Posted by Atticus on September 26, 2004, at 4:41:20
In reply to Re: poem ... Adrenaline Soup, posted by Jai Narayan on September 25, 2004, at 20:30:50
Hi Jai,
In this case, I tried to bring a sense of the full-throttle buzzsaw energy and intensity of a typical two-minute-long Ramones song to the rhythm of the poem. I think that their songs and my poems probably get their driving beat from the fact that the composers all grew up in the environment of NYC. The pace here just sort of gets in your blood, and your brain tends to use the fast-forward feel of the streets as an internal metronome. Obviously, as someone who grew up a punker, the Ramones, the Ur-Punks whose music remains highly influential even today, have always meant a lot to me. It's hard to believe that three of the four are now dead, and all within the last few years (lymphoma, drug OD, prostate cancer). And as the concluding lines of the poem indicate, their ability to revel in their outsider status really connected with me when I was in high school; instead of feeling left out, I felt proud and defiant -- always ready to challenge the opinion of the majority and the social status quo. To me, their tunes are paens to fierce individuality. ;) Atticus
poster:Atticus
thread:394928
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/write/20040925/msgs/395184.html