Quite often music or sound prompts a written response from me, such as with the Golden Shovel Random Access Memories in White Cloud Over Purple (after Kraftwerk) or Orchestral Manoeuvres (multiple sources), and sometimes it’s the other way round.
Sometimes I write something and then feel the urge to turn it into a sound piece of some sort. Often this is simply a recording of me reading the poem. I’d do this with all my work if I had the time - to add an additional layer to the experience, as well as for wider accessibility. There’s a smattering of some older audio recordings on my website here: https://jpseabright.com/visual-audio/ and some bits of video on my YouTube Channel.
But where I’ve attempted to be a little more inventive with sound collages (where limited time and equipment allow) I’ve shared that work on SoundCloud.
[eyetitled] (in WCOP) is an interesting piece - at least from my point of view, in its means of creation. It started life as a standard ekphrastic after poem. A response to this painting by Paul Thek. An artist that was new to me, but whose work I was immediately drawn to.
UNTITLED (EYE WITH COMET) (C. 1985)
I wrote it for a submissions callout to the wonderful Pilot Press and their series of books on contemporary responses to works of art made during the height of the (Western) AIDS crisis in the early ‘90s.
I was fortunate to have a piece first published in their Responses to Derek Jarman's Blue (1993) This piece, BLU/R (pronounced ‘bluer’) also appears in WCOP along with a link to the short poetry film that originally inspired the piece.
Anyway, back to [eyetitled] or e.yet.it.led as I originally titled it for the Pilot Press publication Responses to Untitled (eye with comet) (c.1985) by Paul Thek. This was written very quickly, in stream of consciousness fashion, which was quite deliberate. I wanted to respond directly to the painting in words without thinking about it too much.
Later, after discovering the utterly wonderful NTS radio show Plastic Language by National Poetry Library librarian Will René, I responded to their callout for sound poetry pieces (in collaboration with sound-text duo [something's happening] (Iris Colomb and Daryl Worthington) and created EyeTitled (another slight name change!) for it. I was fortunate that it was chosen for the show and broadcast in November 2023.
As with its written predecessor, this was done quickly and without too much thought or editing. I happened to have my snare drum down from the attic at the time so used that to create dramatic noise through dropping coins on it and generally improvising and messing about. (I’d love to do so much more of this sort of thing if I had more time!)
I’ve started recording an audio version of WCOP in between work meetings and childcare, so that may materialise at some point in the future.
In the meantime, there’s a playlist that I made for the book - because why not, and because all my books have had playlists, and because music is my first love. I only write because I’m not an avant-garde rock star.
White Cloud Over Purple playlist
Happy listening!
JP x