The Rhythm of All Things

You could say I rediscovered T.S. Eliot last year, with emphasis on "re." Fragments of his writing have haunted me since my high school literature days...

"This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper." 
"Do I dare disturb the universe?" 
"Let us go then, you and I..." 

Even when I was just exploring the edges of the world of poetry, those were the kind of phrases that I simply couldn't forget.

Last year, I read The Waste Land and Other Poems and Four Quartets and knew it was only scratching the surface, so I'm super grateful that my friend Julie at Greener Trees selected The Art of T.S. Eliot by Helen Gardner for our reading group's next book. (It's not too late to join us!) It's a smallish book. It's also dense and nerdy, and I'm exercising brain muscles that have atrophied since college literature classes. This is a very, very good thing.

This week was Chapter 1. I honestly don't remember much of it, other than I wished I'd been taking notes around the halfway point. But I did jot down this quote:

"If we can discover a poetic rhythm in the most commonplace speech, this rhythm may then be capable of refinement and elevation so that it may accommodate the greatest thoughts without losing naturalness." (p 25)

Some wonder, "Why poetry? Why not just say what you mean instead of using fancy words?" Poetry is Shakespeare and metaphors and rhyming. Or maybe it's the modern writers who seem to make a pretentious alphabet soup on paper, or yell dramatic things in the corner of a dimly lit hipster coffee shop.

But poetry begins with a love of language, not just the beautiful speeches in old movies or the carefully constructed meter of the oldest poems, but the words of the street too, the easy dance of a quiet conversation between old friends, the way we inflect when we tell stories (often slightly embellished) about both the exciting and mundane moments of life.

“The dance of poetry and the dance of life obey the same laws and disclose the same truth.” (p 9)

Really, I could linger on this idea for an entire book. Where is the poetry, the music in our everyday words and actions? After a discussion about meter and a bit of scansion, Gardner mentions how once when asked to select some favorite poems for a BBC broadcast -- "not his favourite poems, but poems that stayed in his head and came to his mind at moments when he was thinking of nothing much else" -- Eliot chose highly rhythmic "thumpers," the kind of lilting, emphatic poetry that first introduced most people to the music of words. And this is what comes to mind for most people at the mention of poetry. Rhyme and rhythm. Poetic language with a heft and weight that isn't so obvious in our daily exchanges.

Which brings me back to some of the Eliot lines I never could shake.... "Let us go then, you and I / When the evening is spread out against the sky..." Perfectly ordinary, unpretentious words, only polished and naturally musical together.

I wonder if maybe it's not that language has gotten uglier or lazier in a world of sound bytes and txt speak, but that maybe we just find it hard to really, truly listen. Eliot reminds me to do that. There is a poetry to everything if we pause to see and hear it.

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And speaking of poetry in all things.... how about poetry and comics?! I had the pleasure of collaborating with artist and Rabbit Room friend Jonny Jimison on a comic called "Winter White." I wrote some poetry and he worked some illustrative magic. Hop on over to his website and check it out. He says in a few drawings what I'm trying to get at with this post.

Awesome of 2012: The Music

Hi, New Year! Starting ahead by looking back... yes, it's time for the best of 2012 lists! I make no promises to get past the music list (I didn't last year), but at least for now, here are my top 12 albums of 2012. The first few are pretty much in order, and the rest are records I returned to multiple times and loved throughout 2012. It's by no means a definitive "OMG BEST!" list (because really, who can write that?), but it is the soundtrack to my year...

Andrew Peterson - Light for the Lost Boy: Sure, I'm inclined to like anything AP releases. Sure, this record pushes musical boundaries, is lyrically cohesive and deep, and contains lots of nerdy literary references while sounding incredibly pretty. But it also has an emotional resonance that is impossible to define in words and a spirit that haunts long after the final notes fade. Also, it made me ugly cry in my car once. This album defined 2012 in so many ways. (Highlights: Come Back Soon, Carry the Fire, You'll Find Your Way, Don't You Want to Thank Someone)

Matthew Perryman Jones - Land of the Living: Discovered on Noisetrade, and oh, is it glorious. A spacious, gritty, anthemic, earthy, spiritual desert valley of a record, the kind that gets in your soul and doesn't let go. I still can't get enough of it. (Highlights: O Theo, Waking Up the Dead, Cancion de la Noche, Land of the Living)

Audrey Assad - Heart: I was a fan of Audrey's debut, but I always felt like it was only scratching the surface of what she could do. I'm pretty sure Heart is the album she was born to make. Gently passionate piano pop with a 70's songwriter flair. Beautiful. (Highlights: Even the Winter, O My Soul, Lament, Slow)

Mumford & Sons - Babel: At first, I wasn't sure it could hold up against Sigh No More for me, but Babel very became an oft-played favorite of mine. Their songs have passion, grit, and soul, the kind that you want to play a little loud, get a little angry, and shout along with. Here's to making banjos cool again. (Highlights: Whispers in the Dark, Holland Road, Lover of the Light, Hopeless Wanderer, Not with Haste)

fun. - Some Nights: It's kind of embarrassing how much I love this record. It's weird, brash, anthemic, simultaneously hipster and Top 40, happy and melancholy with the right mix of swagger and nostalgia. Kind of reminds me of attempting to describe Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, though it's probably not that serious. Also, I will forever associate it with the time I got a flat tire on the Turnpike. It made the drive bearable. (Highlights: Some Nights, We Are Young, Carry On, All Alone)

Derek Webb - Ctrl / Sola-Mi - Nexus: No album made me think half as much as I did while puzzling out the mysteries of Ctrl, but when Derek Webb confirmed that his side project Sola-Mi was a companion piece designed to seamlessly blend into the story, my brain exploded. An inseparable duo, these two albums combined tell a disturbing sort of love story about the places humanity and technology meet. (Highlights: Blocks, Attonitos Gloria, Crowd of Silent Strangers, Trust Falling)

Andrew Osenga - Leonard the Lonely Astronaut: A sci-fi concept record about loneliness, love, and forgiveness…. recorded in a spaceship studio. This was too nerdy and awesome to not support on Kickstarter, but it turns out to be a rather heartbreaking and introspective work of art. Also, the B-sides EP has a song about space pirates. (Highlights: Ever and Always, Hold On Boy, Firstborn Son, It Was Not Good for Man to be Alone)

Paper Route - The Peace of Wild Things: Noisetrade introduced me to Paper Route's fantastic debut Absence, but the follow up release made me love them more. Gloriously hooky, smart electronic pop that sounds a bit like the 80s meets OneRepublic meets a less spacey M83. (Highlights: Two Hearts, Better Life, Glass Heart Hymn, You and I)

Gungor - A Creation Liturgy (Live): Normally, I wouldn't put a live album on one of these lists, but truth be told, this could be the best live record I've ever heard. Rather than a mere rehash of songs already released, this is a stirring experience that captures the heart of a Gungor show. (Highlights: Let There Be, Spotless/You Have Me, We Will Run/He is Here)

Of Monsters and Men - My Head is an Animal: A delightfully quirky Icelandic indie-folk band that I discovered on a friend's recommendation. I'm not really sure how to describe them other than super catchy and fun. (Highlights: King and Lionheart, Mountain Sound, Little Talks)

Anberlin - Vital: Anberlin was a huge part of my college days, and sometimes I think I've outgrown them. It's true. Then a new record comes along and I buy it on principle and suddenly I'm a college kid again. It's different, it pushes and experiments in multi-textured alternative rock, but at the core, it's another fantastically fun, fist-pumping alternative rock record. (Highlights: Little Tyrants, Other Side, Innocent, Modern Age)

Eric Peters - Birds of Relocation: I slowly started getting into Eric Peters last year, starting with Chrome, a haunting, honest, and heartbreaking folk record. Three years later, Birds is the perfect counterpoint, tempering the melancholy with true heartfelt joy. These songs are quietly subversive, getting into your heart before you know it. (Highlights: The Old Year (of Denial), Don't Hold Your Breath, Voices)







Honorable Mentions: As in, I didn't listen to these a ton for whatever reason, but I enjoyed them at some point… um, 2012 was a good year.

Matthew Mayfield - A Banquet for Ghosts, David Crowder Band - Give Us Rest, Andrew Bird - Break it Yourself, Jack White - Blunderbuss, Bebo Norman - Lights of Distant Cities, House of Heroes - Cold Hard Want, Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror, Regina Spektor - What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, Anchor & Braille - The Quiet Life, The Killers - Battle Born, Kimbra - Vows, Sucre - A Minor Bird, The Avett Brothers - The Carpenter,  Dave Barnes - Stories to Tell, Sigur Ros - Valtari, Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts