Magnetic Poetry: Classic or Dud

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These li'l word magnets are ubiquitous, aren't they? A true 90's cultural icon, still going strong.

I think they're great. Every time I encounter them, I'm occupied for at least the next 15 minutes.

But some people totally abhore Magnteic Poetry (isn't that the trademark?) for whatever reason. I've never understood the hate.

Hataz state your case, please. Fans share your love, and your best work if you can remember and of it. Also: is this product less or more popular outside the states?

― Aaron A., Saturday, 3 January 2004 18:36 (twenty years ago) link

Anything that invites playful creativity is OK in my book. So, classic with a very small 'c'.

I'm sure that the people who object do so because the word "poetry" has been so debased, devalued and disrespected that they wince to see the concept of "poetry" commmercially marketed in such a limiting, trivialized form. I wince, too. But I look past that to the value people who play with them bring to their creations. It may be a small value compared to the creations of good poets, but it exceeds the creative value of more passive forms of entertainment.

― Aimless, Saturday, 3 January 2004 18:52 (twenty years ago) link

I think it's neat. I don't think it necessarily debases the idea of poetry, either. I mean, if anything it literalizes and externalizes the compositional process in really interesting ways. You're literally "composing," putting together. The words aren't yours, they're things you find around you in the world. Your role as poet isn't to spout off profound stuff but to sift through all the linguistic detritus and find something evocative. Would you really think of something like "exquisite sausage" on your own?

― Prude (Prude), Saturday, 3 January 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago) link

See my song cycle: Twenty Seven Ways of Looking At A Sausage.

― Aimless, Saturday, 3 January 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link

I got a set for Xmas. I am bemused.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 January 2004 20:45 (twenty years ago) link

i look askance
at the syllables included;

if more eclectic
magnet words were present,
my fridge
would welcome them as pleasant.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:02 (twenty years ago) link

I've not got any but would like some.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:03 (twenty years ago) link

there are some better inclusions in the Genius kit
http://www.magneticpoetry.com/images/kitsopen/3130op.gif

― Aaron A., Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago) link

the Genius kiit, haha! well, i do belong to Lexical Elitists on tribe.net so perhaps i'm qualified

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:11 (twenty years ago) link

I got Sarah the rock'n'roll magnetic poetry kit, it's pretty hot.

― NA (Nick A.), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:28 (twenty years ago) link

http://www.magneticpoetry.com/openbox.asp?product_id=3133&b=1

It's not quite what I'd hoped. I was expecting words that came straight out of the lyrics of a Guns 'n' Roses or Jimi Hendrix song. Words like 'voodoo', 'sister', 'hey!', 'city', 'makin'', 'wild', 'losin'', 'leavin', 'child', 'hurtin'' etc. Rock n roll words.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago) link

Here's a good rock 'n' roll lyric:

'Hey butcher boy with the chip on your shoulder
You look 15 but you could be older'

I need words on my fridge that allow me to write lyrics like that.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago) link

I made my own set by cutting up scrap magnetic strips and writing words on them. I didn't know what words I should pick so I just wrote out a Dylan Thomas poem, thus all the poems anyone ever makes with the set are about wounds and salt sheets.

― Poppy (poppy), Saturday, 3 January 2004 21:56 (twenty years ago) link

[lovely] [cut][s] [in] [our] [red] [lungs]

― Ian Johnson (orion), Saturday, 3 January 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago) link

I like these because making stupid dirty poetry is fun

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:17 (twenty years ago) link

It'd probably be cooler if the words just randomly appeared on their own rather than from some potsmoking artfag English minor having nothing better to do.

― may pang (maypang), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:32 (twenty years ago) link

Like this?

― Zzz (-_-) zzZ (Wintermute), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:43 (twenty years ago) link

English artfag,
if potsmoking radomly;
Rather than cooler, nothing appeared
having probably,
on their own,
Better
Words to do.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 4 January 2004 01:45 (twenty years ago) link

Brilliant.

― may pang (maypang), Sunday, 4 January 2004 02:44 (twenty years ago) link

Ive had a "romantic" set on my fridge for ages. The words are more voluptous and tactile, and really amusing little weird/dirty/sexy lines randomly appear from time to time when friends are over.

A fave I created:

sex drunk sleep
bathed in skin
and whispers

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 4 January 2004 02:49 (twenty years ago) link

bathed in sex,
whisper,
and sleep drunk.

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 4 January 2004 03:11 (twenty years ago) link

i might vote against mayor rybak now cos of his poem.

― g--ff (gcannon), Sunday, 4 January 2004 03:49 (twenty years ago) link

It's hella better than the St. Paul mayor's!

― Aaron A., Sunday, 4 January 2004 04:25 (twenty years ago) link

Usually I don't open spam, but I did today to see if there was anything I could post to the Spam fiction thread. No prose but lots and lots of great random words, like this:

deliver redcoat ambassador babble farkas incantation bootstrapping dielectric grasp embryology aqueous flogging depositor herkimer saturnine fredericksburg homily glottis heretic enthalpy shock functor relict eigenstate rampant morgen chop polloi haunt packet improper brownian dehydrate checkout quietus hubert pooh
hendricks parsley atlantic equivocal clarify fanfold ashley iconoclast honeywell bilinear carolyn quartic pilgrimage freestone distaff disastrous bale
courier gratuitous kahn millard homicide quad o'connell luxuriant henchman arose rental forward advise
dish burundi eyelash progress dowager indecent ceres cotta poodle doherty behave clarence dogwood ascribe salty egghead alsop earthmove elsevier mouthful
finny expectorant extramural brushlike debate cadent denny philosopher exhaustible dinosaur juan impeccable hirsute

― Poppy (poppy), Sunday, 4 January 2004 06:01 (twenty years ago) link

oooo--we should make a poetry competition that requires use of the words in that list!

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 4 January 2004 06:02 (twenty years ago) link

Great idea Orbit - in a similar vein I was thinking we could make an ILX magpo thing: post a list a la the above and use it like one would magpo words to make a pome.

Course we might need a few more joiner-words maybe...

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 4 January 2004 06:15 (twenty years ago) link

five years pass...

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs224.snc1/7133_640392855790_36910239_41023800_108384_n.jpg

― alien vs the smiths (country matters), Thursday, 17 September 2009 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link

The one on my fridge forever was arranged to say "we question mean factions of society."

― existential eggs (Abbott), Thursday, 17 September 2009 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link

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