The Ekphrastic Review
 

Hi,

I have a piece forthcoming in TER, mid-March. It's inspired by one of the movements within Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition suite, which I used to enjoy playing. All the pictures are by Viktor Hartmann; I composed a poem or lyrics for every movement a few years ago and I've been revising everything since joining the 'sphere. Thank you!

Best wishes,
Fliss

PS: I also found out today that I received an HM (Honourable Mention) in a contest, for 'Last requests', formerly 'Deliverance' on Met here. I don't think I'm allowed to link to it, but hopefully I can just thank everyone who helped me with that poem :)

Congratulations! Lovely news!

Sarah-Jane

Great news, Fliss!

Susan

Yes, good stuff Fliss.

Send us some links when you can. :)

Congrats, Fliss!

Many thanks, Susan, Sarah-Jane, Joe, and Martin :)

Joe, I submitted my 'sphere version of the poem, so that's still up on Met ('Deliverance'). I'll link to TER once the poem's published; it should be 15th March :)

Best wishes,
Fliss

Hello again,

I'm happy to report that the poem has been published and it's here.

I think of it as one of my lyrical pieces, in this case a waltzer (cha-cha-CHING). I didn't workshop it here, but it went down well on D&A ('Poemusicals'). I'm afraid it's inspired by a Russian (part German) painter and a Russian composer, but TER doesn't mention Mussorgsky and identifies Hartmann as from the UK. (I submitted the piece last year.)

Best wishes,
Fliss

Congratulations, Fliss! A fine venue for your work and then Mussorgsky is a fine composer. Hartmann is new to me, in all honesty!

Cheers,
John

Thanks, John!

I'm a bit confused about things at the moment. I think I heard something on the radio about people cancelling Russian music, but I was half-asleep at the time so I could be wrong about that. Anyway, your latest post on GT makes sense to me. I'm going to make my soup and toast now :)

Best wishes,
Fliss

My go-to quote here remains Celan, asked why he still wrote in German, who said "I'm not going to let the Nazis steal my language." Putin has no right and no business stealing Mussorgsky from the world. The one is a genius, the other a thieving goon and megalomaniac. I spit on Putin as Mostel and Wilder spit on the Nazi armbands in The Producers. Not on Mussorgsky.

Update: well, I don't really want to spit on anyone. I spit at Putin's feet. But I am not planning to cancel Russian culture, that reminds me of freedom fries.

Cheers,
John

Congratulations, Fliss!

Susan

I really like this poem, Fliss. Congrats.

John I., thanks for your go-to quote! I think I've mentioned that I like a lot of Russian music, so I shall bear it in mind :)

Susan and John R., thank you! I've written a lot of poetry to music and I rather wish there was a magazine dedicated to the practice, a sort of sister publication to TER :)

Best wishes,
Fliss

Teaching German as I have over the years, and with substantial Jewish family, I’ve had to think about Nazism and its place in German history. My position is that Hitler hijacked the country for about fifteen years and crashed it into a ditch, much as Trump tried to do to America. Putin I see in similar terms. Let’s not reward the hijackers.

Cheers,
John

That's interesting, John; perhaps you could write a poem about it :)

You know Greek, I think? Do you know the term for poetry inspired by music? I've just looked online, but I haven't found anything yet 🤔

Best wishes,
Fliss

Hi Fliss,

I'd call poetry inspired by music lyric poetry, to begin with! Pound for one goes on about how all poetry aspires to music and the form suffers when it departs too much from that basis. Maybe melopoetic art? It looks like Pound also invented that term, as it happens.

Edit: I feel quite strongly about those hijackings - you're right, maybe I should write about it.

Cheers,
John