Here at last, live, the chickens get to do their own bidding, despite the human voice trying to introduce them, to rile them up, to get the chickens to give a good show.
What I finally like is my own voice among the collective chicken voice. It seems the best you can do with nature is a kind of nextness, unless you are a trainer which is a whole other kind of man. I do think however about hearing Brad Gooch tell a story at Naropa about Flannery O’Connor’s first brush with fame being when she was a little girl and had taught her chickens to walk backwards. Apparently some big reporter with cameras from New York came down to her home and shot the miracle and it was a staple in the newsreels of movie theaters for a while. Chickens kind of do walk backwards and I think Brad also said that the newsreel was kind of a scam like they extended it so that the backwards chicken walk went even longer than it did “in reality.” I don’t know if this brush of fame or distortion of reality encouraged a young chicken trainer to flourish later in her life in the art of fiction. I wonder if fiction is more like chicken training and poetry is more like chicken listening, even chicken commingling, and recording the whole mess. I hope to return to the chickens again today and see what more I can learn. Though there was a book review in rain taxi probably last month by now that was about poetry and politics and I also want to jump on that miserable piece of writing like a storm and flood the shallow waters of the author’s thoughts. Hooray for the present. More chickens, more politics, more everything to come. I am very glad to have Windows Media Player installed (thanks to Bob).
I feel powerful, bold, war-like.
You can hear more chickens here:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/audioitem.html?id=392
And here’re some chicken poems:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171207
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=180247
No egg poems, ‘cos I think the chicken came first.
Posted By: Don Share on July 30, 2009 at 12:41 pmReport this comment
Love the Pavese. Today I will turn to someone and casually remark, “In the city, some people eat chicken.”
Posted By: Chris Hosea on July 31, 2009 at 8:58 amReport this comment
I adore this notion of poetry as chicken listening. Hooray Eileen!
Posted By: Tim Peterson on July 30, 2009 at 4:25 pmReport this comment
Hey, there’s no super-like button for the main post itself!
Posted By: Vivek Narayanan on August 4, 2009 at 4:12 amReport this comment
I don’t get this. What do you mean. You mean you want a recording of the post? Explain.
Posted By: Eileen Myles on August 4, 2009 at 2:40 pmReport this comment
It means he likes what you wrote. A lot.
Posted By: Jordan on August 4, 2009 at 4:35 pmReport this comment
Ah the tonal problem. Thanks Jordan. Now I see.
Posted By: Eileen Myles on August 5, 2009 at 2:06 pmReport this comment
Check in? Where are the check ins? Should I check in? Can I check in? How do I check in? Is the Czech in? Is the Czech checking my check in? How many Czechs can check in?
Posted By: thomas brady on August 4, 2009 at 4:52 pmReport this comment