For Will Evans, who inspires me on Twitter as nobody else can. It is six fifteen on this Holy Palm Sunday in the year of our Lord anno domini 2009, and the first procession of Semana Santa has commenced from the Church of the Sacred Sanctuary next to the Cathedral and is about to pass below me here in Plaza Nueva, Granada. On Twitter you can only use 140 characters in one message. This is my first sacred tweet of a poem. JFW
Trumpets trill; cathedral bells clang; the faithful flock under my door.
God´s on my street; I can see His bare feet. Like me, He´s so poor.
recommend this
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 50
And let us say, "amen."
Blessings and best wishes - S.
Jennifer, in answer to your question, my dear, Twitter is a unique social network that has taken the USA, and now the world, by storm in the last couple of years or so, now boasting millions of members. Unlike Facebook, Myspace, Gather, or any of the other Web 2.0 blogs, Twitter is an extremely streamlined system in which you ´follow´ people and they ´follow´--usually based on common work, play or entertainment interests--but the catch is, every message you write has to be a masterpiece of brevity, under 140 characters, which is called a ´tweet.. The Twitter interface asks its members, ¨What are you doing?¨ and you characterize your current activities on the fly. A lot of people use it to telegraph to an entire work group (or fan base, in the case of celebrities of all types) what their schedule is. My friend Will Evans, who was one of the main nformation Architects in Gather´s initial startup and development, has developed an entire pre-Simulationist identity theory based on public persona, development of social profile through tweets and social interaction with large dynamic group units. I suggest to everyone who reads this poem who hasn´t ´Twittered´ yet that they go over to www.twitter.com and at least try it.
Twitter is, as I¨ve said, very streamlined, so your initial public profile is minimal and you´re good to go after 5 minutes. In that sense you don´t have to spend hours as you do on Facebook or Picasa or MySpace, creating your web pages and uploading photos, articles and files. (One of the many reasons I decided NOT to join Facebook for right now, but prefer to remain low profile on this small Gather blog that still at least the vestiges of a writing and artists community, no matter how cravenly our management has stripped away the original purpose and organizing principles of a Gather for writers and artists in order to slavishly mimic the interface of the larger social networks. I guess they have to in order to achieve a business model that gets clickthroughs.)
I don´t think of a ´tweet´ as a poetic form; after all, a couplet is a couplet. As a pre-Sim thinker and artist, I am more interested in how these public connectivity devices (cell phones, online Internet networks) transform our notions of identity and consciousness. Cell phone manga novels are the biggest bestselling fictional genre in Japan, for instance. The constraints of a 140 character ´tweet´ are as rigid as a haiku form: If you go over that number, you literally cannot post your tweet! All of these technological innovations of form (syntax) transmute our content (semantic) subtly, shifting us from long serial installment forms--think chapters, episodes--in novels and even television programs, that encourage linear thinking and elaborate syntactical structuring of content, to short bursts, blips, of parallel processed forms occurring simultaneously--think tweets, notices on Facebook´s Walls, etc.--that trigger you into more global thinking, with a shorter attention span. This indeed has implications for consciousness, how we mirror each other, social being versus private interiority, in the short and long run. We pre-Sims often get ideas and images based on interrogating these sorts of themes, and that is what I´m doing here, not just putting up EXACTLY 140 CHARACTERS!!! JFW
look like spring
hear the bells ring
shuffle of feet
smell incense
intense but sweet
the luxury of spirit
the gift of health
when we hear it
we share the wealth.
I actually wrote this on the fly on Twitter, because I was being overwhelmed by the multisensory sights, smells and din of the multitudes following the first Semana Santa procession, right underneath my window. Because I live next to Plaza Nueva, in the heart of the historical center of this ancient city, I am Ground Zero for the next week of these ´desfiles´, and will have to put up with the pandemonium as best I can. Twitter subtracts from 140 characters as you start writing. I have only changed a couple of characters from the original tweet on Twitter, switching ´blare´ to the shorter ´trill´ and using semicolons instead of dashes in the first line.
And now I better understand what Twitter is. But I see it a bit like a cell phone ... it can hound you and swamp you with ongoing twittering and that is just too much tweeting for me.
Love this poem in its brevity and truth.
Check it out: http://slatev.com/player.html?id=18328570001
Thank you Nathan and Barbary, for showing that you´re on to my game: Will the real Jesus of Nazareth be allowed to live out his passion, not the one who in America guarantees you a country club membership, a fancy car, the prime pew in church and the right friends in a good ol´ boy network of other Triumphalist Reconstructionist Christians?
In my humble view, (and I speak for no one else) Jesus lived simply with twelve disciples and gave all more than existed before--yes, loaves and fishes are a symbol of this-- to the multitudes out of sheer agape, unconditional love, ultimate generosity. And yet Jesus Christ was spiritually wealthy, perhaps divinely abundant in cosmic wealth of consciousness, the only kind of wealth that matters, as Jan pointed out. It wasn´t, if you follow me, you will become wealthy on earth one day and get a big tax cut.
It wasn´t, vote against your self-interest if you are a Christian, and I will possibly give you a stake in my exclusive Christian culture, and maybe one day you can be materially wealthy. I never read any of the gospel´s parables that way. Jesus Christ was one of us, all of us, and Jesus wanted social justice for one and all, not just for those who believed in a certain creed.
About a year ago I formed my own version of twitter on gather by typing brief messages on the profile page. Gather in it's wisdom still does not allow the publishing by iPhone except on one's profile.
So, in a way, Gather invented Twitter out of pure ineptitude.
excessive array outside contrasted with the God within....
the poetic play of "flock under my door" transitioning
to "on my street" referring to (my interpretation) "at my
home/doorway" and "His bare feet" perhaps being the
author feeling God's presence in his own body, poor and
created in His image...the inspiration for the next step.
The use of the "tweet" as structural format, dictated by
commercial messaging venue then carries this humble
message into contemporary "silent" broadcast that
can circumnavigate the globe immediately, a messaging
vehicle that mirrors godvoice's expansive reach but with
a little more emphasis on our culture's instant-delivery
and reception and compact transmission in every and
any language ...but not for free!
Wonder what Jesus would do with a Blackberry now.
Your comments about his message and demeanor touch
me and resonate with my own sense of his engaged
purpose....I think he'd probably work with God in some
mystical way and have them converted so that the message
that showed up was what you were truly thinking and feeling.
...an instant mirror of the Spirit's status within....letting you
dialogue with your inner voice.
I can also just read this poem straight without all of the
extenuating commentary and without it needing to be a tweet
and it is simple and beautiful. That this short couplet can convey
so many interpretive possibilities is incredible.
Next (even beyond the minimalized "Flutter") will come "Stutter"
perhaps limited to 10 letters for those who send messages like
"OMG" and "ROFLMAO".
Will you be sharing your gorgeous photos of the procession this year?
…
summer runaways
But by giving the form a new tag, one that is hip for this young culture, it could also revive an interest in poetry that moves beyond rap. I'm always looking for ways to vivify poetry and inspire others to use and appreciate its qualities.
As to the poem, I'd like to see a more metered ending, fie on 140 characters. You drive the form, not the other way around. Oui? :-)
Above all, for this blog and for the pre-Sim group this was a way of making a double-edged statement about our technology, as well as our genuine attitude toward the savior, in an age where American Christians, feeling threatened by encroaching postmodern secularism, have responded by become exclusive rather than inclusive in their interactions with fellow ´saved´ believers rather than everyone, precisely the opposite of what Jesus Christ (again, in my opinion) preached.
Now I'm going to blow my credibility by saying this, but I want to compare our writing styles. For me, I write a poem and almost immediately post it in its rough form here on Gather. Then I tweak it over the following days and weeks as I read it again and again and listen to any critique that might ensue from the comments.
Back to your poem here, John. I'm excited to see what you do with it. Brevity is not your trademark, yet this poem is brief. And I feel confident that you'll stick to that parameter as you search for either the right ending or resolutely stand by what you've written.
http://slatev.com/player.html?id=18328570001
They are moving onto Shudder which allows only ten characters - with no vowels!
I'll stick to blissfully pole vaulting over the zoo fence .... without all of that technology tying me down.
I do trust my unconscious--to invoke the old chestnut--but on the other hand I don´t want to contribute needlessly to the blogosphere´s slush pile. And I have written quite a few clunkers I´m glad I didn´t rush to post in a mad dash. In that sense I am a perfectionist and secret introvert; though all the world knows me as this outspoken, sociable fellow, I am far more like Elizabeth Bishop when it comes to my work than Robert Bly.
But every poet is different. And I do respect your approach, especially considering the consistent high quality of your work and your determination to improve not just in writing, but in every aspect of your life. I admire the holistic approach you evince in both your poems and self-improvement articles ´so´ very much.
just an fyi. Once I've written my article (for a newspaper), I'll link you to it. I was so moved by the evening that I'm also writing a personal essay for my essay blog.
Lastly, John, I understand just what you mean by your self-description of a word-perfectionist and secret introvert. We are kin in that regard.
Inmaculada handing me list of what she says are 'Harmonious Chores.'
She's going to watch the parade and tell me about it later.
"The bell-rope that GATHERS God at dawn
Dispatches me as though I dropped down the knell . . .!!!!"
John, please forgive me for messing with your poem! Go poke at one of mine to retaliate. ;-D
You've succumbed to the twitter, have you? I will look for you there but am trying to avoid the plunge for as long as possible. I think there are some bugs that have yet to be worked out - in my head, that is!
The short verse format lends itself well to the fine sculpting of expressive thought, like Michelangelo knowing intrinsically in limestone when to chisel away and when to leave alone. There is a graphic sense of the appropriateness of words and the immediacy of their sometimes formidable impact.
You have done an admirable job here in defining both literal and abstract worlds of thought. It takes a great deal of patience to so organize one's quiver of ideas and personal lexicon. When such ideas come to fruition, the reader can readily absorb miles of rapture paced with resonance.
As a young man, I often assembled model kits of sailing ships and famous aircraft. One time a friend entered the room as I was putting together a petite silver model of a large passenger airliner. My friend asked, "Do you also have to paint the shadows onto the model?" She had glanced at the painted image on the front of the box and pointed in that direction. The question still fascinates me all these years later. For if an object is already in three dimensions, does the artist (or model-builder) need to augment such three-dimensionality by the addition of painted shadows? Something to ponder.
Your verse in its freshness needs no augmentation, for the words already examine great minefields of shadow....and of light.
Where's my favorite homeboy? Have missed seeing and reading you around these parts. Let's reconnect, my friend. How the hell have you been?
Like you John; God's lucky to have bare feet and be poor. I'll take that kind of poor any day.