Are you a poet or a poetry enthusiast?
Ayumi here, and I’m going to sound like a car salesman for a few minutes while you read this. (Feel free to skip any time. I believe “j” is the magic key for that.) I fancy myself a bit of a poet, and as I discovered in my workshop class this past semester it’s really helpful to have regular deadlines to work on one’s poetic voice. Also, I’ve been meaning to start a podcast for quite some time, and since I’ve checked and found that I have all the tech stuff necessary to start one, I want to.
Soooo I’d like to introduce Ayu’s PoemCast! Except… I can’t yet. I need your submissions! I mean, I could just read all my old stuff but no one would really want to listen to that. No, I want to have a podcast that celebrates poetry and the beauty of words from all around the world. I intend for this podcast to be multilingual, so here’s what I need from y’all:
If you’re a poet, or write poetry: The preferred method is for you to send me a copy of your poem in text form, along with an audio file of you or someone you know reading the poem. If your poem isn’t in English, provide a translation. If you cannot read the poem, and it’s in English, Japanese, or Italian, I can recite it for you. If it’s in other languages, I might be able to get a friend or acquaintance to read it, but I can’t guarantee that. If you have any requests for a poetry reciter, at least with English (I’ve been told my voice is perfect for cute children’s books and that even causes some of my own poetry to lose its seriousness) I will try my best. Just like I want to share lots of different voices in poems, I want listeners to be able to hear differences in the beauty of spoken word. Keep in mind also that with different accents come different inflections in words so if there’s any important things in regards to meter that my USAian English might not catch, let me know when you send your poetry. My Japanese and Italian is also a bit foreignly accented, so keep that in mind as well.
If you’re an enthusiast: Inspired by a poem? Send it to me, or send me an audio recording! Keep in mind that the poetry must either be in the public domain (I’ll probably be reciting some Edmund Spenser, myself) or you must show that you have the poet’s permission in some concrete written form. (E-mail exchange is acceptable, I suppose.) Again, I can only recite English, Japanese or Italian poetry, but if I need to find other language speakers I will do my best.
If you’re neither: Perhaps you could reblog this anyway? Maybe one of your followers fits the first two categories.
To submit, please email ayuspoemcast@gmail.com with text and/or audio files, as well as the name you’d like to be credited with and your country (if you’d like to be more specific than that- example, I’m from NY, USA- that’s fine too) and any additional information, such as any background information concerning the poetry.
Literally any poetry will be accepted, but as might be natural the first episode, which I plan to drop sometime in the end of January, will be “Beginnings.” You can interpret that however you wish. I’ll probably just use your submissions to guide me in future episodes. Some will be subject themes, other times they might be forms. Please, send away, I can’t wait to see what you’ve got out there!
