Literary Matters - Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers

Local Meeting Boston: BasileOctober 22, 2010The New England sect of the ALSCW gathered atBoston University’s Editorial Institute for its second localmeeting this fall on Wednesday, October 22 nd . Al Basile,accomplished musician and poet, set out to highlight thedisparities between the writing of poetry and the writing oflyrics. His presentation, “Words and Music, and the Musicof Words: the Writing of Song Lyrics and Formal Poetry”was a definite nod to the recent inclusion of “W” in theorganization’s name, and touched upon the nebulousnature of writing that makes it such a gratifying challengeto those who create it and those who experience it.Basile began by transporting back to his childhood,sharing an anecdote about the strange satisfaction ofreading the Burma-Shave billboards (which serve as atestament to the creative foundations advertising reliedon before the advent of pop-up ads and spam mail) ona drive down to Florida with his parents. The conceptwas poetic in a very literal sense: Burma-Shave put upbillboards at specific intervals, each of which had a fewwords or line of verse on it, that would ultimately forma short poem whose resolution was “Burma-Shave.”Though the laughter these jingles inspired was reasonenough to share them, Basile had another purpose inmind: in a certain sense, they encapsulate one of the keyconsiderations he posits as central to differentiating thelanguage of song from the language of verse.These billboards were measured out so that theywould be “timed” to allow passengers to read them beforereaching the next one given an assumed rate of travel,just as a songwriter must be sensitive to the music’sspeed in order to fit the language within the constraintsof the tempo and rhythm. A song is, as Basile put it,“time-bound.” While a poet must consider the way theline breaks and how the words aredistributed in order to establish anappropriate pace and complimentform, the poem is, ultimately, ona page. Though a poem may takeon some musical qualities whendeclaimed, the timing of somethingexternal to it does not mitigate itsreception.This is a crucial boundary todraw, not only conceptually, butalso with regard to the process ofwriting, yet it is not as self-consciousan endeavor as it might seem atfirst glance. Basile notes that whileboth forms require the writer to“obey” certain sonic or structuralprinciples, this does not mean theundertaking is mechanical andcalculated; he tends to intuitively know whether what heis writing is a poem or a song. Or, as he humbly put it: “Theones that want to be songs tell me what kind of song theywant to be.”Basile described what can only be seen as a veryintimate relationship existing between the writer andhis creation, and while composing poetry may indeedcall upon different things from the writer than doespenning song lyrics, either production will take on thesame role in this partnership: to be conduits for theexchange of emotions from the writer to his audience.The method by which the emotional experience is madeinto something shareable may differ, just as the feelingsthat inspired the act and those it is intended to conveywill also vary. Basile revealed that, for him personally,whatever the feeling is that one gets from his poems orsongs, typically its antithesis inspired the work. However,whatever metamorphosis occurs, the ultimate goal of thisreformation is to transpose something that is felt intosomething that is.These insights into Basile’s process and hisphilosophical conception of the creative processrepresent just some of what those in attendance werefortunate enough to glean from the experience. To putone’s thoughts on the line takes courage, but to putone’s emotions on the line may take even more than that.Basile imparted not only the more scholarly and technicalaspects of his methods, but also the achievements oftheir practice; he shared two songs and two poems withthe group, and the audience was heartily appreciative ofhis candor. When the presentation was over, a request foran encore of each song was made and granted, and withthat, the fall’s second Boston local meeting of the ALSCWcame to a close. a- Samantha MadwayALSCW Intern; Boston UniversityPhoto © Katherine A. HalaLITERARY MATTERS | VOLUME 3.4 | YEAR-END 2010 8