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  #1  
Unread 07-03-2017, 07:04 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Default Hold your nose and try it

I have learned more about myself by what I’ve posted here on the Sphere than I can recall having learned anywhere else, including decades of academic education but excluding marriage.

Which brings me to this thread: the twitter poetry of Brian Bilston. I have been following his poetry on twitter for the past few months – I know very little else about him – and think he is a true new genre poet. I would think John Whitworth will not be impressed (sorry John, but I just can’t imagine). But others... I am a dogged social media skeptic but I know what I like (poetry) and it keeps changing.

I'd like to know what poets here on the Sphere think of him. Try him. Go ahead. Hold your nose and try him. You might be pleasantly surprised.

https://twitter.com/brian_bilston

Last edited by Jim Moonan; 07-03-2017 at 07:13 PM.
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Unread 07-03-2017, 07:50 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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I gave it ten minutes and found him amusing and interesting. I mean, he's not a genius or anything, but I did "follow" him.
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  #3  
Unread 07-04-2017, 01:17 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is online now
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I can't see or hear him because there's a box asking me to sign in that obscures the onscreen text. I'll see if I can track him down elsewhere on t'interwebz. Perhaps, though, he is like unto the young man I introduced on the Flyting thread.

https://www.facebook.com/tomfoolery2...7980169950946/

I commented there on the new wave in performance poetry but can't copy it here because it rhymes.
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Unread 07-04-2017, 02:03 AM
Brian Watson Brian Watson is offline
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He has a web page, which may be a more convenient way to read him than via Twitter: brianbilston.com
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Unread 07-04-2017, 02:09 AM
Jerome Betts Jerome Betts is offline
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I didn't know about the Twittering, but Brian Bilston had a very entertaining piece, Book Group, in Lighten Up Online 29, March 2015.
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  #6  
Unread 07-04-2017, 11:47 AM
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Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Quote:
I commented there on the new wave in performance poetry but can't copy it here because it rhymes.
Annie, it's only members' own poetry that can't be posted in a GT thread.

I'm looking forward to reading some of Brian Bilston's poems; thanks for the link to his website, Brian W.

Jayne
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Unread 07-04-2017, 11:56 AM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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Roger, that's what I get from him. Cleverness and a nice way with words.

Ann, try the website Brian includes in his post. Hope this link below works for you...

Jerome, I will check that piece out. I much prefer his twitterish approach to poetry over the slams and rap poets I've heard/read. I think he has a bit of cummings in him. But I am guarding against what I suspect might be glibness and flippancy.

What got me interested in him was this piece:

https://brianbilston.files.wordpress...3/img_4817.jpg

It expresses the confluence of Trumpism and Russian hacking of our election process in the 2016 election in a form shape poem. I thought it was clever and still do.
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Unread 07-04-2017, 11:57 AM
Michael Cantor Michael Cantor is offline
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Am I allowed not to do handsprings? He sounds like a really good, and very self-conscious, high school poet. (Added in) And I do like the Trump one you reference above. But too much of the rest is clever, but not all that good.

Last edited by Michael Cantor; 07-04-2017 at 12:10 PM.
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Unread 07-04-2017, 12:04 PM
Jim Moonan Jim Moonan is offline
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No handsprings required. Just snap your fingers : )

Not the high school poets I've encountered. They are mostly incomprehensible. Besides, even Shelley was a high school poet once...
But I get a similar feeling about his writing as you do. I wondered how others would react.
At least it's a welcome break from some of the other tweeters. At least it's poetry.
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  #10  
Unread 07-07-2017, 10:36 AM
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Jennifer Reeser Jennifer Reeser is offline
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"I hope that our lips
get stucker and stucker"

elicited a genuine smile. I am afraid that is as far as I can go

Jennifer
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