MUSIC SWIMS BACK TO ME (By Anne Sexton)

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Uploaded by on Dec 20, 2009

I have a poetry chapbook that comes with 2 spoken word dvds at: http://www.filmbaby.com/films/4408
FaceBook: David Randall Curtis
Twitter: DRCpoetry
ALL AND ANY VIDEO RESPONSES OF ANY KIND OLD OR NEW ARE WELCOME--THIS VIDEO IS SET TO PRE-APPROVE; VID RESPONSES DON'T HAVE TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE TOPIC OF MY VIDEO
A YouTuber with the username PoemsAPennyEach does great Anne Sexton readings, subscribe to her at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Poemsapennyeach
Some cool Anne Sexton links:
ANNE SEXTON AT HOME (A TWO PART VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4VlcVfgFJk
ANNE SEXTON READING HER POEM HER KIND
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4VlcVfgFJk
ANNE SEXTON READING HER POEM THE TRUTH THE DEAD KNOW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkCHYVgXHiQ
PoetryAnimations animating ANNE SEXTON'S ALL MY PRETTY ONES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2bFh0KM4go
EnglishGuyInTexas did this short (but good) video about Anne Sexton:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEbF86wy3xU
LukeK79 posted this great poem of ANNE SEXTON READING THE FURY OF SUNRISES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_oDBoaHQbw

The poem in this video:

MUSIC SWIMS BACK TO ME

Wait Mister. Which way is home?
They turned the light out
and the dark is moving in the corner.
There are no sign posts in this room,
four ladies, over eighty,
in diapers every one of them.
La la la, Oh music swims back to me
and I can feel the tune they played
the night they left me
in this private institution on a hill.

Imagine it. A radio playing
and everyone here was crazy.
I liked it and danced in a circle.
Music pours over the sense
and in a funny way
music sees more than I.
I mean it remembers better;
remembers the first night here.
It was the strangled cold of November;
even the stars were strapped in the sky
and that moon too bright
forking through the bars to stick me
with a singing in the head.
I have forgotten all the rest.

They lock me in this chair at eight am.
and there are no signs to tell the way,
just the radio beating to itself
and the song that remembers
more than I. Oh, la la la,
this music swims back to me.
The night I came I danced a circle
and was not afraid.
Mister?

(Anne Sexton)

Thanks to PoetLina, MaryCigarettes, VisionGhostPoet, (the brat) Janezcka and WetlandsRemediation (Cowpox) for listening to me trying to figure out how to deliver this poem which is something greater than I could ever write.

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Uploader Comments (DavidRandallCurtis)

  • I was interested to see how you'd deliver that final word, "mister," and the questioning intonation of it. It was wonderfully sinister. Also I enjoyed the way you clicked your fingers with every "la." I wouldn't have thought to do that. Fantastic reading!

  • @MrHeslopian Thanks... I think this is my favorite poem to read at open mics... it seems to go through mood swings every other sentence and reciting it is like becoming a little mad :p -- thanks for the comment! ;)

  • Dear David,

    Loved your reading of the poem. Your intonation and your manner of presentation is definitely better than Anne Sexton's. I think you have added a new dimension to the poem.... which probably Sexton wasn't aware of either.:)

    Warm regards,

    Dimple.

  • @waverleywaters Thanks Dimple. This is probably my favorite poem to read out loud. And Anne Sexton is one of my heros. I have a tape of her reading poetry, and this was on it that I've heard a million time--so it was very hard to get her voice out of my head and try to deliver it a different way. Myself, I don't think I do it better than her (I love her smokey voice and the woman was a GODDESS :p ) -- but thanks so much for saying so! ;)

  • i have just spent some time with anne sexton's work. would you consider me patronizing if i told you i prefer your reading than the poets herself? i dont know, maybe it's the live reading vs recorded ones. but you pwnd totally, at least to me.

  • healthy: You are too kind once again. I could never put myself in the same league as Sexton--or Plath, or Lunch or Bukowski for that matter... but thanks for saying that.. for a brat you are such a sweetheart! :p -- all the best this christmas from your atheist friend :P

Video Responses

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All Comments (62)

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  • absolutely hooked on this channel :)

  • @OrbitallyReArranged Thanks! This is my favorite poem to recite. Just checked out your channel and subbed. Great music there :)

  • You and PoetLena are going to have me reading Ann again! Thank you!

  • I like to read Sexton, I love having Sexton read to me but hearing and watching you reading Sexton is a wholly new experience, and very special.

  • So brilliantly read. I love Anne Sexton, but you make me love her more I think!

    Robby

  • Mmmm, I loved this.

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