Motionpoems

05/29/2023

Today, Motionpoems honors all service members and their families, whose losses have strengthened our country and ensured our freedoms. In that spirit, we’re sharing our Season Six poem, The Long Deployment, by poet Jehanne Dubrow and filmmaker Nicole McDonald.

11/22/2022

Motionpoems salutes founding producer Todd Boss’s exciting new podcast project, There's a Poem in That, in which he helps total strangers discover the poetry in their most intimate stories. Details in comments below!

08/24/2022

Motionpoems mourns the passing of season four poet, former Texas Poet Laureate, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Dean Young, at the age of 67. In memory of Dean’s life and enormous contributions to the written world, here’s Discharged into Clouds, with direction by Angela Kassube.

Discharged into Clouds by Dean Young On the fifth floor I spent 10 days learning how to walk never far above the earthworms, never far below the sky. The darkness…

07/31/2022

Motionpoems is saddened to hear of the recent passing of poet James Longenbach at age 63. We’re sharing a film from Season 3, featuring his poem “Snow," in his memory. We hope his words bring you the same comfort and warmth that they’ve brought to all of us.

Snow by James Longenbach Snow that covers us from above, Cover us more deeply. Whiten the city with its houses and churches, The red house and the yellow house, The…

07/11/2022

Happy launch day to our newest Motionpoem, Morning Walk, featuring a poem by Joyce Sutphen. Directed by Zack Grant.

Morning Walk
by Joyce Sutphen

The air is fresh this morning—
and I am walking fast.

Hey listen! My bones are happy
inside my skin; my fingers

are snapping so I add
a step or two—a skip

step, step, and step aside.
I can almost forget

that I have what I have,
but I never do. I notice

the wind shaking hands
with the branches; the sky

threading blue through my
eyes. This is how I’d like

you to remember me: from
the inside out; back when

my heart was folded
so neatly under my ribs.

Morning Walk by Joyce Sutphen The air is fresh this morning— and I am walking fast. Hey listen! My bones are happy inside my skin; my fingers are snapping…

05/09/2022

Here’s a little black and white piece to take us into May. “Historical Fragment” was written by Eireann Lorsung, directed by Pablo Delcan, produced by Angella Kassube, and features drawings by Brian Rea. This was originally released as part of our Season 4 lineup, which was created in conjunction with Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and The Best American Poetry.

She began to find playing cards everywhere and so she took to�looking for the ones she liked best (the Queen of Hearts, the�Ace of Hearts). She found cards with dotted designs, cards�prisoners had drawn by hand, Bicycle cards, Pinochle cards,�cards from airline passengers’ handbags, cards given out by�realtors as mnemonics for the houses they tried to sell. She�found several cards from the seventeen-hundreds. She rarely�had to look for them: they were stuck in hedges, strewn across�otherwise tidy front lawns. Early in the morning she would�walk out of the little brick house and there would be one lying�on the pavement or floating innocently down from the chess-�queen-shaped chimney pots. No one seemed to miss the cards�she took. They were all playing with full decks.

Historial Fragment by Éireann Lorsung She began to find playing cards everywhere and so she took to looking for the ones she liked best (the Queen of Hearts,…

04/25/2022

Rounding out National Poetry Month with the simple and stark: Discharged into Clouds by Dean Young, directed by Bender and produced by Angella Kassube. This was originally released as part of our Season 4 lineup, which was created in conjunction with Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and The Best American Poetry.

On the fifth floor I spent 10 days
learning how to walk never far
above the earthworms, never far
below the sky. The darkness there

had nothing to do with an absence
of light and it wasn’t a voice
calling me. Now I’ve been awake
a thousand years, wouldn’t be surprised

to find a forest fire in my closet
or an eye in a cut-open apple. All night
passing cars throw luminous figures
against the wall that flee like angels

given the wrong address. All night
a woman down the hall screamed how
a wound wanted its knife back.
Magnificent must have been the bird

whose claws dropped me, magnificent
my scars. The old heart, cut apart
and out, they wouldn’t show me.

Discharged into Clouds by Dean Young On the fifth floor I spent 10 days learning how to walk never far above the earthworms, never far below the sky. The darkness…

04/11/2022

Join us in celebrating National Poetry Month with a treat for the eyes and ears: some of our favorite Motionpoems.

This week’s feature is The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter by Mark Strand, adapted by Scott Wenner, and produced by Angella Kassube. This was originally released as part of Season 4 lineup, which was created in conjunction with Copper Canyon Press, Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and The Best American Poetry.

It had been a long day at the office and a long ride back to the small apartment where I
lived. When I got there I flicked on the light and saw on the table an envelope with
my name on it. Where was the clock? Where was the calendar? The handwriting was
my father’s, but he had been dead for forty years. As one might, I began to think that
maybe, just maybe, he was alive, living a secret life somewhere nearby. How else to
explain the envelope? To steady myself, I sat down, opened it, and pulled out the
letter. “Dear Son,” was the way it began. “Dear Son” and then nothing.

The Mysterious Arrival of an Unusual Letter by Mark Strand It had been a long day at the office and a long ride back to the small apartment where I lived. When…

11/22/2021

Motionpoems is deeply saddened by the news of Robert Bly's passing today, at the age of ninety-four. In honor of his immense body of work and passion for expressions both large and small, we're sharing an animation of his poem "The Watcher of Vowels," from our Season 2 line-up.

"How lovely it is to write with all these vowels:
Body, Thomas, the codfish's psalm. The gaiety
Of form comes from the labor of it playfulness.
We are drunkards who never take a drop.
We all become ditch-diggers like Brahms.
No, no, we are like that astronomer
Who watches the great sober star return
Each night to its old place in the night sky."

This motionpoem was created by Matt Van Ekeren with Catalina Kulczar-Marin and Carly Zuckweiler. Poem read by Todd Boss.Read the poem on our website at http:...

11/07/2021

Yesterday, Motionpoems had the honor of being featured in the first Dutch Poetryfilm Festival at Luxor Theater in Zutphen. Special thanks to our Motionpoems UK producer Helmie Stil and all those who supported the festival, either online or in person. You can take a look at one of the included films, Fable, below. Directed by Zanete Skarule, and based on a poem by Jackson Hobert, Fable was part of our Season 9 line-up.

We hid in the trees and when we ran out of trees we hid in houses made out of trees and when we ran out of houses we hid in skyscrapers made out of steel and concrete…

09/23/2021

This week, for Throwback Thursday, we're sharing Rhina P. Espaillat's gorgeous piece, "Weighing In." Featuring visuals by MPC, and with support from The Poetry Society, "Weighing In" focuses on change and development and celebrates finding beauty and resilience at every stage of life. We hope you enjoy the animated adventure as much as we have!

Weighing In By Rhina P. Espaillat What the scale tells you is how much the earth has missed you, body, how it wants you back again after you leave it to go forth into…

09/20/2021

You may be asking yourself, “How can I be sure that I’m speaking to an actual introvert and not someone simply masquerading as one?”
Well here are a few telltale signs:
If the person wraps their arms around your shoulder as their introducing themselves to you for the first time, probably not an introvert.
If the person uses the words “unwind” and “nightclub” in the same sentence, probably not an introvert.
If the person attempts to engage in any conversation whatsoever about the weather and they are not from Minnesota, probably not an introvert.

Poem by Kevin Yang
Film by Vokee Lee

How To Love Your Introvert by Kevin Yang 1. We introverts are not always the best at breaking the ice,     So, in order to get the ball rolling, we often…