Will Dockery
2003-09-12 12:37:06 UTC
From: ***@my-dejanews.com
Subject: Re: "Fast-Speaking Woman"
Helping the Dreamer: New & Selected Poems 1966-1988
Anne Waldman
Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1989
Stephen
Well I guess I know where to come to see where old friends hang out
when not
elsewhere.
Anne Waldman,
Fast Speaking Woman
(Pocket Poets Series No. 33,
City Lights, 1996)
As director and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied
Poetics at the Naropa Institute, Anne Waldman continues to make
herself known as one of the leading figured in the poetics and
performance poetry field. Fast Speaking Woman is a 20th-anniversary
expanded edition of the original text and includes several essays
culled from her teaching materials on chant and performance poetry.
The title poem is a thirty-page "list chant" indebted to Maria Sabina,
the Mazatec Indian shamaness in Mexico. Making use of free association
and internal rhymes, the list is a representation of both the
individual artist herself and "everywoman" -- "I'm an abalone woman /
I'm the abandoned woman / I'm the woman abashed, the gibberish woman /
the aborigine woman, the woman absconding." Waldman's use of the list
chant gives her the ability to improvise with sounds and words during
performance, to further explore the relationships among mental,
verbal, physical, and emotional forms. She explains these forms
further in the essay titled "'Fast Speaking Woman' & The Dakini
Principle."
Laced with Tibetan buddhism and archaic beliefs in magic, the poems in
this collection continue to push the envelope in contemporary
performance poetry. Like the title poem, many of these poems are list
chants, best spoken aloud. The repetition of the first words of each
line in "Notorious" -- "known for" -- create a rhythm and mindset that
allows for a further glimpse into the energy of the poem. According to
Waldman, the poem itself speaks through the performer as an energy
source, becoming a full experience in itself.
Waldman continues playing with free association in "Lady Tactics," a
poem best read with that idea in mind. At first some of the word
choices seem absurd; read the poem aloud, however, and the assonance
and dissonance created will open up a new layer in the poetry. Waldman
functions on the principle that poetry is meant to be heard, not read.
"Lullaby" is a short, eight-line chant; reading it over and over
suggests different ways to emphasize and inflect lines with subtle
nuances. Fast Speaking Woman also contains several excerpts from
Waldman's writing journals that explain the principles that drive her
poetry.
Fast Speaking Woman celebrates the renewed force of feminine energy in
writing while paying tribute to such traditional lyricists as Sappho
and Yeats. Waldman's collection is a must for anyone who enjoys
performance poetry or playing around with language structures.
[ by Audrey M. Clark ]
Subject: Re: "Fast-Speaking Woman"
Hello. Would it be possible for someone to give me the full
text to the Anne Waldman poem "Fast-Speaking Woman" ("I'm
the Buddha woman, I'm the fast speaking woman, I'm the
trumpet woman, I'm the vagabond
woman," etc.) - part of which is read in the Bob Dylan film
"Renaldo & Clara"?
I have looked for it everywhere on various web-sites, but I
can't see it anywhere.
It's quite a long poem, actually -- longer than I'm prepared to type in!text to the Anne Waldman poem "Fast-Speaking Woman" ("I'm
the Buddha woman, I'm the fast speaking woman, I'm the
trumpet woman, I'm the vagabond
woman," etc.) - part of which is read in the Bob Dylan film
"Renaldo & Clara"?
I have looked for it everywhere on various web-sites, but I
can't see it anywhere.
Helping the Dreamer: New & Selected Poems 1966-1988
Anne Waldman
Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 1989
Stephen
when not
elsewhere.
Anne Waldman,
Fast Speaking Woman
(Pocket Poets Series No. 33,
City Lights, 1996)
As director and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied
Poetics at the Naropa Institute, Anne Waldman continues to make
herself known as one of the leading figured in the poetics and
performance poetry field. Fast Speaking Woman is a 20th-anniversary
expanded edition of the original text and includes several essays
culled from her teaching materials on chant and performance poetry.
The title poem is a thirty-page "list chant" indebted to Maria Sabina,
the Mazatec Indian shamaness in Mexico. Making use of free association
and internal rhymes, the list is a representation of both the
individual artist herself and "everywoman" -- "I'm an abalone woman /
I'm the abandoned woman / I'm the woman abashed, the gibberish woman /
the aborigine woman, the woman absconding." Waldman's use of the list
chant gives her the ability to improvise with sounds and words during
performance, to further explore the relationships among mental,
verbal, physical, and emotional forms. She explains these forms
further in the essay titled "'Fast Speaking Woman' & The Dakini
Principle."
Laced with Tibetan buddhism and archaic beliefs in magic, the poems in
this collection continue to push the envelope in contemporary
performance poetry. Like the title poem, many of these poems are list
chants, best spoken aloud. The repetition of the first words of each
line in "Notorious" -- "known for" -- create a rhythm and mindset that
allows for a further glimpse into the energy of the poem. According to
Waldman, the poem itself speaks through the performer as an energy
source, becoming a full experience in itself.
Waldman continues playing with free association in "Lady Tactics," a
poem best read with that idea in mind. At first some of the word
choices seem absurd; read the poem aloud, however, and the assonance
and dissonance created will open up a new layer in the poetry. Waldman
functions on the principle that poetry is meant to be heard, not read.
"Lullaby" is a short, eight-line chant; reading it over and over
suggests different ways to emphasize and inflect lines with subtle
nuances. Fast Speaking Woman also contains several excerpts from
Waldman's writing journals that explain the principles that drive her
poetry.
Fast Speaking Woman celebrates the renewed force of feminine energy in
writing while paying tribute to such traditional lyricists as Sappho
and Yeats. Waldman's collection is a must for anyone who enjoys
performance poetry or playing around with language structures.
[ by Audrey M. Clark ]