I spent three hours today setting up
\nmy recorder so that I could make MP3s of
\na new series of poems, and thereby
\nturn up the thermostat in wordcurrents
\nenough to shake up the various
\nhibernating fauna that live here
\nin this garden of earthly delight.<\/p>\n
It took forever to start because
\nthe first six test runs of “anatomy”
\nsounded as if I was reading it
\nthrough a long hose while
\nsipping something interesting.<\/p>\n
The “something interesting”
\ndidn’t bother me, but the long hose
\nset me to a frenzy of settings adjustments,
\nexperimentation, and trying to figure out
\nhow I fixed it last time. I seem to do that
\na lot: forgetting how I did something before.
\nThis time, I fixed a whole new way that makes
\nme sound as if I were reading through
\na clown’s underwear.<\/p>\n
It’s the nuances, you see: it’s something
\nwe poets go after a lot, salting in the nuances
\nand trying to shade the text with HB crosshatching
\nto give it innuendo and subtlety, possibly irony and
\nchocolate sauce that I should have been able to imply
\nin the text, without hitting the reader on the head.<\/p>\n
So now I’m reading the text
\ninto a microphone. It is not just my
\ndumb voice, but also my pauses,
\ninflections, breathing\u2014 turning up
\nthe thermostat, even if this is the winter solstice\u2014
\nit’s enough to make a snail overheat.
\nBut it’s still fun, or I wouldn’t do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am adding new podcasts to wordcurrents, but I have forgotten how to resolve some of the technical issues. (#1037) Continue reading