What is Poetry WTF?!

Poetry WTF?! is a website dedicated to the kind of poetry I've been discussing recently here at The Combed Thunderclap. It views existing texts as material to be used for new literary works.

Take Remixed Poetry for instance. Existing poems are remixed with the language of other cultural artefacts, whether they be poems, famous speeches, adverts, or indeed anything apprehendable through text.

Then there is Sculpture Poetry. These poems' essence is distilled through a process of subtraction from the originals. However the process does not need to stop there. Subtraction could mean altering the original beyond recognition, as it becomes a different text with a different meaning altogether. The sculpture emerges by chipping away.

Poetry WTF?! moves away from traditional poetry by viewing language and cultural artefacts as raw material, and the novelty of expression is realised  through the different methods applied.

 

Winterslaap

Vir 'n bietjie pret het ek twee ikoniese Afrikaanse gedigte vermeng tot iets minder. Die reel was om van iedere gedig, lyn vir lyn, ietsie te neem, saam te plaas, en niks by te voeg nie (behalwe punktuasie).

Hier is Winternag (Eugene Marais) en Slaap (D.F. Malherbe) soos nog nooit vantevore gesien nie ...

Winterslaap

O koud is die slaap 'n wondersoete ding!
En sag blink haar bloue oë dof-lig en vaak,
so wyd as die Heer diep waterkuile raak
le die droom in sterlig en skemering.
Vir laas beef haar lippe hoog in die rande.
Ek merk hoe langsaam versprei in die brande
die grassaad aan roere, my lieweling
en sluit so my oe soos winkende hande.

O treurig van wilde woeling die wysie
my stille drome op die ooswind se maat,
en deur duisternisse die lied van ‘n meisie
sluit so my oë as haar liefde verlaat.
In die gras slaap 'n wondersoete ding!
Blink op haar bloue oë ‘n druppel van dou,
en soos maneskyn vinnig verbleek dit
tot ryp in die silwer skemering.