My initial response to e-poetry based on pieces assigned so far is undetermined. I have mixed feelings about the pieces we have experienced thus far. When I think of poetry that is written in books or even online without animation in comparison to poetry that is read for you or paired with pictures, I immediately think various best selling books that have been made into movies. A big fan of reading, I thoroughly enjoy being able to sit down with a book and read the words of the author while injecting some of my own personal story into the book. Although the characters in a book are created by the author, the reader does have some input as to how the characters look or sound. For example, Wally Lamb may have written " She's Come Undone" but I fell in love with Dolores as I saw her in my mind. Once a best selling book becomes a movie, it inevitably leaves those who have read the book disappointed. Simply put, the movies never live up to the characters as we imagine them.
" The Best Cigarette" poem was enjoyable. I enjoyed the text version much more than the Action Poetry version. With the text version I was able to linger over words or images that I deemed important. It was self paced. When the poem was read for me, it felt rushed. I scrambled to keep up with the reader and felt like I was missing the beauty of the poem. The images presented were enjoyable but I much rather contextualize the poem myself.
The poem by Lewis was a bit confusing at first, but after a couple reading, I think I started to understand the message he was trying to convey. In terms of the flash version of the poem with the movable tile pieces, to put it bluntly, if I wanted to play with a puzzle I could go to a game site to do that. I understand ( or at least I believe I do) that the puzzle pieces fitting together is a symbol of his many lives. I guess I would consider that adding to the message of the poem, but I am not a large fan.
The interactive version of "Mermaid" was just bizarre to me. The words were so small that they were unreadable and everything shook as you went to click on it. To me, that defeated the entire purpose of having a poem.
Maybe e-poetry is useful in some ways though. We live in a world where most adults can not concentrate on a given task for any extended period of time. If readers can click, move pieces, listen to someone else read the poetry and shake words, maybe it will give them that extra focus they need to actually complete the poem. Personally, thus far, I am not a fan of e-poetry but I do think it has potential. If a writer is going to add images to their poem, maybe it would appeal to me more if they put images of themselves and the time in their life when the poem was written. I feel like if they were to do that, I could connect with the author and better understand their emotions and feelings at the time. I don't enjoy when the poetry is read aloud because ( just like the books versus the movie argument) the reader is able to put inflection in words that I may not have or they may give no meaning to parts I think are crucial to the poem. It almost discourages the reader from thinking for themselves about the words presented. I much rather allow my mind to do the work than have someone do it for me.