English @ SUNY Geneseo | Lytton Smith | Activity https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/members/lyttonsmith2/activity/ Activity feed for Lytton Smith. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:23:02 -0500 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 ec9981371515c1089155e14f0c95f3ef Lytton Smith joined the group Sustainability and Literature https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/15834/ Sun, 21 Aug 2022 20:59:32 -0500 0 ca9bf0ff61fdfc53950f6e61afd9eeff Lytton Smith commented on the post, Interaction between text and reader, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14959/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:37:45 -0500 I’m wondering whether it’s possible for the poem both to be self-reflection for you and something, including the witnessed act or aftermath of self-reflection, for the reader. In other words, is it that the […]

]]> 0 f026684df06212182cda4a2f116e5abe Lytton Smith commented on the post, Contemplations on Submissions, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14958/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:33:47 -0500 The poet Lucie Brock-Broido advised submitting to journals providing the rejections wouldn’t stop you writing (temporarily or otherwise). In other words, there’s no rush, but providing there’s no harm, go for it. […]

]]> 0 b056baa8884d6fa30d5ca23abdac51d6 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Poetry & My Week, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14957/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:28:23 -0500 This post is almost a poem; several of its sentences are, and “In the event of a hostage situation, I’ll / at least have something to do” is either the end or start of a poem, or both.

Also, I thought you […]

]]> 0 7f04a042dd577e1d0bc9dc957b520b8d Lytton Smith commented on the post, On Poetry, In Time, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14956/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:19:32 -0500 I’d love to see you explore this more, both as reader and writer. Take some poems you’re enjoying and track their tenses: literally annotate each moment tense comes up to see how they move within time, even […]

]]> 0 f6c33c1e1a4f13fc25deebc7fb2fe2a5 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Word Vomit, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14955/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:14:42 -0500 Fine to word-vomit and move around; these things are connected for you, in some way, even if the connection doesn’t continue. Part of it seems to be, to me, the question of where you’re coming from as a writer, […]

]]> 0 cd7e843fc7c81712d19187ccd5e35fce Lytton Smith commented on the post, Slam Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14954/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 21:08:43 -0500 Great post, Lyndsay, and thanks for the additional recommendations, Hannah.

It’s worth remembering that poetry’s roots lie in the oral/aural, that the expectation of poetry has always been that it exists in […]

]]> 0 52f051e4fbe09f63c3af9a21ad45795f Lytton Smith commented on the post, Schools Should Include More Modern and Diverse Poets in English Classes, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14953/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 20:44:10 -0500 So much to say here…this might be an office hours conversation, if you’re interested, Hannah.

First, an anthology which tries to bridge the gap you’re identifying:

Second, there’s such an intriguing […]

]]> 0 9ec3b54b981bbfe15133e5de242a9567 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Universality in Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14952/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 20:08:52 -0500 This is such a perceptive but also thought-provoking comment. Yes, Larkin’s poem becomes only its first two lines, perhaps in part because the last stanza, espousing something close to anti-natalism, is harder to […]

]]> 0 c1dfdf17415e892967a0fcb4b09736b8 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Looking Towards Prose for Inspiration, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14951/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 19:59:41 -0500 I wonder if you and Troy (see his recent post) might have an interesting conversation about fiction in relation to poetry. You’re both getting at different aspects of why the genres shouldn’t be alien; in his […]

]]> 0 6b9b248f4079d2b5dfbc6e85375312ab Lytton Smith commented on the post, The Line Between Logical and Literary., on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14950/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 19:56:51 -0500 There’s an interesting question about the relationship between form and function here: engineers need to prioritize function, perhaps, and take form (aesthetics) where they can get it. Yet the field or […]

]]> 0 7659d1c0d353494b5fc467d3b3f31282 Lytton Smith commented on the post, How I got here, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14949/ Sun, 16 Feb 2020 19:49:38 -0500 I’m glad to see you thinking about the value of poetry to fiction – I don’t think the study of poetry has to be in the service of the production (or even reading) of poems alone. And we constantly praise fiction […]

]]> 0 1c54e347f5f9afd6683f3e3cd32b2c6c Lytton Smith commented on the post, Rhyme to Meter, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14861/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:57:18 -0500 Ha! it’s great that your ‘first’ poem is about astrology; that feels fitting. I also think it’s really important that your poems engage with multiple art forms. I’d encourage you towards the poetry of Tyehimba […]

]]> 0 8bd2dcccf78516f7083b0599f050c4ae Lytton Smith commented on the post, Coming to poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14860/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:53:43 -0500 Literary critic Harold Bloom has written that a poem is a response to a poem, and while he means it quite figuratively and psychologically it’s also true literally and it’s been great this semester and last to see […]

]]> 0 a71db7c92af2c5c3273983961e058764 Lytton Smith commented on the post, , on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14859/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:49:35 -0500 Great post, Tanya, and lovely to see the image. (There’s a rich seam of work that combines poetry and collage if you ever want to see your notebook work as more than within the notebook – whether for this class or […]

]]> 0 514205e898dfa7b941bb326ca46d8432 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Why Do I Do This?, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14858/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 16:30:17 -0500 There’s much to be said for the ways that poetry works parallel to therapy, a kind of talking cure, a process by which impossibilities, while not being reconciled, come into conversation. That’s not to say it’s an […]

]]> 0 5a30679fe821a0d06c35583452ae89a3 Lytton Smith commented on the post, I Guess It Has to Come From Somewhere, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14852/ Mon, 10 Feb 2020 00:36:16 -0500 Yes – this is an incitement and an excitement, too! This is a beautiful way to engage with the question of where poetry comes from. I’d like to encourage you, if you feel so moved, to think about this piece of […]

]]> 0 faffba7af64152371083cc353b385e67 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Reading, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14851/ Sun, 09 Feb 2020 20:48:19 -0500 Great image of reading and re-reading Green Eggs and Ham! I think there might be something not only to the sound of that book but to its nonsense and, strangely, narrative, that might be compelling for young […]

]]> 0 870d91cbe760ad16ebfba73c16ff778a Lytton Smith commented on the post, "What Got You Into Poetry?", on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14850/ Sun, 09 Feb 2020 20:46:38 -0500 There’s a lot of rich ideas to interrogate here, Nick; thanks for sharing. I’d encourage you to ponder what it is that makes a poem cryptic: in the case of the Odyssey, for instance, it might less be about how […]

]]> 0 b3e9256d457cdfefd887b5a80d8f1b07 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Senses Fail and Nas, an Unlikely Source of the Muse., on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14849/ Sun, 09 Feb 2020 20:41:53 -0500 It sounds like we should circle back around to where music (and perhaps film, too) meet poetry in one of our source discussions! There’a whole semester, or lifetime, on that topic, of course.

Kyle, I’m going to […]

]]> 0 f3e80b45635a7031c19f44ff19b43a2f Lytton Smith commented on the post, Eighth Grade, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14812/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:38:32 -0500 This is a lovely narrative to share in, Hannah, and also a revealing one, in that poetry doesn’t have to be associated with music (Ezra Pound saw poetry as the meeting of image, music, and idea; to the extent […]

]]> 0 2862069333cf27dc8054909fc3255a39 Lytton Smith commented on the post, My inspiration to poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14811/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:33:33 -0500 I like hearing about the journey you’ve gone on here, and the role that both reading and the ability to communicate – including a recipe – that writing has. And I’m glad the nerves have gone away!

What I want […]

]]> 0 b0323e9784d4a973a58cb8972caa4e9e Lytton Smith commented on the post, My Source, Listed:, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14810/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:29:14 -0500 I’m going to start by recommending Jon Paul Fiorentino’s book Hello Serotonin, which offers an unexpected take on poetry and drugs, and is well worth checking out, from a nearby Toronto-based Press, Coach House […]

]]> 0 faad6807f0d62d49fd11deb61d55813b Lytton Smith commented on the post, Inspiration from (not-words), on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14808/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 03:20:01 -0500 The project to match cubism and words begins in some ways with William Carlos Williams, in Spring & All, which is definitely worth reading if you’ve not already. I wonder if writers who work with experimental […]

]]> 0 ddfdaec4b5930f547ece2108cfa59e27 Lytton Smith commented on the post, This Ethreal Basilica, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14807/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:52:11 -0500 I’d definitely recommend Joshua Kryah’s Glean to you; Kryah wrote it while at (or shortly after being at) Seminary, and its interestingly steeped in religious knowledge and a question of personal searching. […]

]]> 0 6465a4b0d001b0f94c19f5f72a05a2ca Lytton Smith commented on the post, What Inspires Me: A List, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14806/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:41:11 -0500 This is a wonderfully wide-ranging set of inspirations; sometimes we gain inspiration by disappearing down the rabbit hole of a single source, and at other times we get to writing thanks to moving between a range […]

]]> 0 6aa83a3ceae67570a5c1fec077f4c7aa Lytton Smith commented on the post, You like what...?, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14805/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:30:15 -0500 I love the specificity of these interests, Tanya, and the creative and intriguing suggestions that Troy and Lyndsay have come up with in response – often, it’s the more particular and unusual inspirations that […]

]]> 0 956a49033e55503346f0eae8dca5c98e Lytton Smith commented on the post, My Inspiration, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14804/ Mon, 03 Feb 2020 02:24:36 -0500 Really interesting to see family and nature intertwining even as you write about them here, Lyndsay; the cabin might be an interesting setting for poems. Cecily Parks’ poetry might interest you, especially her […]

]]> 0 ab9ef96766bd6b4db7a45850f06ded59 Lytton Smith commented on the post, The Method in my Madness, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14761/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 12:49:57 -0500 I’m wondering, reading this, what you might make of Ander Monson’s poetry book Vacationland, whether it might have enough of both fiction and exploration to resonate with you. I’m also curious about the ways you […]

]]> 0 a81d0bcad3dd91065d33160a6b325f58 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Adrenaline, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14757/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 01:57:32 -0500 Lidabel, I love the idea that a poem might come from or produce adrenaline, and I encourage you to explore all the ways that might be true for you and in what you read this semester. Keep an eye for where you see […]

]]> 0 4d348bbafc0e5467d8c3afb9c87011a3 Lytton Smith commented on the post, What I draw inspiration from, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14756/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 01:52:42 -0500 I’m excited, too – glad to have you with us!

What’s really clear from your post is that poetry is connected to observation for you, that source is about what you see in the world around you (and with that in […]

]]> 0 65c787eb114af7b1a664ca276d433052 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Papercuts, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14755/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 01:35:16 -0500 Jessica, you’re outlining not just an activity (the keeping and reusing of paper) but an entire poetics, a process of creating! If you’ve not found it yet, there’s a whole rich tradition of the collage poem, which […]

]]> 0 786e26786d254f5442fec0f8499bad32 Lytton Smith commented on the post, The Start of my Writing and my Evolution, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14754/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 01:29:40 -0500 Great recommendations, Liz and Hannah! Yes, starting with any of these could be good for you, Zach. Try, too, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day feed, see what you like, and go from there. I find Quan […]

]]> 0 33ce46c36d12d5ffec3d8413b9e9c3d3 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Annotated Bibliography of Poetic Sources, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14753/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 01:25:52 -0500 There used to be a great online magazine of poemfilms called Rabbit Light Movies, run by the poet Joshua Marie Wilkinson. It’s defunct, but you can find some on YouTube, e.g. […]

]]> 0 cacecd72c9e12aa5c51ba67b242f79f3 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Lost in Stereo, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/14751/ Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:22:32 -0500 Great suggestions, Jenna and Nick! Hannah, music is a great thing for you to harness. Kevin Young’s book of poems Jelly Roll: A Blues, the poetry of Terrance Hayes, and Nate Marshall’s Wild Hundreds would all be […]

]]> 0 a9a1f357311110855d3a8f87cf64aad9 Lytton Smith commented on the post, My Own Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13413/ Fri, 13 Sep 2019 15:49:00 -0500 These are great goals to set, and a great way to start out the semester: looking to see what makes your poetry most itself (a question we’re always asking, never fully answering, but still learning from) and what […]

]]> 0 747648a70c199141ec68dfd27dc1023a Lytton Smith commented on the post, Music as Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13412/ Fri, 13 Sep 2019 15:42:07 -0500 These musicians are interesting examples that beg the question of where the blurry divide between music and poetry can be found; remember, as we mentioned last class, poetry is at the intersection of music, visual […]

]]> 0 cbf7b22ce4747863f165855644b80f52 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Writing a Definition, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13308/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 01:12:41 -0500 Witty and insightful first post. Line breaks are a thing, but maybe they’re an action too: they break things, like expectations or perceptions, assumptions, making us need to reexamine them. (You can’t really fix […]

]]> 0 462e63a7c623a6fca2628c0fa448259a Lytton Smith commented on the post, to isolate, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13307/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:59:42 -0500 Thanks for this lovely and thought-provoking first post. It’s fascinating how you move from isolation to sharing, from the verb “to lock” to a fierce commitment to sharing: translation doesn’t have to be throwing […]

]]> 0 610b3689f7a7c2e0b4a5ff175a9e98b1 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Invasive: tending to intrude on a person's thoughts or privacy, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13305/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:47:28 -0500 You’ve hit on a fascinating paradox in the genesis and reading of much poetry: that we’re often engaging with the past and memory (it can be why we write) but we’re also working towards, even anticipating, a […]

]]> 0 0e73083c775c6a832254987d3445cd4f Lytton Smith commented on the post, On changes and poetry in translation, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13304/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:39:34 -0500 Welcome to the class, Kayla. Yes, I think it’s really important to be able to stay within the process, to defray the end (wasn’t that what “hoarding the hours” was partly about, anyway?) – not because the end is […]

]]> 0 4bc1377bc51307a8e8a4f08aef2f93b8 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Re-Visiting ENGL 301, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13303/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:31:46 -0500 First, welcome back! I do hope you’ll find this class a change rather than a repeat, and I know you’ll be part of what makes it a change. Already in this post you’re translating locations and experience for us; I […]

]]> 0 0a3b31f060f02e39d9b43fdbd120e617 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Translation through Poetic Landscapes, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13302/ Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:25:54 -0500 Rich ideas here, and I’m excited to see where they take you. I love the physicality of that “little mailman” image, with his bulky crate. And, at the same time, both it and your sense of the “translational view” […]

]]> 0 e8768b891b5c470481a865837315f488 Lytton Smith commented on the post, transformation of poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13293/ Sat, 07 Sep 2019 11:15:16 -0500 Thanks for sharing this path you’ve taken to poetry. I love the mixture of techniques and approaches: we might think of ekphrasis as placing emphasis on the visual, but it’s wonderful you were (also) able to find […]

]]> 0 0daff5125086081786de9484442e1871 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Love for Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13292/ Fri, 06 Sep 2019 19:14:41 -0500 Thanks, Mya. The books we’re reading this semester will help you think about this, but let’s also look at chapbooks, too, including recent graduate Erin Kae’s wonderful chapbook GRASP THIS SALT from Finishing Line Press:

]]> 0 d84cebe76d43a516b8f5f5f2babb9b80 Lytton Smith commented on the post, Inspiration, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/13291/ Fri, 06 Sep 2019 19:12:34 -0500 Let’s talk more – office hours! In general, I’ve found formal constraints and writing exercises help; I love the exercises in The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises from Poets who Teach, which you can preview […]

]]> 0 0a3062f40fb18e82e146ce68103084ad Lytton Smith commented on the post, Afrofuturism portrayed by Mos Def & Talib Kweli, on the site (Im)Possibilities https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10792/ Wed, 26 Sep 2018 17:15:42 -0500 Lovely work not just with an album but a specific text, a song from that album. The Bluest Eye is a Toni Morrison novel, and her work has interesting connections with Afrofuturism, even if not conventionally seen […]

]]> 0 cfa8f8e8ffb681c1315b78ad0113d089 Lytton Smith commented on the post, The Forces We Bring-Kazon Robinson, on the site (Im)Possibilities https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10791/ Wed, 26 Sep 2018 17:11:08 -0500 You might look especially at the ending to Snead’s piece as an example of the pluralistic possibility – ultimately, he’s calling European culture Black without that culture knowing it. And you’re right that Snead […]

]]> 0 1ff907e813f7f299ccbaa0631481752f Lytton Smith commented on the post, AfroFuturism in J Coles KOD album, on the site (Im)Possibilities https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10787/ Wed, 26 Sep 2018 16:30:37 -0500 Your identification of KOD here raises a really important question for our class: when is a work Afrocentric or Afroaware, and when Afrofuturist? I love noname’s Telefon […]

]]> 0 d1cd659ae006e577c332d98bf7b161ee Lytton Smith commented on the post, Renee Cox (Afrofuturism), on the site (Im)Possibilities https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10785/ Wed, 26 Sep 2018 16:17:52 -0500 Great find, Lael! And interesting because of the ways it brings in the kinds of intersectionality we’ve discussed, something I see modeled not just in the gender presentation of the figures here (the re-casting of […]

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