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a---fire---inside · 6 years

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My take on yesterday’s Eurovision semifinals under the cut. Spoiler: I found most boring.

Luckily the Italian commentators were silly enough. First of all so many ballads, it seems like every year there are more. And more English, I want to hear different sounds and different songs sung in different languages, most songs are random pop in English instead. How dull. Also the presenters seemed dull. Anyway.

Azerbaijan: Last year’s entry was amazing, this year it wasn’t. Also I thought the refrain said "stronger than cannibals" in the refrain, I don’t want to check the lyrics, it’s more interesting~

Iceland: boring af I'm glad he didn’t qualify

Albania: no idea of what it's about but it's heartfelt, and he sings in his language, I’m glad he made it

Belgium: I liked last year's entry much better, this one's all sexy and alluring and then kinda James Bond-ish? but what's with her dress, I don’t like it. Or her hair.

Czeck Republic: The postcard was hilarious. The song kinda reminds me of last year's moldova but 90s. His look was hilarious too, and so the staging. I like him better than Israel tbh

Lithuania: nice postcard, I'd like to drive that steampunk thing too. She's pretty, not my type tho. Her song is even more boring than iceland. Why the hell did she qualify and not Greece?

Israel: well she is really trashy, so really classic Eurovision, no wonder she’s so popular. I liked her song partly, the creepy voice/sound effects grossed me out. Also it’s obvious why she’s so loved especially on tumblr, and it’s obvious why all those who accused last year’s Francesco Gabbani of cultural appropriation (because they were too dumb or lazy to understand that the song was sarcastically about cultural appropriation) will instead call her queen and ignore her cultural appropriation. Which is not a problem for me, for how I see it none of them did such thing. Anyway I forgot to mention the chicken dance. ok it was fun.

Belarus: I still listen to last year's Naviband song, I didn’t really like this sad guy talking to a rose. But wait, his song is actually good? On tv they just aired a tweet saying that it sounds like a vampire anime opening, I guess that’s why I ended up liking it~

Estonia: omg she's singing in Italian, what a trip. Guess this counts as not singing in English even if it’s not her native language, and being Italian myself I appreciate the tribute, too bad I dislike opera even tho her song has some modern vibe in the background. Also Frozen.

Bulgaria: I liked their song and their post apocalyptic-ish set. Finally some ESC~

FYR Macedonia: ok in Italian Macedonia means fruit salad. Their song is kinda salad-ish too, like 3 different songs mixed up. Didn’t like it.

Croatia: Nope. Also last year most singers wore white, this year it's time for see through black or what

Austria: boring af

Greece: Why didn’t she qualify? Finally a song in a different language, and it was a nice one, and she was dressed like a greek goddess too :( (also idk about the silver hand but it was cool)

Finland: that spinning wheel made the difference I guess, I imagined her as more on the rock side but her set and uniform dancers were dystopic so I liked her a lot

armenia: I appreciated the native language but the song was boring

switzerland: Meh. Reminded me of that “Coyote Ugly” movie, with girls dancing on the bar's counter

Ireland: The song was so boring I almost fell asleep. I don’t even like Ed Sheeran much less this guy. yeah yeah I get it, gay romance, romantic stuff and so on, I still hate it because the song is boring af and GREECE WAS BETTER

Cyprus: uhm I get she was flashy, so very ESC but her song was boring

I didn’t listen to any song other than Italy’s, so it was the first time I heard those showed in the preview. Ugh England seems boring, how is it possible that they have so many good bands, artist and whatever, of every genre existing, but they send to ESC only the boring ones? They really don’t care about it don’t they? Also Spain is so bad I hate them even tho they sing in their language so I wanted to support them...Instead I kinda like Portugal, both the song, the language and the edgy lesbians.

#eurovision 2018 #esc 2018 #esc #eurovision stuff #wait I forgot if belarus passed or not #italy tag

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jamiededes · 5 years

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“Poetry is at its basic level language at play. I try not to dictate the rules of that play.” gary lundy

gary’s style is an engaging cross between the spontaneity of artistic improvisation and a steady flow of interior monologue. His often fragmented word-play, draws us inescapably into his haunted world. His is singular voice that pulls us up by the heartstrings as he scrutinizes his life, his loves, and the ragged edges of longing. He is exquisitely open in his explorations of grief and vulnerability, facing the discordant notes head on. I think what impressed me most about gary’s writing is a virtuosity completely and refreshingly unpretentious and honest. Recommended.

when voices detach themselves is the first of two chapbooks by gary lundy published by Is a Rose Press, which focuses on “poetry, experimental writing, hybrid, and more.” when voices detach themselves was published in 2013 and the second, heartbreak elopes into a kind of forgiving was published in 2016. These are among several of gary’s published collections. The others are detailed in his bio, which closes this post.

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when voices detach themselves, when I imagine I am listenting to their speakers sudden impact of invisibility, of having lost the way, even through insistence attempts to sidestep a bouncing young noise. can it be. that through thought i confirm my being. yet does it too proceed the thought. can it not outlast loss.

in another location two people unwinder their bodies from the previous nights encounter, move to opposites sides of the room.

INTERVIEW

JAMIE: I’m sure you’ve had many questions from your students, readers, and interviewers over the years. Is there any question about poetry in general and/or your poetry specifically that you wish someone would ask and what would be your answer to that question?

GARY: In my experience people don’t tend to ask questions about poetry. Certainly many want to tell me what poetry can and can’t be. From the admonition that this or that word is overused and should be avoided, to “we have a moral obligation to protect the world from bad poetry.” This last one came after I refused to talk about those poets who didn’t inspire or compel, etc. From a well known poet who we had gathered to meet and greet, if you will.

I love poetry, even those pieces or books that don’t generate for me interest. I love language and words equally. Poetry is at its basic level language at play. I try not to dictate the rules of that play.

JAMIE: Your style is certainly engaging and rather singular, improvisational and fragmented like the voices about which you write in when voices detach themselves. Did it arrive one day in a flash or is it something that evolved and is perhaps still evolving?

GARY: Thank you. For this particular book I returned to poems I’d written a few years earlier and then left behind. When I reintroduced myself to them i realized that in their fragmented way they fit together. So I listened and then the book was reallized.

My writing practice is pretty consistent in that I usually write every day. But I don’t begin with a sense of where the writing is going to go. That is, I have little interest in dictating where the words lead. Rather, I’ll jot something down, a fragment or phrase and then what’s on the page begins to dictate direction.

Naturally, when I first began to explore writing poetry I followed those dictates of teachers and peers. I worked to write the poem expected, the poem of rules. I also wrote specifically out of or from my life experiences. It was a good practice to be sure.

However, eventually I began to understand that such writing, for me of course, was more a group writing than writing as it came to me. My life did not seem to fit easily into the formulas I’d been encouraged to use. Perhaps because I hadn’t really begun to recognize my queer identity, but my world was not constructed within easy narrative or linear structure. Rather, it was filled with false starts, disconcerting interruptions, and a sense of loss and failure. I began to listen to that rather than any central sense of self. Naturally this is an ongoing and delightful adventure in discovering where the writing wants to go.

JAMIE: You write about the discordant notes in life, the fears, the jolts that come out of nowhere, the losses, and the distancing that seems to happen between lovers and friends, and the way expectations and outcomes don’t necessarily jive … all the aches and pains of life, the vulnerabilities. Is there healing for you in the writing, in the naming? Is your hope – expectation – that there might be some healing for the reader?

GARY: This is an intriguing question. When I write I have little expectation past the writing as it unfolds. Certainly, when I return to what has been written, especially after a few months or years, I suppose there is some kind of healing; although, I’d prefer insight. A few years ago I moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to be with a lover and friends. It was a good experience; however, it was also not so good. After I returned to Montana I reread my first full length collection, heartbreak elopes into a kind of forgiving. I was preparing to give a reading and hadn’t really thought very much about the poems. However, as i read through the pieces, all written before my move, there were warnings throughout. I could see that however it came, evidently I knew I shouldn’t make the move. The poems were written a couple years earlier. Curious to be sure. While I try to pay attention to such meanings in my poetry, unfortunately, for the most part I miss them consistently.

I have no expectation for my reader, nor of even having a reader. I am convinced that if there is a reader they will find their own sense of what’s going on in the poem as they listen to the poem. While writing certainly and clearly assumes a reader, I don’t. I write for the pleasure of writing, and, perhaps, to keep me in some way grounded.

JAMIE: I suspect you’ve been writing since high school and college and I know you have quite a body of published work. What’s up next?

GARY: Well, to get some few pieces published in magazines and journals; perhaps land another book or two. But foremost is simply to continue writing, and reading, to continue learning about those facets of my compound and complex sense of self and world.

POEMS

as i have to do i bring this to a more personal level. certainly in my writing part of the task has been to find a form that not only expresses what i have lived. but the stories of what i can live. feel certain that every marginalized person has this task. or remains subordinate and enslaved. yet as i struggle with the how of actualizing this. or getting to the story not in unremarkable and familiar narrative. i realize how troubling and difficult it is.

i apologize for loading you down with images. just excited to get closer to present. and maybe a future.

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as out of remarkable past a slight look aside peripheral desire another over written story lies indeed it may only be overdue bills envelopes stacked against the south wall last years dishes long the growing mold

****

you came to me later after other women had taught me their possibility and mine while men kept warning their usual mantra it is a mans world but it isn’t after all and a reality exists outside even their peripheral gaze even outside their understanding a desire full of exception and expectation for a different kind of language a different kind of life where ego shrinks to the size of a pea and life become quite suddenly more about more than usual

gary’s poetry is shared here with permission

reading the signs can be terrifying, gary lundy, Cutbank, The Literary Journal of the University of Montana

gary lundy has published five chapbooks, the two most recent, and still in print, when voices detach themselves (Is A Rose Press, 2013), and at | with (Locofo Chaps, 2017), and has two book length collections, heartbreak elopes into a kind of forgiving (Is A Rose Press, 2016); and each room echoes absence (Foothills Publishing, 2018). He has published his writing throughout the US as well as in Canada, Czeck Republic, and Israel. Most recently his poems have appeared in Fence, Meta/Phor(e)/Play, Cutbank: Weekly Flash Prose & Prose Poetry, Setu: Western Voices Special Edition, and Alexandria Quarterly.

gary was raised in Denver, Colorado. He received his Ph.D. in Twentieth Century American Poetry from Binghamton University. He taught English at SUNY-Oswego, St. Paul’s College, and for twenty years at the University of Montana Western. gary, now retired, is queer and lives in Missoula, Montana.

ABOUT

Jamie Dedes. I’m a Lebanese-American freelance writer, poet, content editor, blogger and the mother of a world-class actor and mother-in-law of a stellar writer/photographer. No grandchildren, but my grandkitty, Dahlia, rocks big time. I am hopelessly in love with nature and all her creatures. In another lifetime, I was a columnist, a publicist, and an associate editor to a regional employment publication. I’ve had to reinvent myself to accommodate scarred lungs, pulmonary hypertension, right-sided heart failure, connective tissue disease, and a rare managed but incurable blood cancer. The gift in this is time for my primary love: literature. I study/read/write from a comfy bed where I’ve carved out a busy life writing feature articles, short stories, and poetry and managing The BeZine and its associated activities and The Poet by Day jamiededes.com, an info hub for writers meant to encourage good but lesser-known poets, women and minority poets, outsider artists, and artists just finding their voices in maturity. The Poet by Day is dedicated to supporting freedom of artistic expression and human rights. Email [email protected] for permissions, commissions, or assignments.

Testimonials / Disclosure / Facebook

Recent and Upcoming in Digital Publications * The Damask Garden, In a Woman’s Voice, August 11, 2019 / This short story is dedicated to all refugees. That would be one in every 113 people. * Five poems, Spirit of Nature, Opa Anthology of Poetry, 2019 * From the Small Beginning, Entropy Magazine (Enclave, #Final Poems), July 2019 * Over His Morning Coffee, Front Porch Review, July 2019 * Three poems, Our Poetry Archive, September 2019

“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton

“when voices detach themselves,” by gary lundy; review, interview, poems "Poetry is at its basic level language at play. I try not to dictate the rules of that play." gary lundy…

#"when voices detach themselves"#Gary Lundy #interview #Is a Rose Press #poems #Poetry #review

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