"we're never going to hear how our poetry sounds"

I thought I would post an email today
that was in response to one of my earlier blogs
I really thought it was well written
and deserved a posting.

let me know your thoughts

"...would be curious to know more of what caused your reaction.
the 'is poetry dead' sentence is an intriguing one.
my answer would be no, not at all. neither is painting,
or illuminated manuscripts for that matter. we are.
we are the dead things.
its not that these mediums don't have the capability
to express our super advanced 21st century emotions.
its just that emoticons and yahoo messenger do it better.
what you see generally isn't poetry.
its a plastic imitation of a form that meant something in a
culture that doesn't exist anymore.
its like the kids that dress up in indian costumes and
have tribal dance costumes through the boy scouts.
the forms are right, technically, but, to quote inigo montoya
"you keep using that word...i do not think it means what you think it means."
those people who do get through and write in the medium
(and i'm tossing myself in the pile while my failures outnumber my successes 10 to 1)
be it poetry or painting, are still simply referencing another culture,
another time. we are not holdovers. we are not a continuation.
we are a parallax. stuck, despite ourselves, like bad time travellers.
its still in us, though not all, this stuck notion of a sensibility.
its like our great grandfathers asthetic got stuck in a couple generations of spermazoa
and popped out in us, at the wrong time. so i guess, as usual. i don't know.
poetry though, isn't dead.
but what they're doing, that imitation of another culture's form of it. maybe so.
maybe so. perhaps there is a lazarus among us. perhaps we're only sleeping.
but someone's got to stop the noise being made by the dopplegangers,
or we're never going to hear how our poetry sounds. "

-matt tetzloff 4/26/05

"you gets so alone sometimes, it just makes sense..."

bravo kaitlin (aka kato-kaitlin)on the excellent early 90's party

although I have to say I felt like a complete tool
walking around with a turtle neck sweater,
which I will blame 100% on g3po and my brother
(who both went out thrift store shopping weeks in advance
not telling me a thing dressed to the nines in full blown party gear)

I get to find out the party has an early 90's theme
about a 1/2 hour before the whole thing starts

scenario:

...quickly looking around my closet scanning for anything slightly resembling
a ripped flannel or bad early 90's concert T...seeing nothing, nothing even close...
no bulls 3-peat shirts, no air jordans, no jean jackets with STP, Nirvana or Mudhoney patches,
no blood sugar sex magic chili pepper posters, no lime green jubazz pants,
nothing, not even a slap bracelet or charlotte hornets cap...

but I did get the pleasure once again to talk to strappy girl(sans straps)
that everyone in the world like(which everyone reminds me)
but had a nice bathroom line convo

as well as a girl who I had once emailed but never got a response
only now to tell me that she only did that
because she had a boyfriend then,
but now doesn't
and wants to hang out and talk sometimes,
but somewhere I don't wanna give her the satisfaction,
but still then again again wouldn't mind going out with someone...

I don't know, why do girls do that
why even give out an email if you don't want to reply?,
why not just tell me
"...sorry but I have a boyfriend..."

I don't understand this psyche one bit, I mean I have
talked to many close girl friends and many have told me:
"ohh I always give out number or emails but don't respond, I just want to be
nice when someone goes out of there way to ask me..."

NICE?, why NOT just saying

sorry but I would love to but.... "No dice ma...."

it makes no sense, I mean I probably should hang out with her
sometime, she seems pretty cool, but I think I will definitely let her
email me first, unless she got a boyfriend in between now and the last time
we talked.

"is analysis really worthwhile...is the..."

so does poetry even exist anymore?

I mean more directly, is poetry dead?

I have had this conversation with friends and poets alike
and have come up with a million different answer each time

maybe its just the whole idea of spoken poetry bothers me

I mean it all sounds either really drab, half-assed beat rip off, or
some amalgamation of new age hip hop, lesbian riot cheer,
or part time stand up comedian.

the reason I bring this all up is that I went to go see
a good friend of mine read some poetry on sunday night
and had a really weird displaced feeling from the whole art.
(could have been the night)

thankfully her poetry is actually really good and you can read it here
but she writes things with some emphasis on relating
to some classic themes as well as experiences of recent times
she's also a similar age to me and I think that makes it is a little easier to relate
to some of her topics .

but to listen to a 50 year old woman tell me about swooning some
cary grant look alike, it just doesn't do it for me
and it may do something down on print but in performance it
doesn't do anything

how did people sit through the classic beat generation poetry sessions
without losing it after the 3rd poem?
maybe I just have a bad case of ADD but I can only take so much
at a time, its kinda like classical music sitting in one place, not talking
it just makes it really hard to enjoy something.

I mean I really love poetry and don't think it is dead(yet?)
but do think it needs something.
what that is, I don't know, but it definitely does

I guess that doesn't really offer up a whole boatload of help
but thought it an interesting topic and would like to hear people's opinions

it also reminds me of how blues(already dead),jazz, painting, and photography
are all pretty much dead as well.

I mean you get to a point where you try to reinvent an art form that
you end up getting right back where you started a million years ago
like painting where you get to the point where you
paint nothing and then 20 years later people start painting in some classical
style that has already been painted how does anything progress

does art have a difinitive ending in some mediums?

"...hold on voltaire "

Time to take off the training wheels boys...

So you guys wanna take on the big kids on the sand lot huh?

can munchie even get off the couch?
jeff will you have time to be separated long enough from laurel
to play a softball game>?
nicklass might get there way way too late for the first pitch
ala the surprise party, get your cane, cape and top hat buddy

"why don't you sit the next couple of plays out there champ..."

well here we go...

this should prove to be a very exciting and mind-numbing experience
as we tackle the battle of ages(rock of ages...def leppard?? what?no sleep no sense fo me)

I can't wait, I might have to go there early morning with some rakes
and gets the field in perfect playing shape, maybe even
give old roger bossard a call at comiskey

what are the odds makers saying for tomorrow?

buy joanna newsom now

Its the part when Mr Roper say's "I want you out..."

So when you see your neighbor carryin' somethin',
Help him with his load,
And don't go mistaking Paradise
For that home across the road

"Dear landlord,
Please don't dismiss my case.
I'm not about to argue,
I'm not about to move to no other place.
Now, each of us has his own special gift
And you know this was meant to be true,
And if you don't underestimate me,
I won't underestimate you."

EVICTED!!!

Thats right, D-bones, Q, and Faskchefski, are hear by delegated
to the curb. The once glorious home of
late night dance aprties, ren and stimpy stoner marathons,
fask in a skirt cooking up zuchinni turkey tacos with roasted
jalepeno's, back porch, front porch, alley porch lazy days
are all coming to a close.

But don't fret
we plan on re-grouping ala the rebellion in star wars
on a quiet planet on endor to finally take down the empire
we will be back and in even better form

I am still in shock though

picture yourself completely hungover from a night
of beautiful drunken revelery when you stumble past a full
garbage can full of pbr's and high lives
to find your 78 year landlady and her 16 year son
knocking on your door and handing you a letter from
her lawyer.

"30 days to leave the premises..."

What that shit can't be legal, I argued and told
them I needed 60 days(gp told me 90 is the legal amount)
but even so we need to move now
(we have more shit stored in that apartment than ol doc brown
has at the old house down there on 1646 Riverside Drive..you better belize it)

well if its going down this way
so be it, lets spend the next 60 days in a row
raising hell and high water enjoying the last days we got

saturday was amazing I remember telling myself that I was
gonna take it easy and go to bed early quick spiral
flash forward to late afternoon

voss man sitting in the dark trying to do a cross word puzzle
by garage light, with no carb, no messing around meat patties and
sassages. the eventual talk of "have you ever thought about killing yourself"
beautiful sky hacks, a couple of stalls, and g3po fighting the cloths lines
all awhile keeping a constant DJ rotation of tunes.

kb, jazzeressyln great party thanks for having me

I think I fell in love for the first time in weeks
and couldn't help but feel youthful for about 10 seconds
right until I realized I was about 10 years older than the misses
that every other guy was already hitting on with the straps

hey well at least she thought I was a student at columbia,
so I don't feel that creepy (well not entirely at least)

hey and she loves crossword puzzles

thats on the list...

Time of the Preacher...

ministerD 

I have decided that the topsy turvey life of indie rock and genetics
is just way too much for me and that I am leaving society to join
the Amish and become a minister. If anyone is interested(especially the ladies...) let me know and I can give you a couple of weekend crash courses in ministry and the "real" christian life if you know what I mean.

up from the depths...

30 stories high

PODZILLA
PODZILLA
PODZILLA.................and PODZOOOkie........

hell yeah, baseball is finally back
and the whitesox are here to reclaim their throne

quick cat like agility
acute pitching
competent managing

and you know what else is urgent..FUN!

bring it on