Brendan Constantine: "The Opposites Game" - (poem video)
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- This poem is a powerful look at the gun violence issue framed through a classroom writing exercise. Constantine brings the poem to life with a emphatic recitation. Full text of the poem below. Subscribe to our newsletter for more poetry films: mailchi.mp/24f...
~~~The Poet~~~
Brendan Constantine is an LA poet whose most recent book "Dementia, My Darling" was published by Red Hen Press. You can visit his website here: brendanconstant...
Constantine's poem "The Opposites Game" recounts a classroom exercise where students were challenged to write the exact opposite of a line of poetry from Emily Dickinson. The resulting argument is a surprising exploration of language and meaning. The poem was selected for the 2018 Best American Poetry anthology.
~~ The Video ~~
Produced by: Blank Verse Films & New Eve Media
Director: Mike Gioia
Cinematographer: Jacob Spence
Sound Recordist: Paul Massel
Editor: Jacob Spence & Adam Cardenas
~~The Poem~~
This day my students and I play the Opposites Game
with a line from Emily Dickinson. "My life had stood
a loaded gun", it goes and I write it on the board,
pausing so they can call out the antonyms -
My Your
Life Death
Had stood ? Will sit
A Many
Loaded Empty
Gun ?
Gun.
For a moment, very much like the one between
lightning and it’s sound, the children just stare at me,
and then it comes, a flurry, a hail storm of answers -
Flower, says one. No, Book, says another. That's stupid,
cries a third, the opposite of a gun is a pillow. Or maybe
a hug, but not a book, no way is it a book. With this,
the others gather their thoughts
and suddenly it’s a shouting match. No one can agree,
for every student there’s a final answer. It's a song,
a prayer, I mean a promise, like a wedding ring, and
later a baby. Or what’s that person who delivers babies?
A midwife? Yes, a midwife. No, that’s wrong. You're so
wrong you’ll never be right again. It's a whisper, a star,
it's saying I love you into your hand and then touching
someone's ear. Are you crazy? Are you the president
of Stupid-land? You should be, When's the election?
It’s a teddy bear, a sword, a perfect, perfect peach.
Go back to the first one, it's a flower, a white rose.
When the bell rings, I reach for an eraser but a girl
snatches it from my hand. Nothing's decided, she says,
We’re not done here. I leave all the answers
on the board. The next day some of them have
stopped talking to each other, they’ve taken sides.
There's a Flower club. And a Kitten club. And two boys
calling themselves The Snowballs. The rest have stuck
with the original game, which was to try to write
something like poetry.
It's a diamond, it's a dance,
the opposite of a gun is a museum in France.
It's the moon, it's a mirror,
it's the sound of a bell and the hearer.
The arguing starts again, more shouting, and finally
a new club. For the first time I dare to push them.
Maybe all of you are right, I say.
Well, maybe. Maybe it's everything we said. Maybe it’s
everything we didn't say. It's words and the spaces for words.
They're looking at each other now. It's everything in this room
and outside this room and down the street and in the sky.
It's everyone on campus and at the mall, and all the people
waiting at the hospital. And at the post office. And, yeah,
it's a flower, too. All the flowers. The whole garden.
The opposite of a gun is wherever you point it.
Don’t write that on the board, they say. Just say poem.
Your death will sit through many empty poems.
~~ About Blank Verse Films ~~
Blank Verse Films is a project to film poetry started by filmmaker Mike Gioia. All of our poetry videos are posted on this CZcams channel. You can subscribe to the channel and stay updated by clicking here: bit.ly/2tnFyh4
~~~The Mandatory Social Media Stuff~~~
Blank Verse
www.blankverse...
Instagram - bit.ly/2QOOB4P
Twitter - bit.ly/2CoROpx
Facebook - bit.ly/2oHdEuO
Brendan
Twitter - / poetbrendan
Instagram - / brendanconstantine
This poem, and your performance of it, take me back to my stepping from the blacktop of the parking lot to the concrete sidewalk of the patio at the Ina and Oracke Safeway at 8:50 am on January 8, 2011. How different things would have been for so many if that young man had picked up a flower instead of a gun. Thank you for dedicating it to me. Thank you for coming to Tucson to perform it for my friends, the other attendees. I hope those carrying that evening were listening too. June 2, 2015. They need the feel of a hand in their hand. They don't need the feel of cold hard steel.
I was moved and fascinated by this poem from the first time I read it. The poem is not only full of hard truths. It is also strikingly original--a short, multi-voiced drama in which an argument of life and death importance is conducted by children. Equally impressive, Brendan Constantine's performance brings every aspect of the poem painfully alive.
"Nothing is decided" I loved that line because at the end of the day its the truth. I loved the way you performed this piece and the power you put into it. Well done. Keep writing.
Thanks for watching!
I love this poem, I love it and I hear it in my heart sometimes and it makes me want to be something more beautiful in this life.
There's an old line that I love: "If it matches the couch, it's a painting. If it makes you think, it's art." I wonder what it is if it makes you feel? Thank you for this piece.
I was so taken with this piece, I had to share the link with my sister. She said it best, "Pure Oxygen---this is pure oxygen, thank you, thank you."
This performance was so powerful intertwining the passion of teacher and students. It would be great to incorporate the children into the piece, but Brendan gives a superb performance with the differing voices of the children. This is truly amazing and thank you so much for creating this magnificent poem video! I hope you do more. You are a Master Brendan! :) It was also interesting that some of the children's remarks could sting like bullets but sing like a song.
Thanks for watching with such attention and joy. We have a lot more poem videos on our channel. Check them out!
This is an absolute work of art.
The poem is a very beautiful and clever approach to an important issue. Glad you liked it.
I suppose it could be said that it harks back to the "collaborative" approach which is a hallmark of American literature, particularly from the '50s to the '70s. But, yes, beautiful, clever, original - and good as well.
Profound and moving... Agreed, a work of art.
Fabulous poem and presentation. Thank you.
This poetry is life.
It's powerful, I loved it, thank you!
It's a powerful poem.
Very powerful! Really stuck with me.
This is fantastic.
My Lord that was powerful.
Sooooo good!
This poem moved me to tears.
It's a powerful poem. Only gets better each time I re-read it.
that end, damn
An amazing poem read amazingly.
We concur!
Brilliant....
Well done!
*I wonder whether Richard Wilbur's "Book of Opposites" may have been the inspiration for this poem--even if Brendan Constantine was not conscious of it at the time. Any thoughts?*
Will someone please share what the end line, "your death will sit through many empty poems" means to you?
I’m thinking since the opposite of a gun is whatever it’s pointed at, if the students wanted him to write poem, then maybe the gun was pointed at the narrator, a poet. So if the gun was shot and he died, his creation would last (the poems he previously wrote), but there would never be another poem (the empty poems)
On the surface it's the exact opposite of the Emily Dickinson line. On a deeper, level it's hard to say! I'm not entirely sure. What's it mean to you? I'd be curious to hear.
“your death will sit through many empty poems”
i love that line. it could be saying that no amount of words will ever be able to express the pain that the poet experienced after being shot, or it’s saying that your family and friends will never be able to get over your death, and their words will be empty because their emotions have not been dealt with. the words of the poems will be empty either because no one can accurately describe the unimaginable pain that you felt after being shot, or their words will fall short of any sort of emotion because they are incapable of expressing their feelings. i’ve also thought that, in the context of emily dickinson’s line, it might mean that a loaded gun is potential. so perhaps the phrase is saying that the poet’s life was full of wasted potential, and because they didn’t do anything with their life, their death will mean nothing to many people.
If Gru and Will Ferrell had a child and the child went bald.