What a great and unexpected week for my poem “Crystal Radio.” “Crystal Radio” (which I sometimes just call “the light bulb poem”) is a spoken word piece I wrote about two years ago and have performed only a few times in front of an audience. I started to fear that the piece was too obscure and the narrative convoluted. So, I just sort of stopped doing it. Then, just this week, two wonderful things happened.
First, a Seattle-based artist named Jenn Eakin sent me a link to two visual art pieces she created that were inspired by my poem. I’m in love with them, especially the second one called, “is your heart then a nuclear reactor?” Check them out at Jenn’s blog here:
http://boxtwenty.tumblr.com
Then, I found the link to a blog created by Chicago-based designer and writer, John Paul Davis (a Writer-in-Residence with Vox Ferus) who wrote such a good post about the poem that I understand the poem better myself! This post might be better crafted than the poem. A great compliment. The post is called, “Implication as a Poetic Device.”
http://www.johnpauldavis.org
There is no better compliment I can think of than finding the work of these two artists and knowing I had a role in providing some inspiration. A great week to be a (poor and struggling) writer!
Video of “Crystal Radio” recorded at Portland’s WordStock in 2008:
Posted by John Paul Davis - Is Your Heart Then A Nuclear Reactor? on November 3, 2009 at 2:52 am
[...] Seattle poet Karen Finneyfrock, whose poem, “Crystal Radio” I wrote about last week, linked to that post and also to the post of Jenn Eakin, an artist who, inspired by the same poem, has [...]
Posted by Dane on November 3, 2009 at 7:53 am
I really love this piece, and have wondered often why you don’t perform it more regularly. I suppose I know now, but I’d love to hear it live sometime.
Posted by Jenn Eakin on December 17, 2009 at 4:35 am
I just read John Paul Davis’s review of this poem and you’re right, it’s excellent! This is exactly why i loved the poem but (considering I’m a visual artist) could not put in words. I’ve been trying to figure out why I connect with it so well and his last sentence explains it: “Sometimes it’s in what a poet choose not to say that is most important.”