🪶AIP 103 Poetry, Singing, And Politics
In this edition:
- 🪶Learning To Write Poetry In 30 Days
- 🎤Learning To Sing In 30 Days
- ⚖️Learning Politics
Learning To Write Poetry In 30 Days
For the last 30 days I've been reading, writing, and eating poetry for breakfast. I've learned a lot...
Oh you want me to tell you what I've learned, right, right. Well, to sum it up my poetry has gone from making me want to cry, to being Al Dente. It's just Al Dente.
Before embarking on this challenge I believed poetry was something relegated only to academics and those named "Elaquencia" by their parents. I now realize poetry is a skill I think everyone could benefit from.
At it's core, poetry is actually quiet simple.
According to W.B. Yeats: a poem is “an elaboration of the rhythms of common speech and their association with profound feeling.”
This still begs the question: why we would learn poetry over some other art form like script writing, theatre, or the practical art form known as "finding a job," also known as "finance?"
To paraphrase, Russian Literary critic Viktor Shklovsky: good art makes familiar things seem strange and strange things feel familiar.
In this way, it can describe a strange feeling like that of romantic infatuation as "walking into a room of adorable little kittens, who suddenly pull out butcher knives." Poetry's power of association is what allows this strangefying process.
There's another reason poetry is so powerful: it's super simple.
I don't mean simple in meaning, I mean simple in form. Take the opening to this wonderful poem by William Blake (white background black text coming up of this poem):
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
In this poem, the flower mentioned in the second sentence could be any flower, any color, any configuration. It's up to the reader to imagine it. If we instead saw a photo of a flower, this room for imagination would disappear like my will to live when making small talk with distant relatives
By de-emphasizing the role of sensations and realistic appearance of the physical world, poems put themselves more in the realm of the imaginary.
This gives poetry a tremendous potential for individual interpretation and co-identification. Arguably more than any medium the poet and audience must work together in tandem to create meaning. You are reading poetry—I mean really reading it—when you feel its seismic vibrations in the depths of your heart.
I'm currently working on a sci-fi poem video using the skills I learned in my poetry writing so be tuned for that in the future as well.
Learning To Sing In 30 Days
I figured after learning poetry I needed another skill that's hard to monetize so I could hurt my future financial prospects--singing was the obvious choice.
I used to sing a lot in high school. I was Pugsley In The Adams Family, a casino boss in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and did Chorus for a number of years. But once I got to college this passion simmered out.
But I've continued singing in the shower and listening to music avidly since then. I've missed it. So for the next 30 days I've decided to try and learn to sing better.
Going through my Q.U.E.S.T. learning framework, I quickly uncovered some valuable resources and tips for singing that while obvious, have drastically improved my singing already.
Firstly, I learned I've been singing outside my range, this whole time... My vocal range is below:
The problem is I've been singing Alto for most of my life. I believe it's because when I was in Chorus in high school I was put alongside the women as my voice was unusually high for a guy. When I got to college, I assumed I was still an alto even when puberty finally hit me at 46.
I've learned about breathing and singing from the diaphragm and not the throat. And of course, remembering to drink water after you've drank a ton of alcohol singing karaoke with friends.
Learning About Politics
It seems this is the month of learning challenges because I'm doing three right now.
I've long avoided politics because it always seemed an efficient way to speed run ruining a conversation. But especially after this years election results, I felt it was important to become more thoughtful and informed about it. So, I've been learning about the basics of every type of political ideology, and beginning to consume American centric political news.
Importantly, I'm consuming from a myriad of sources. One thing that annoys me most about politics is too many people put themselves into an echo chamber regarding whatever political view they have and slowly begin to generalize the other side as literal hell spawn.
That's not informed learning, that's disinformed scorning.
So, I've been making an effort to consume from both right wing and left wing media from a variety of sources on both. While I do tend to lean more towards the left, it's become clearer to me both sides have reasonable and unreasonable people. Wish me luck in the future.
📸News From The Channel!
📺Latest On De YouTube - So, I Learned Poetry In 30 Days: In this video, I take on a 30-day challenge to learn and understand poetry, breaking down common misconceptions and showing how anyone can appreciate and create meaningful poems. From demystifying poetry's essence to practical writing techniques, join me as I transform from a poetry skeptic to someone who actually gets it. Featuring poetry standoffs, writing tips, and real attempts at creating powerful verses. Perfect for students, aspiring writers, and anyone who's ever been intimidated by poetry.
🎙️Latest On De Podcast - 🎮Aidan's Infinite Play: E49 Rick Waldron: Practicing Spirituality In The Modern Age : Rick leads Horizon Arc, an Innovation Advisory & Executive Coaching firm that supports Innovation Leaders. He's been a long time pursuer of spirituality and is coming on the podcast today to talk about his experiences in spirituality, coaching, and the connections between.
In this podcast you will learn:
- What the heck even is spirituality?
- What does practicing spirituality mean?
- How does spirituality connect to coaching?
🎙️Latest On De Podcast - 🌄Digital Self-Actualization: E4: The Pathless Path And Digital Self-Actualization:
In this podcast you will learn:
- What differentiates the path less path from the default?
- Advantages of the path less path
- Disadvantages of the path less path
💡My Best Insights:
P.S. Some of the links below are Amazon affiliate links.
📖Book - Wind And Truth: The fifth book of the Stormlight Archives is finally out! I've read this series four times over. It's the most influential fiction series that I have ever read. I intend to make a full analysis of all five books once I finish with this one so be on the lookout for that.