Introduction to 399

Disregard the title of the blog...I set this blog up for a prior class and now i am being internet-environmentally friendly by recycling and using this blog again. Anyway I'm Tommy Long. If you have had class with me before than that should be substantial enough of a description..if not thenI don't know what else to really say as in my case I believe my name is the only description that is fitting of me. Just kidding, but honestly I don't know what to say other than welcome, I'm Tommy. I'm kind of a graduate kind of a senior still. I am from San Diego, CA where I am looking for a job currently. I will be a graduate with a degree in English and Writing. I really miss playing football but I will never have to get screamed at by middle aged men who are living vicariously through a team of spry athletic men so I am thankful for that.I like to have fun, write, create masterpieces, travel, spend time with my nieces, If you get some time browse around here and you can see the poems I wrote for a chapbook poetry book and if you REALLY want to order one then I'll make you one. Otherwise have fun.

Constraints and Procedural writing

I understand the idea of constraints as far as procedural writing goes (if those two even go together, if not then I am obviously an idiot). It makes sense that when writing under a certain procedure, like a sonnet as explained, that the poet has to adhere to certain constraints or rules that make said piece of writing a sonnet. You can't call yourself a basketball player if you are kicking the ball.  Conversely, I really like proceduralism mainly because I like the detached feeling portrayed. In Kasey's case, using only the salutations of his emails gives no feeling to the work, no forethought, and no emotion; the poem is strictly what it is meant to be (a found poem from already written texts in various emails).

Aleatory writing

I see how this type of writing is very close in nature to stream of consciousness. Though I very closely agree with a point brought up by Kasey about thoughts being random. I agree that it is very difficult not to censor your thoughts, and nearly impossible to maintain that there is no invisible net inside your head that doesn't screen things to an extent. Randomization of thought is a very tricky idea to grasp because how can thoughts truly be random if you (or I) are the one thinking them and each of us does have our own unique quirks and dispositions that motivate our thoughts.

Free Verse

I think it is ironic how free verse in itself becomes a tradition or a procedure. If you look at a common accepted definition that free-verse is sort of "everything else" that doesn't fit a specific mold, constraint, procedure or tradition, then isn't it still fitting all of those things in itself. Can you play a game that has no rules? Not really because a game with no rules has one rule: there are no rules. I think free verse is the same type of catch-22. Though it adheres to no specific rule in conjunction with rhyme, meter, assonance, etc. by not adhering to those constraints, free verse poems are adhering to the rule that they don't adhere to those rules...if that makes sense.

----------------------------------Poem begins...now

Sitting Shirtless

I am here in the morning darkness

since

my mother's apartment has poor illumination.

And as I write for class,

trying to continue to type

but deleting when I see fit

I pause to scratch my face

seconds ago.

I scanned back to Kasey's blog

in order to see

if this poem, would fit the criteria

he laid out. I am still unsure.

It is early still

to some people

but the morning is more than half over.

I, on the other hand, am unemployed.

--------------------------------------------------poem over

That's it for now, it is time to look at some other blogs and wait for the responses to come rollin in...