I’ve explored different media platforms with a single poem over the last few days, and today, I used one of my new favorite apps called Adobe Voice to create a digital story with the poem, adding my voice to the mix.
Peace (in the variation),
Kevin
Category Archives: Poetry
Remembering Music: Variations on a Poem 2 (Kinetic Typography)
(The rough draft of the poem, complete with scribbles and such)
I have this single poem that I wrote (Remembering Music) and I am moving it across media platforms as part of a variation of writing with media this week. I am curious about how the poem looks in different formats, and what I find as I work on it.
This second version of the poem uses some kinetic typography, but I have to admit — I never really found a way to do it that I liked. I spent a lot of time, looking for an inexpensive way and there just isn’t much out there. (We need an app for that!) Vimeo has an entire channel dedicated to kinetic typography.
I am sharing out two forms of kinetic typography with the poem.
First, I used Prezi. I really tried to play with the text, and with some small images, to make the words and visual flow work in partnership with the poem. It worked well enough but I wish the transitions were automatic, so I could control the flow of the poem for the reader. But, maybe I give that agency to you, dear reader. Click away.
I also used Keynote to create a version (exported to Youtube as video). I am not all happy with the result, which I find rather boring (despite the time I spent tinkering with animation on it). Plus, the visual quality of the converted presentation-into-video is poor. Anyway ..
Peace (in the variation),
Kevin
Remembering Music: Variations on a Poem 1
I’m exploring the idea of playing with using a single poem, as told in different formats. I wrote this as part of a weekly writing prompt — which is connected to a National Writing Project writing marathon underway in New Orleans called Finding Your Muse — and I wondered how the poem would look/hear/read through the lens of different media.
So today, I present the poem as text only. Tomorrow, I will try something else with the poem.
Remembering Music:
Remembering melodies buried deep
notes and stories mingled together with harmonies
echoing out beneath street corner lights;
Remembering Music:
Remembering me, miles away,
with headphones slotted into spinning discs,
the map to a musical adventure moving into
the landscape of Louisiana;
Remembering Music:
Remembering New Orleans in syncopated rhythms
and rich architecture of sounds,
crafting the heartbeat ambiance of jazz,
the pulse of America becoming the soundtrack
of a nation finding itself;
Remembering Music
Peace (in the variations on a theme),
Kevin
The Return of the Line Lifting Poet
I spent some time yesterday morning, wandering the Making Learning Connected MOOC Blog Hub, finding ideas and stealing lines (aka, hacking and remixing to make words into something different) from blog posts in order to write poetry, which I then collected together into this Prezi. Thanks to all of those people who didn’t know I was using their words. You inspired me!
I added podcasts to this Prezi, too, so there is audio that will run as you move through the poems. I hope that doesn’t distract from the original. Although I am embedding it here, I think it “plays” better in full screen mode.
And the Prezi is remixable, so feel free to have at it, if you are inspired, too.
Peace (in the remix),
Kevin
Remixing Judy: How a Poem Inspires a Poem
The theme this week with a MOOC (sort of) around the five elements of creativity is “the remix” and as I thought about it, I kept coming back to a poem that Judi Moreillon left a comment at my blog post over at MiddleWeb the other day. Judy’s poem captured the end of the year, which was the theme of my post, and so, I decided to try to honor Judy by remixing her poem a bit, adding some ideas not just of the end of the year but the inevitable look (already) at the start of the new school year in September.
The image is my remixed poem, but you can also read it at Notegraphy. It’s possible my remixing is not yet done, as I am thinking of ways to push the poem into other media. (no promises on that one).
Peace (in the remix),
Kevin
At MiddleWeb: Poetic Sustenance
My latest blog post at MiddleWeb is about being tired, and a bit worn out, from the school year. What keeps me going some days? Poetry, and the new collection — Teaching with Heart — is a perfect companion to the long days that mark the end of the school year (we still have two and half weeks to go).
Peace (in the daze),
Kevin
Trigger Warnings: An Animated Poem
You could not escape the phrase “trigger warnings” last week, as colleges and universities grappled with the idea of warning students about text before reading, and the battle over censorship and the protective society. I say, let young adults read without warnings, and if disturbed, so much the better for the discussions and experiences that follow.
Anyway, those news reports inspired me to write a poem that warns the reader about the poem, and recommends they take a chance anyway. I used Webmaker’s Thimble for this one.
Peace (in the text),
Kevin
A Return to Blink Blink Blink
There’s no easy way to describe this old project (which can now be found housed on a Webmaker Thimble Page). It is my first real venture into multimodal composition. I had just bought a Flip Camera, which no one had ever seen before, and had this idea for a poem that used three different videos, merging into one experience, so I asked some NWP friends at a Tech Matters retreat in Chico to blink into my camera and repeat the words “blink blink blink” for me. They no doubt thought I was crazy and could not figure out what I was doing, and I could not explain it, either. I taught myself some basic html coding and worked to bring it together.
I’ve hosted the poem itself in a few places over the years, often stifled and frustrated by the limitation of web hosting spaces that would not allow three videos to run simultaneously, as is required with this poem. The idea is that you click “play” on all three videos, and then center your own eyes on the nose. This allows you to experience ‘the face’ of the poem. (I know, it still sounds crazy). I included the text of the poem and also recorded a reflection on the process of writing and making the poem (which was interesting to listen to this morning … eight years later).
If you click on the screenshot above, it will bring you to the poem itself. (The sound quality sucks because it was a first generation Flip and the microphone must have been little more than a tin cup with a string.)
Confused? That’s OK. It was an experiment. I still find it intriguing and came back on it this morning for a blog post I am writing for the National Writing Project. It then occurred to me that Thimble might be the right place to host the poem, and it worked! I did a little cheer.
I’m still tinkering a bit with the html code but not too much. I like the idea of preserving it as much its original form as possible.
Peace (in the poem),
Kevin
The Power and Importance of Reflective Curation
I’m as guilty as the next person — I collect a lot of media when I am online, gathering ideas, considering possibilities and sharing resources with my many friends all over the place. What I don’t do enough of is curate this digital debris, putting things into a context for others to consider (or for myself to consider when I finally make my way back to it).
I was thinking about this yesterday as I read through Tanya’s Storify collection of a series of collaborative poetry projects that we were part of in the Rhizomatic Learning experience earlier this year. Of course, I remember doing all of what she documents, but her ability to collate and contextualize the “moves” that we did as some projects unfolded is such a great and powerful example of curation. She makes visible the thinking, the learning, the collaboration, and in doing so, Tanya situates how we all used technology to create some wonderful works together.
I’m so grateful for her work, and it reminds me that I need to do more of that kind of curation, to give anchor points to the pathways that I am taking here, there, everywhere. Her Storify collection indeed tells the story of collaboration by knitting together tweets, and other media, so that what emerges is a narrative of discovery. That’s the power of curation.
Peace (in the story),
Kevin
On Teachers Teaching Teachers: Teaching with Heart
On Teachers Teaching Teachers last night, I had the fortunate opportunity to hang out with host Paul Allison and some teaching folks who contributed or edited the upcoming collection of short essays by educators connected to poetry. The book (Teaching with Heart) comes out in a few days, but it was a great experience to talk about how poetry informs us as teachers, and to share some of our writing.
You can view the chat room discussion, too.
And a blurb from the publisher:
In Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach a diverse group of ninety teachers describe the complex of emotions and experiences of the teaching life – joy, outrage, heartbreak, hope, commitment and dedication. Each heartfelt commentary is paired with a cherished poem selected by the teacher. The contributors represent a broad array of educators: K-12 teachers, principals, superintendents, college professors, as well as many non-traditional teachers. They range from first year teachers to mid-career veterans to those who have retired after decades in the classroom. They come from inner-city, suburban, charter and private schools.
Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin