Laura Purdie Salas

Writing the World for Kids

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You are here: Home / Poems for Teachers / Constantly Risking Absurdity: The Blue Devils and You

Constantly Risking Absurdity: The Blue Devils and You

August 20, 2008 By Laura

In Drum Corps International this year, the Blue Devils performed a show called “Constantly Risking Absurdity,” based on this poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Constantly Risking Absurdity

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be

Read the rest of the poem here.

Here’s a less-than-one-minute clip from their show:

I love this poem about poetry and the risk of it all! And it’s always fun to see poetry incorporated into mainstream entertainment. OK, drum corps isn’t exactly mainstream, but still…Check out the circus-like movements and costumes to see how they played on this poem (even though the words were never narrated).

I hope you’re risking absurdity in your writing! It’s the best way to get somewhere amazing, I think!

Tagged With: drum corps, personal, poems, teen/adult poems

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