04-26-2019, 09:33 AM
CRNDLSM: First Person
CRITIC (aside): Let’s talk about CRNDLSM, okay? In NAPM this year, no one has been more faithful, or more consistent in both quality and character.
What do I mean? Well, let’s just say I could probably pick the CRNDLSM contribution out of a lineup pretty reliably. No fluttering over the gamut of forms and voices– something I do, trying to submerge my individuality, pretend to sagacity, and just goof around. But this isn’t about me.
The CRNDLSM poem (in NAPM this year) is the one frankly written in the first person. It seldom tries to hide behind a third person or expository voice: CRNDLSM doesn’t mask the speaker’s individuality, or that what the poem says is from CRNDLSM’s own point of view (or at least an assumed singular viewpoint). And it will have a slightly melancholy, romantic twist, and it might be a pantoum.
Even, perhaps, this least typical (partial) exception that proves the rules:
- (Untitled NAPM April 9th)
Notice how, at the end, there is not only the romantic twist, but a return from the general to the very particular and the admitted first person voice and point of view (in this instance, technically, first person plural). And, if I’m interpreting it correctly, again that melancholy, here expressed as implied interpersonal distance (losing closeness, the heat death of love).
It’s good. I wish I could do that well in that many words - very occasionally, I do pretty good in fewer, but not often (you should see my slush pile).
But this isn’t about me, it’s about CRNDLSM. Solid, as another contributor is wont to say, which is praise I’m always happy to receive. Solid, CRNDLSM!
CRITIC (aside): Let’s talk about CRNDLSM, okay? In NAPM this year, no one has been more faithful, or more consistent in both quality and character.
What do I mean? Well, let’s just say I could probably pick the CRNDLSM contribution out of a lineup pretty reliably. No fluttering over the gamut of forms and voices– something I do, trying to submerge my individuality, pretend to sagacity, and just goof around. But this isn’t about me.
The CRNDLSM poem (in NAPM this year) is the one frankly written in the first person. It seldom tries to hide behind a third person or expository voice: CRNDLSM doesn’t mask the speaker’s individuality, or that what the poem says is from CRNDLSM’s own point of view (or at least an assumed singular viewpoint). And it will have a slightly melancholy, romantic twist, and it might be a pantoum.
Even, perhaps, this least typical (partial) exception that proves the rules:
Quote:The universe is not expanding.
Infinite: is
Everything inside steadily
Shrinking.
On a massive scale of relativity,
We only
Observe the growing distance
Together.
- (Untitled NAPM April 9th)
Notice how, at the end, there is not only the romantic twist, but a return from the general to the very particular and the admitted first person voice and point of view (in this instance, technically, first person plural). And, if I’m interpreting it correctly, again that melancholy, here expressed as implied interpersonal distance (losing closeness, the heat death of love).
It’s good. I wish I could do that well in that many words - very occasionally, I do pretty good in fewer, but not often (you should see my slush pile).
But this isn’t about me, it’s about CRNDLSM. Solid, as another contributor is wont to say, which is praise I’m always happy to receive. Solid, CRNDLSM!
Non-practicing atheist