Paige Lewis reads "You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I’ve Made Today Warm"
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2019
- Ours Poetica curator Paige Lewis shares their poem "You Can Take Off Your Sweater, I've Made Today Warm".
Paige Lewis: paigelewispoetry.com/
Space Struck: www.sarabandebooks.org/titles-...
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"remember the sweet rot of it all."
So beautiful
wait, is this John or Hank?
@@Hittf John?
Eeman Almost certainly John it’s 7:00am in Missoula.
Hi !
"what if it's cold"
aight why do i feel like crying
I love how seemingly all-knowing and all-powerful, yet flummoxed, the speaker is. Love is weird.
*abuse, abuse is weird
The tone feels almost parental, but with no established relationship to the character, save that this is a poem and they are the speaker and therefore must be obeyed. So maybe more like a defiance of a controlling god or a social paradigm.
"The click click click of the universe expanding" really got me and I don't know why.
The why of the effect is very important for authors and for analysis, but for reading and listening to poetry, the effect is all that matters
It "clicked" with me, too.
I immediately thought of the clicking/ticking of a clock as time goes by, and the universe expands with every second. Definitely a sentence that makes you think!
I thought of it as a clicking of a pen, how a writer created their own universe and expands it as they write.
Great poem. I like the use of line spacing, and I like how the narrator wants to care for the woman but is completely unable to understand how. I liked the use of the word "glisten" as well, as the narrator tries to impress and provide, when clearly that word should be "listen" if they were truly a good caretaker.
Wow, this is complicated! The speaker in the poem is a mix of controlling and genuinely caring for the person running away. At the end I think the speaker is genuinely concerned, like, “Wait! You might not be ready for an environment I haven’t created specifically for you!”
Yes...
Another reason why I think this poem is written by GLaDOS.
The paraphrasing you provided at the end made me I understand this more. Thank you
Reading your comment and re-listening to the poem made me think about a mother speaking to her daughter. The speaker has so much adoration and care for the person but is simultaneously controlling and confused and dismayed by how the person refuses her ideas like a parent who can't understand why their child won't listen to them.
Sunny That’s so interesting! I can see how this poem could be about a parent. You do all this work setting up a perfect life for your kid and then they just walk away... and that’s a good thing!
Even though it appears the narrator is an all knowing watcher or suitor for the woman, that last line made me think of my parents and the idea of wanting the best for your children but they don’t listen and the frustration and worry that brings. I had a tougher time with this one but the nuggets I pulled for myself were totally worth having a listen.
Starresky this poem reminded me painfully of my grandmother, and the struggle she had growing up in a strict religious household and society: institutions that truly believed that they were on her side, but oppressed her individuality and needs. She has made her own life for herself, even if she could have had one made for her by conforming. Every time I talk to her I see the scars of this lifelong battle to free herself from her upbringing, and I ache to think that if she had 'wanted' it more, or been raised to feel her want, or a multitude of other options, that she would have been able to say no to the summer and winter husbands.
Lucille Renard thank you for sharing! I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother’s struggles but hopefully she smooth the path for you and your life
One thing I quite appreciate about this new channel is that we get to hear the poems directly from the poet. Cadence and tempo can sometimes be an important element.
I have found that when I've written something a while ago, I'll go back and read it incorrectly the first time through. It takes the second read-through to remember how I meant those words to be read. Perhaps that's an inherent flaw in my own writing or anyone else's that _requires_ a particular cadence for it to flow properly. However, if that's an issue, then perhaps there is a flaw with the poem.
On the other hand, maybe it's not a flaw. Maybe your poems are written to be performed.
'One wrote tales of sailors who drowned after mistaking the backs of whales for islands.'
THAT. is poetry. it's unexpected but so specific, so perfectly worked into the narrative of the rest of the poem, that it feels deeply true.
"what if it's cold" is a threat if I've ever heard one.
I was starting to think this channel wasn't for me. Not to speak poorly of anyone's content, but the way my mind tends to wander can make it difficult to take in everything that's being read to me. But this, this is the first poem here that has absolutely captivated me from start to finish, and I find myself at the end of it simply stunned.
We hope you find more poems you like in the upcoming videos! -Paige
Thalandor46 Thank you so much for this comment. I actually found myself struggling with this one, and it felt very not-for-me. Thank you for reminding me that it’s okay if some poems don’t catch the way your mind turns, and it’s good, because it’s evidence that our minds all run differently; but there are still poems for all
That's fascinating because this one was the exact opposite for me. It's what I always thought of when I think about poetry. The others I loved, this one loses me so much that it just becomes meaningless words. It's actually really frustrating. :(
Mario S I'm no poetry expert, but with some of them I think it helps to not worry about it all making sense and just to focus on the emotional content... Like, I don't know why the narrator is trying to set the woman up with two astronauts, but I got that the narrator was kind of all powerful and yet desperately trying to please, and that's a funny mental image. Especially because the things they come up with are so random. Like "Please don't go! Will you stay if I make everyone speak Latin, and give you some inflatable deer?"
This made me think of the narrator from The Stanley Parable when you start to do your own thing.
I love closing my eyes and just listening.
you mean glistening
usually following along with the words as the speaker reads helps me to understand the poem better. but for this one, I got really confused. then I just closed my eyes and listened to it, and it began to make sense.
the speaker can give the woman anything- but it's not what she wants. she doesn't want things handed to her on a silver platter. she doesn't want to be coddled. she doesn't want to be smothered. she doesn't want two random men she doesn't know, idolizing her so much that they abandon their livelihoods for her. because they are being foolish, and do they really know her? or do they just see their own desires projected onto her?
maybe she wants a world where she is free to be herself, not treated like a child, or placed on a pedestal. maybe she wants to face hardship so she can learn to provide for herself.
maybe I'm projecting; maybe I'm supposed to. this poem hit hard.
Absolutely brilliant the mind of this woman is. I heard her read this for the first time 24 hours ago and cannot get it out of my head. The ending line gets me. Probably my favorite poem.
This poem brought tears to my eyes and I'm not sure why
I'll never get over your voice. It's soft, patient, and meek, but omnipotent. It's beautiful.
Most of the poem felt like something that's just there barely below the surface. But then the "what if it's cold" made me very much Feel Things out of nowhere. 💛💛💛
This channel is so wonderful, these videos improve my day and inspire me whenever they come out
It brings me so much joy to know these poems are making your day better! - Paige
Is this you @@ourspoetica I always see reply comments from Paige. Are these the same 2 people responding and reading this poem?
At first I was like, that's such a sweet and lovely title: you can take of your sweater, I've made today warm.
Now after this poem, it sounds different, controlling. Interesting.
I think about this poem a lot. Thanks for creating it, Paige.
I love how the poem can not even be contained by a normal page. Lovely.
This reminded me of Eden - a sense of ultimate bliss, but also emptiness. Sometimes it seems like we arent ever really meant to be happy.
I’ve never seen spacing as a function of story telling like that before.
I like it quite a lot! Thanks.
its called concrete poetry. I'm quite new to it myself. It's so great though!
I've watched every video so far, this channel was simply a brilliant idea. Wishing you guys the best of luck!
Thank you! We hope you keep watching! So many amazing poems in the queue. -Paige
I see your profile pic, MF DOOM fan? Great poetry to be found in rap, from DOOM, to Earl, to Eminem, to Pac and so many more - sadly not everyone go past the shock and pop aspect of it and refrain from thinking it complexly past prejudices and misconceptions.
WHY AM I CRYING?
this may be my new favourite poem
You have such a soft spoken voice. It matches the poem, I think.
Holy shit, this is one of the greatest poems I have ever encountered.
I feel my brain un-rot when I watch these videos. Thank you.
The narrator’s voice makes this outstanding poem even better. Very thankfully John Green recommended this channel.
I could listen to her voice all day.
What a lovely feeling
Reading Space Struck and I wanted to have a look at you, now your voice to me is clearer. Great stuff, Great anthology.
Whoa. That took me on a trip. I love that soft voice and the way the words mive across the page. So many feelings right now!
This was beautiful. Also for some reason it made me think of Welcome to Night Vale as the structure began to scatter.
Wow. Seriously so, so good.
Hearing their beginning comment made reading the poem so much more beautiful. I wish that poetry was followed by a short commentary that doesn't necessarily analyse or explain but just gives the most subtle context. I find how many poems there are in a poetry book really intimidating - as though I can never do justice to reading them all.
I really loved this poem! didn't know Paige Lewis
Coming back to this so long after first hearing it, and replaying it multiple times, I'm taking the title in a whole new light. By the end of the poem, the title sounds like a final word the speaker is trying to get in the woman's head. The woman, really, a protagonist, has shown she doesn't need the sweater and the speaker makes it as if they were the one that made her not need it. I love the intro at the beginning. A speaker disobeyed is a speaker left alone and in denial. And it's exciting that we'll never know what becomes of the protagonist in her freedom as she's finally unwatched.
Just the structure of the poem on it's own tells a tale , this was superb
I want to listen to this many more times, and read it on my own in my own voice too...it connected with me
This was so amazing i was barely breathin through it, and just exhaled at the end
Now, this is fantastic!
Such an interesting and captivating reading.
You really brought the words off the page and into the air around me.
Thank you so much for this channel! My class is doing a poetry unit and it's actually really interesting, and combined with this channel, I think you're right John: I really do like poetry, I just didn't know it yet. I read a bunch of poetry over the weekend while waiting for this next video, and actually I read this poem, too! I think I knew I liked poetry when I was taking a shower last night and had a thought that made me go, "Dang, I really need to reread that poem," just for the feeling it caused (The More Loving One by W. H. Auden). Or maybe it was when, instead of doing my calculus homework yesterday, I sat and read "The Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde out loud to myself (fantastic poem, by the way!). I was just reading whatever I could get my hands on on the Internet, and it was great. Do you have any recommendations for good books of poetry to start with, though? I'm thinking of buying one, but I don't know where to start. (I also really like poetry with a rhyme scheme!)
Ellie Larson The first poetry collection I owned was Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. I loved that as a kid. A few years ago, I started reading more and more poetry. I haven’t read a collection I didn’t like, but I think some of my favorites were Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, both Killer and Uptalk by Kimmy Walters, and Calling A Wolf A Wolf by Kaveh Akbar. I don’t know how much any of those have poems with a rhyme scheme exactly, but basically all of them play around with sound and will often have internal or slant rhymes, and I think it’s really cool to see the associations writers make that aren’t precise end-line rhymes. Also, if you enjoyed this video, Paige Lewis’ collection Space Struck is available for pre-order from Sarabande Books! I’ve heard only good things about it, and every poem I’ve read of theirs so far has made me feel joyous and mesmerized and proud.
@@ash_harper Thanks so much for the recommendations! I'll definitely check them out!! :)
Extraordinary.
Awesome!
I have chills ahhh
I love your poems
Soothing as a lullaby
This is such a fascinating concept. I love it.
I love your voice!
I’m not sure why I love this poem. Maybe I don’t even care what it’s “true meaning ” is.
Absolutely love that specific issue of Poetry. Karen Solie's poem in it is brilliant.
Great and surprising imagery. Very engaging!
This just made me feel confused as to what its about
"The speaker in the poem is a mix of controlling and genuinely caring for the person running away. At the end I think the speaker is genuinely concerned, like, “Wait! You might not be ready for an environment I haven’t created specifically for you!"” -what's behind the sky,
this was copied from another comment.
Tag yourself:
I'm sweet rot.
kujmous does it matter which I am?
Endless pears!
I'm "what if it's cold"
I'm glisten.
Gemmy starlight
Mind blown
Omg yes president Lewis!!!!!
I just read this in space struck and didn't quite connect with it but, dang, this reading
I feel like I wasn’t able to grasp a lot of that. But I think I connected with it all the same
it is probably improbable, but you guys should really try to get kate tempest on this channel :D i really like this poem, as well!
I really recommend Savannah Brown's poetry. She had a RUclips channel full of it and I think it would be really cool if she was able to read one of her poems here😁
I liked how it all tied into it all and how the dear thing was used, I wish i could have seen more rythmincy in the way it was being spoken or something to make it move more smoothly.
I was glistening.......and I gliked!
Who are the 2 men in the poem, the 2 astronauts? I can feel the desperation in the speakers voice as the subject of the poem leaves, but who are the 2 men who are coming down? Thoughts?
I see them as hypothetical men. The speaker is saying to the subject that even men in space, as far away as you can imagine, would ignore their important missions and come all the way back down for her. When the speaker talks about the differences between them and how the subject could have both if she wanted, it feels like she is saying the speaker could have either man, both men even, the whole world is open to her if she would only take it.
i think with the two men example what the speaker is trying to illustrate is that it doesn’t matter who these men are. they both appear to be vastly different from each other, but the differences shouldn’t matter to the reader because they’ve “just quit their mission for you”
with this, the speaker is trying to show that it doesn’t matter if you like your lover or not, you should hold on to them because they just love you so much.
but this is just my interpretation of it and how i see abuse. great work by paige! the poem was a hauntingly beautiful illustration of an abusive partner.
🖤🖤🖤
Excuse me if my question is too tech-nerdy, but I love the effect of texts appearing and blurring. How do you do it?
I can fall asleep with her voice.
Yeah. Yeah for sure.
I just realized that it works just as well with an abusive parent as it does with a lover
I feel like sweaters are like fruit skins here, but like with a slower decay rate-- but it also begs the question, what cold-ens faster: sweaters or pears or dears or deer or people? Decay (the voice/other stuff) doesn't seem to be decay here but maybe a signal-jamming instead-- like eating instead of rotting, jumping into as snow bank with no clothes instead of standing in an industrial refrigerator with clothes, even though I'm probably wrong.
LIKE WHAT HUGS US UKNOW>>>>>??????? ugh.
Also, the audios inability to equalize/ de-pop the hihi ends reminds me of my dog's stuck jowls while trying to eat fresh peanut butter, and I'm simultaneously here for it and away for it, given my mood, and what is connotating for me in that moment. hahahahah. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE POEM@!!!!
You have a Danish doppelganger - the two of you look more alike than twins! 😄😄
This is my English professor :)
Can somoene please let me know their interpretation of this poem? I felt a little emotional.
I get a weird GlaDos vibe from some of this?
in any event, fantastic poem!
“the sweet rot of it all”
What if it's cold
Ok, I admit it...
I don't get it.
I mean, maybe I do? I'm not sure.
Anyone else out there unable to listen to this due to the mouth/saliva sounds? (Is there a word for this?)
Nice try, GLaDOS! You can’t fool me by publishing your poetry on a Vlogbrothers channel.
reminds me of the Stanley Parable
4 am poem
This poem, to me, sounds like a commentary on the life of a very beautiful woman that has everything ready to be given to her, but she doesn't want it.
The Doctor I kind of feel that woman; in making everything for her, she no longer has a say in her own life. She doesn’t want the kind of love the poem describes, that kind that hollywood pretends is safe but is saccharine at best and dangerous at worst. I would not want a partner who would give up the whole universe for me on a whim, and then expect I would reciprocate with my Self. My partner surrounds himself in numbers I can’t understand, and I love him for the joy I see in him when he does. And I see the same when I’m surrounded in fantasy, just joy.
I both agree and disagree. For me, this poem is about a woman whom society (the speaker) tells is being "offered everything" - that is, men will leave their jobs to be with her just after looking at her. And she should be grateful, the omnipotent speaker tells her - disregarding whatever is inside that women. Obey me, the speaker says. Marry the two men, have their children, it does not matter who they are - they found you so beautiful they left their jobs, be grateful for that! But the speaker fails to recognize that the woman is a person with thoughts, emotions and wants of her own. Somebody leaving their jobs because they perceive you to be desirable is not to have everything. I think the woman in the poem rejects the notion that she should be grateful to men and to society for finding her pretty. There is so much more to life than others finding you pretty or desirable - dreams, hopes, things to learn - things she would not be able to pursue if she did not leave the confining idea tht she owes those astronauts because they find her desirable.
Anyhow, just my interpretation :)
Is the speaker god? Or at least "a god"? They certainly act like they know whats best, still they get really flustered when the woman disobays. For me the speaker reminds me of my mom, the way her words and her wishes are commanding yet reasurring, how they at the same time give me comfort and fear, and the way i somehow always feel a strong urge, or a need to fight back. My mom is the god i want to stop believing in.
I hope that you're doing well now, and I hope you're feeling happy. May your next day be ever better than the one before it.
Quite an interesting free-form poem here. The first part was structured, minus the rhyming, but then suddenly it changes to using somewhat long pit stops and whenever there is a long pause the words are seen to be arranged and spaced far away from each other and there are also lines that have one single word. This is quite common practice. At first it felt kinda abrupt but the poetess managed to quite easily shift from completely structured to completely unstructured.
As for the interpretation, well, I'm kinda baffled. At first I thought this is a philosophical poem about the girl looking up in the sky and waiting for happiness in life and the poetess telling her that anything she wanted in this world is possible, on account of two astronauts leaving their mission and coming back to meet her. And that she shouldn't forget her sweater, i.e her mind body and emotions and be herself. To not be depressed or something.
Then again, there are quite a few interpretations and the poetess mentioned at the start she wanted to see, "how the reader reacts upon being disobeyed," from this I take a guess that she meant 'obey'' in a literal sense like she wanted to make a poem that disobeyed in structure and context to see our reaction. And she has purposely made the poem so vague and disorderly for testing us and our reactions. My guess is in truth she never had any message she wanted to convey when composing the poem other than trying to make it a test.
poet
I love that poems can evoke a new feeling with how words are spaced, conveying how someone in the poem gets distracted, impatient, wanders off, wanting for more. Wonderful poem, Paige Lewis.
But a little bit of constructive criticism, if I may: the microphone. It has a modest pop filter, but I'm not sure it's enough because I can hear the wetness of every syllable, every purse of the lips and wet shift of the tongue and it gave me the heebie jeebies to the point that I nearly stopped watching immediately. I had to turn the volume way down and play it on my cheap desk speakers instead of my headphones to minimize the sounds. I'm not an expert in microphones, but perhaps a little more distance, perhaps a foam cap filter. Sorry to complain, it just really squicks me.
I found this poem creepy and suffocating. Why?
I think that was the point! The speaker wanted to be caring but was ultimately controlling.
I'm really trying John, but this really just seems like nonsense.
Feasible Sometimes if you try to read too into things, they lose their meaning.
The very reason John said he created this channel was so others could see that Poetry is not about “how smart you are”, but rather, how much Poetry can help you connect and put into words some very distinct and weird feeling life can bring.
Listen to it again, but don’t read too much into it. Then listen again, and try to think from the perspective of another character in the poem. Think about what they must be *feeling* . Feel the context. Feel the emotions. Don’t think too much. Just *feel* , understand, and *then* think.
This will happen if you start off with complicated poems like these. Start with something sweet and easy to understand like "A life on the ocean wave" by Epes Sargent
@@evernightrose5152 I am not sure this poem is actually especially complicated, just unusual. To quote two other commenters who clearly expressed my reading of the poem, it portrays an imagined speaker who is "seemingly all-knowing and all-powerful, yet flummoxed" because they want "to care for the woman but [are] completely unable to understand how."
I found it a very human poem, if that makes any sense. :)
Watching these poems makes me feel so dumb and now I hate myself more for not being intelligent as I want to be.
why, when all "intelligence" (whatever that is) matter.
You just be best yourself, and love yourself.
“Getting” poetry isn’t really about intelligence; it’s about conveying certain feelings, which poems do by connecting you to previous experiences you might have. If you don’t ‘get’ a poem it’s probably because none of the lines connect with your personal experiences. That’s got nothing to do with intelligence, just with what has or hasn’t happened to you in your life.
Imagine someone posts a meme with a Game of Thrones reference, if you’ve never watched GoT and therefore don’t get the reference, are you a dumb person? No. You’re just someone who has never watched Game of Thrones.
I like the poem, but I don't like the way she reads it. I know it's her poem, but the intonation seems wrong at several moments.
I really dislike this poem.