Poetry Friday: Maira Kalman
Friday, February 26th, 2010
A while ago, a colleague of my husband’s gave us this delightful book, Max Makes a Million (Viking, 1990), about a dog-poet named Max. And thus was I introduced to the marvelously oddball world and voice of New Yorker and children’s book writer and illustrator, Maira Kalman. The story of Max is not so much poetry per se in the conventional sense of verse on a page (although it is that in this book as well), but more the illustration of an extended metaphor at work. The poet-as-dog in his New York digs with his artistically inclined owners, and extravagant ambitions, his friendship with a painter, and his encounter with the critic, is quirky and evocative. And somehow, all very apt for a poet! And there’s lots of word music, to boot. Max’s poetry is catchy:
I want to dance
the kazatski
until I plotski
and sing like a boid
on toity-toid and toid
In this wonderful TED video, Kalman talks about her ‘creative process,’ so to speak, with much vigor, charm and humour. I was struck by how much she mentioned being a ‘bad poet’ and of writing ‘bad poetry’ and yet, in the end, I have to say her judgement of herself — however harsh — never stopped her from carrying on. As any artist knows — poet or otherwise — it’s often hard just to stay inspired. And seeing as it’s February, you might find watching this video and hearing her talk about this dreary month a bit of an inspiration yourself.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is MsMac at Check It Out…
