Each Friday I set aside some bandwidth to feature a poet (along with at least one poem) and a musical artist that makes at least one track available for free download. I do this because I poetry and music but also because I want to see Christians take the creative arts much more seriously. To that end, I try to feature a broad spectrum of both poetry and music (though most of the music is admittedly instrumental, but hey, it’s my blog and that’s what I listen to!). Some of the poetry is “Christian” and some of it isn’t, either way, Christians can be challenged to creatively use language for the glory of God. I also link to the photography of Joe Kennedy, Will Turner, Steve McCoy, Joe Thorn, Alex Forrest and the Friday Flickr Group in which they participate.

Today’s featured poet is Ezra Pound (1885-1972). Pound grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, taught for a brief time but resolved to be a poet and moved to London in 1908. In 1912, Pound invented a school of poetry known as “Imagism,” the principles of which were defined as:

1. Direct treatment of the “thing,” whether subjective or objective.
2. To use absolutely no word that did not contribute to the presentation.
3. As regarding rythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of a metronome.

Today’s poems are one very and one fairly short: “In a Station of the Metro,” and “The Needle.”

In a Station of the Metro (1916)

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

The Needle (1912)

Come, or the stellar tide will slip away.
Eastward avoid the hour of its decline,
Now! for the needle trembles in my soul!

Here we have had our vantage, the good hour.
Here we have had our day, your day and mine.
Come now, before this power
That bears us up, shall turn against the pole.

Mock not the flood of stars, the thing’s to be.
O Love, come now, this land turns evil slowly.
The waves bore in, soon they bear away.

The treasure is ours, make we fast land with it.
Move we and take the tide, with its next favour,
Abide
Under some neutral force
Until this course turneth aside.

• Read Wikipedia’s Ezra Pound page
• Read Pound for yourself

Today’s musical artist is an Australian instrumental outfit known as The Necks. The trio is made up of piano, bass and drums and their music, though technically not confined to jazz has won numerous awards in that category. Their latest CD, The Chemist won Austrailian jazz album of the year. The Necks are what you might call an aquired taste. Their songs typically build a simple motif and repetition of patterns, which they then stretch out for up to an hour. Drawing much from minimalism, their albums tend to consist of one, hour-long track.

For the patient listener, the music is mesmerizing and beautiful in its complexity. For the impatient, well, it will be boring. Today’s featured download is a 25-minute live set from an Australian television appearance.

• Download the untitled live set from The Necks
• Listen to the Necks for yourself
• Visit The Necks official website