Peter Cook and E. E. Cummings Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Peter Cook and E. E. Cummings coeval poets have made interesting additions to modern and post-modern poesy as a collective whole. They have given unique insights into the nature of modern metrical composition and provided a broader understanding into the purpose and concept of poetry as an artistic productionwork form. One contemporary poet of importance is Peter Cook. Peter Cook is a contemporary deaf ASL poet. He incorporates American Sign Language, mime, dance, and storytelling into his performance of his poetry, which is indite in American Sign Language and translated into written or talk English. For instance, in the Flying Words Project, he performed his poetry in ASL fleck Kenny Lerner performed the same poetry orally (A Deaf Poetics). The most interesting aspect of his poetry is the visual aspect of his performance of it. Seeing the words on the page is not enough to understand any of his poems, but they moldiness be seen, ideally with an understanding o f ASL (Graz erzhlt). One of his poems performed during the Flying Words foresee was videotaped. poetry poetry poetry is shot . . . circling, revolving, exploding hits the open window . . . and it tastes dainty its loaded into the magnum and is shot back into your heart poetry is the painter and the characterization . . . (The Best Minds of Our Generation) To watch this performed, however, is a much different experience than simply hearing it voiced. This is similar to some of E. E. Cummings poems which are visually arranged on the page in such as way to enhance the import of the poem aside from simply hearing the words aloud. Cummings use of punctuation and spacing, breaking up words and carefully arra... ...ed to modern poetry as a form of expression. While pre-modern and classical poetry often rivet on rhyme and meter, two poetic devices which have no message to deaf poetry, modern poetry has provided a much freer view of poetry that also looks at poetry as a visual art form. This view was, in part, brought about by the works of such poets as E. E. Cummings, and evolved into such intriguing projects as the Visual Words project at RIT, and the Flying Words project of Peter Cook. Sources Cited Cummings, E. E. Selected Poems. Liveright, New York. 1994. http//www.tales.org/kuenstler/cook_eng.htm, Graz erzhlt 2001 http//poetry.about.com/library/ periodic/aa061097.htm, A Deaf Poetics, part III - Poetry - 6/10/97 http//www.poetspath.com/rm/flying.ram, The Best Minds of Our Generation (The Allen Ginsberg video is interesting, too)