new approaches to artistic expression besides random reconfigurations of pre-existing text. my poem - protorota - is similar to their sound poems. you guys probably know all this already.

[Nazz]

Dino, thanks for the rewind. I was busy moving to a new place that weekend when you wrote the protorota (13 pages back). The lexicon was rhythmic and fascinating, not to mention confounding.. Tocharian and Greek and Indo-european, proto style.

And to hear him tell it, Tzara wrote a manifesto against manifestos. I guess we'll have to take his word on that one.

[hester_prynne]

Okay whatever the concept you all are on about here????????
TaDa!!!!!!

....I don know, but whut the hell,
I call it creative data and it's damn good.

Hat's off and green eggs and ham dada.
H

[Nazz]

Dada-data-- bound intricately and estranged.
Some kind of code tapping on the side,
manifesto after manifesto, al fresco.
Naked is a tongue in open air,
same as the naked air.
Or so it seems.

Thanks Hesty.

[the mingo]

naked is open - seems tongue or so it,
brain awash with secret whole forests
emphysemic complications young with dogs
we will eat them too with time &
by the done & only stomach pictures of
roads laid in sand
Nevada Dada Rules!

[Doreen Peri]

I thought it was William Burroughs that gave the cut-up technique a name. Didn't know about the previous history, though it doesn't surprise me that he wasn't the first. Seems a logical way to write. I steal people's words all the time and cut them up to use them in poetry. "Good writers borrow, great writers steal." - Archibald McLeish I've done that for years ... long before I ever knew the technique ever had a name.

To me, all poetry is music. It's how it sounds that makes it poetry that works. That's just me, of course. I'm sure there are fans of poetry that doesn't sound musical or lyrical but rarely am I one of them. I like the way the words sound, the rhythms, the assonance, meter, rhymes, alliteration, percussion, etc.

We have a new forum at Studio Eight for Cut-ups
Hope you'll stop by there and join in!
http://studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=74

Also, Dino, would love to have a link to the poem you wrote which you're referring to. I think I missed it.

[Arcadia]

I guess S & S can´t help with that!!!

I cut the fourth, sixth and seventh!!!!