North Shore Sunflowers 2010

"Yes, learning to read the poem is in itself teach patiently, at length, the talent of listening," JP Simeon.

For many decades, and still today - the students had to memorize poems. The exercise of recitation is a balancing act that has left each with its own talents: excellent memory, monotonous voice, flow of racehorse galloping one, etc.. But teachers have rarely succeeded in their seduction scene when we asked to learn or to prose. Fortunately, Jean-Pierre Simeon son by reciting in the twilight of his pamphlet algae, sand, shells and shrimps, Letter from a poet to actors and a few other smugglers (Cheyne, 1997) and in an article entitled " The voice of poetry "( States Provisional poem, VII," orality "). I will not address here the question of the interpretation of the poem by the actor but I will reflect on the question more complex poetry in schools. These texts are meant for all the smugglers of poetry, he is a poet, teacher, director, parent, friend. He poses basic questions: how to read a poem? How to pass? Attention, it is not put in a closet learning of poems, but to change the function of this practice. Memorizing a poem he learns to think, feel and love? The answer is no. To teach a text to students must not only lead them to feel the music that carries every text, and the ideal would be to make them think the scope of what they say.

sensitive and personal approach to poetry is still missing from schools: some prefer the learning stupid and evil, that is to say, a crude approach to poetry. The cultural objective unfortunately premium over that of the formation of a singular human being. Let me explain by referring a little story. During the days of the end of August, designed to familiarize young people with their art teachers, one of us asked whether "the recitation was always appropriate, or whether it was more fashionable ". The literature teacher replied: "Yes, you can totally do learn by heart, even though it is, that they will always be useful for their culture. "And unfortunately it is a common argument that the" culture "of the pupils. poetry is suffering terribly from the bottom up approach. She also suffers from its nature as a subject of the past. (Like any text, it is always very difficult to feel how writing is alive). Memory can not be done expense of the appropriation even if it is one of the tools. Otherwise, as so aptly Jean-Pierre Simeon, "the school will continue to produce non-readers of poetry."

Jean-Pierre Siméon in an article entitled "Voices of the poem" distinguishes several forms of reading poetic reading by erosion "which is to read ten, twenty, thirty times a poem chosen arbitrarily for reasons unformulable in a slow, silent empathy." selective reading "shamelessly biased and partial, that is to elect such an argument and the poem itself, and to be a rehashing of procedure" and "dream about: which consists of a drift imaginative insolently subjective from the poem into an airlock here to access their own deep emotional and mental ", and" reading in residence is to live for several weeks in a book of poems, thanks to successive term and vagrants, not linear but circular. "It makes this account a fact of reading the poetry collection that confuses many readers, especially if they are young students. The poetry reading is not linear, it requires a time which is not that of the narrative, a highly variable time which can move at lightning wandering. The approach of poetry is unstable, so unstable that life, unlike the novel.

poetry is undoubtedly one of the trickiest arms against the cuculturel . And you better have been upset by that knowledge to thousands. To teach and to discover that not only deliver information but arouse desire, oh task more difficult and dangerous.

(For my part, I decided to set up a correspondence with two contemporary poets with each of my classes second. This business is only possible with the assistance of the Spring of Poets. This initiative very simple, allows students to read texts, discuss and share their impressions with a living author. I'll keep you posted on this blog about the success or failure of this project! )

Read and see :

- States Provisional poem, VII, "Orality," Ludovic Janvier, Alain Jouffroy, Luis Mizon, Leon Robel, Jean-Pierre Siméon, Kenneth White, editor CHEYNE, 2007.
- Letter from a poet to actors and a few other smugglers , Jean-Pierre Simeon, editor CHEYNE, 1997, 2006
- The site of the Spring of Poets : It includes a record " poetry at school "and many ideas for projects to be undertaken with its establishment, association, friends ...

The Card Game Frustration Rule

companion Poetry in Korea, a tautology?

"A fossil skull of opportunities to laugh, alas, it lacks the muscle." (Yi Sang)

Korean poetry was featured in the first show of the year "that rhymes with what. On the occasion of the film "Poetry", Sophie Nauleau welcomed Patrick Maurus Maurus Patrick is a professor at INALCO, editor of the series "Letters Korean" Actes Sud and Review Tan'gun editions of the Harmattan. I suggest you listen to this too short program that gives an overview of the importance of poetry in Korea.

an aside from me: I am sorry that the show has been moved an hour later on the air and does not have an extra half hour. At a time when the information itself is buffeted from all sides, could not be expected to be given time to poetry, even on France Culture.

Korean poetry is incredibly rich because it feeds both narrative traditions in the most remote and Western poetry introduced by Japan in Korea. Poetry is indeed a very important place in Korean society and as the guest says Sophie Nauleau, Koreans familiar poems and poets read their texts in a stadium filled. It would be quite unable to explain the poetic power but you could say that the political and social difficulties of Korea have strengthened poetry as a weapon of resistance. This fact goes against all those who cry at the death of poetry or consider it unnecessary. Looking more closely at the history of Korea, we see that poetry has never been as strong as when freedom of expression was threatened or absent. In the years 70-80 Kim Soo-Young, Shin Dong-Yeop gave new impetus to the Korean literature.

I recommend a very good last issue of the journal Poetry / First (No. 46) entitled "Korean Modernities", featuring articles and poems translated very well (and how!) Of major Korean poets.

And a very interesting site that traces the history of Korean poetry: Poetry Korean