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A Poetry Dare for Will Oldham, the Anti-Poetry Guy

By Megan Willome 13 Comments

Two friends of ours have joined poetic forces in a little experiment we called Operation: Poetry Dare. Poetry-avoidant Nancy Franson was asked to begin reading a poem a day. Megan Willome, her poetry buddy, agreed to be a sounding board of sorts, discussing the poems with her. They’ve shared their experience with us here at Tweetspeak over the past several weeks.

In their conversation about the poem Mistakes I Have Made by Susanna Childress, Megan remarked, “I defy Oldham — the ranting guy — to explain how ‘one hand clapping’ is not poetry. Music added or not, that says something. And ‘one man clapping’ does, too. It’s poetry, too.”

Nancy issued her own poetry dare to Megan, and here is the result: a nice piece of found poetry at work.

_________________________

Will Oldham’s June 1, 2012 column in Poetry magazine from the Poetry Foundation has sparked a lot of controversy, including a response column in The Awl. Well, I read it. It’s actually pretty poetic.

Mr. Oldham, I fling at you your own words.

To hell with drawers:

Poetry is something that points to something else.
A poem holds nothing up and nothing in. It sits there.
Sitting there on the paper a poem makes me feel ignorant and insane,
fills the air with signs that I cannot use to direct myself anywhere
except the restroom or the sidewalk or inside of myself.
My mind is kept in a drawer, in the end. And the drawer
hides its contents from view, like a poem.
I also do not like drawers. There must be shelves
where the contents are visible.
When things are hidden in drawers, they do not exist.
So really, poems and cabinets only make me hurt
because I resent those who love them.
This is what I, a child of the age, need. I’m ready for
a return to epic balladry.
It now takes a grander force
to pierce the defenses and get the party started in my soul.

Photo by Claire Burge, sourced via Flickr. Used with permission. Post by Megan Willome.

_________________________

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Megan Willome
Megan Willome
Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.
Megan Willome
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Filed Under: Blog, Poems about poetry, poetry, Poetry Dare

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About Megan Willome

Megan Willome is a writer, editor, and author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Save & Make Your Life With Poems and Rainbow Crow: poems in and out of form. Her day is incomplete without poetry, tea, and a walk in the dark.

Comments

  1. Nancy Franson says

    September 3, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    Megan and I make a pretty darned good team. That’s what I think. This is brilliant!

    Reply
  2. L. L. Barkat says

    September 3, 2013 at 1:12 pm

    You put his words in a drawer? Mischief-maker 🙂

    Reply
  3. Marilyn Yocum says

    September 3, 2013 at 6:27 pm

    I’m getting the biggest kick out of the trouble you’re stirring up, Megan.

    Love this, BTW:
    “My mind is kept in a drawer, in the end. And the drawer
    hides its contents from view, like a poem.
    I also do not like drawers. There must be shelves
    where the contents are visible.”

    Reply
  4. Megan Willome says

    September 3, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    Thanks, y’all. See what happens when you hang out in the poet’s corner?

    Reply
  5. Diana Trautwein says

    September 3, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    Glad there was a link to the starter essay, cuz now I LURV rhe poem even more. Great work, Megan. Not snarky in the least. (well, maybe in the least)

    Reply
  6. Heather Eure says

    September 3, 2013 at 9:47 pm

    Brilliant! You gave him a much needed smack-down. In fact, it was like tag-team wrestling match won with a flying leg drop off the turnbuckle. One, two, three…
    Will Oldham limps home, defeated. *snortle!*

    Reply
  7. davis says

    September 4, 2013 at 11:02 am

    not all who wander
    are lost
    in the great scheme of it
    no cost
    but to love
    in a word
    and to fly
    like a bird
    it don’t need to make sense
    to be boss

    Reply
    • Marilyn Yocum says

      September 4, 2013 at 11:12 am

      Love it! 🙂

      Reply
      • Megan Willome says

        September 4, 2013 at 1:21 pm

        I so love it when someone leaves a poem in the comments!

        Reply
  8. Maureen Doallas says

    September 4, 2013 at 9:26 pm

    I’ll return your words to you this way:

    Poetry Is Not About Mistakes

    Dare to begin with little
    poems: found words
    shared in a conversation,
    the experience of a day
    with friends. Music that
    is at work is not explained.

    Reply
    • Megan Willome says

      September 5, 2013 at 2:56 pm

      Maureen, you are such a gift!

      Reply
  9. Louise Gallagher says

    September 8, 2013 at 10:39 am

    And.. taking the lead from Maureen…

    Dare to let the words
    speak
    volumes
    where ever they lay
    concealed
    in a drawer
    tucked up in the far recesses
    of a mind
    too trapped to open
    itself
    without the aid of a poet’s
    tender touch.

    Reply
    • Megan Willome says

      September 8, 2013 at 11:17 am

      Louise! I’ve missed you! And I love your poem.

      Reply

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