George Quasha's "Poetry Is"

poetry is [vol. I] from George Quasha on Vimeo.

Ron Silliman posted this video by George Quasha. It's a bit long for me. I can only take about thirty minutes of something like this at a time. If I were editing this piece, I would have cut a bunch of people out of this for the sake of fluidity, such as Mikhail Hororowitz's cheesy lines and Anselm Hollo's rambling, but that's the style, I suppose. The video could also do with a few different backdrops. It looks like Quasha filmed every person with that white brick backdrop. It might have been a good idea to pull out of the extreme close-up once in a while as well. Maybe, show some of these authors walking or doing something besides staring at a camera two inches from their face. In any case, I still enjoy hearing some of these takes on what poetry is because you get a clear sense for where each poet is creating pieces for themselves. I definitely get a clear alarm on whose poems I would like to read based on their approach to a definition. Some worthy people of note for myself thus far are: Elizabeth Clark, Jerome Rothenberg, Alan Davies, and Chris Tysh. I found their takes to be interesting. Of course, so far - and I'm only a quarter of my way through this Titanic - Elizabeth Clark's definition of poetry (7:12) resonates with me most of all.
"I think that poetry is an attempt to tell the truth...and that a lot of times that because language obscures the way that you think and what you feel...in poetry you're trying to correct that...correct that distance..."
-Elizabeth Clark