Amy Elmers Revisions and Citations

[0:00] Blank screen

I honestly had no idea what poem I was going to use for this project, so I went to the Poetry Foundation website and started inundating myself with different poems. I came across the poem “Cloud Fishing” by Phillis Levin, which was just published in the February 2016 edition of Poetry Magazine. I read the poem and listened to a podcast commentary that was associated with it, and really became hooked on it.

[0:31] Clips of cloud videos on Vimeo

When I started looking for clips, I thought that the obvious footage would be to find some clouds, so I searched high and low for cloud footage, and saw lots of pretty videos, but they didn’t seem to match with what the theme of the overall poem was. I decided I needed to turn to something a little less literal for my e-poem. Because the poem seemed like one continuous thought to me, I wanted to incorporate pieces of video that I could use multiple times throughout in order to add consistency. I thought the passing of time and the aging process were important themes in the poem, so I utilized a video with a series of different clocks in a progression that I thought followed the developing tension within the poem itself. Because the clocks are not the typical clocks you’d see everyday, I think they add suspense and a feeling of relativity to the poem as well.

[1:16] A clip of “Under the clouds” on vimeo

Much of the inspiration for my e-poem came from a video I found on Vimeo. It’s called “Under the clouds,” and it had a fast-paced, but thoughtful, series of video clips that showed what happens on Earth underneath the clouds. So I used different sequences from this video in my e-poem.

[1:42] Clock footage 

Going along with the reflection of this poem as a reflection of thought, I decided to incorporate a piece of video that I thought would symbolize a journey. The train images do this throughout the e-poem and also serve as an angle from the life of a fish, looking into the light and following it in and out of different tunnels. I felt that the poem was trying to convey a sense of mystery, and that the light we all see may not actually be what we think it is, that what we’re chasing after, or “swimming” after if you want to carry-on the fish metaphor, may not actually be the best thing for us. Maybe we’re deceived, maybe we don’t have the wherewithal to see the world clearly like we think we do. We’re really just a fish, deceived by the light, unaware of the bait that is in front of us. 

[2:24] Planetary Collective video on Vimeo

A group called the Planetary Collective put together a video of astronauts talking about the incredible views they’ve experienced while seeing the Earth from space. I was really intrigued by their perspective and by how many of them were so humbled to be in space, and how they felt so small in comparison to the scale of the universe. I felt like not only did the message of their video fit well with the meaning of my poem, but the images themselves of the Earth from space were really captivating, and they fit really well in my e-poem.

[3:08] Subway video on Vimeo

Towards the end of my e-poem, I wanted to capitalize on the humanity of my poem by including some relatable faces. While much of my poem spoke to people on a macro level, I really wanted people to remember that this poem spoke to them as an individual. I found this clip of people waiting for a subway, and I thought that the looks on the people’s faces, like the man with his watch, really just worked well for my e-poem.

[3:39] Web page showing poem

The first few lines of “Cloud Fishing” are serene and happy feeling. When I first read the poem, I read it all that way. It wasn’t until I read the poem several times, and listened to the podcast, that I understood that the poem had a much more “probing” mood. It’s not meant to be a poem that gives you the warm-fuzzies. I knew that I needed to incorporate music that was inquisitive and even eerie.

[4:01] “Madreselva” by Maya Solovey plays

At first I found this piece of music. I loved that it had words in a different language because I felt that it added to the layers of mystery and confusion that were already in the poem, but it didn’t have a good place to fade out, and it didn’t seem to end well with my poem. I also didn’t think that the lyrics were really adding to the meaning of the poem, so I decided to find a different piece instead.

[4:26] “Sad Ambient Echoes” by Judson Lee Music plays

Overall, I loved using each and every piece of media that I was able to incorporate into this piece. It’s now an entirely different, standalone work, even though it’s made up of so many different pieces of media.