What are poe?

Poe are intended to be pieces of visual, literary, or auditory culture, or excerpts from such, that inspire a certain mood—a feeling which sparks a reaction, perhaps a discussion or a written piece. Here on Octopoe, poe  are represented with an excerpt displayed first, followed by a written response. The written response is completely open in terms of theme, means, and tone. No single poe’s response will be precisely like another.

On Octopoe, the intention is to keep poe sources free and varied; they may be taken from a wide range of media. Their sources can be contemporary or not as they come to me, or as they express themselves through my own route through literature and writing. This particularly inspired the first poe on the English-American writer Christopher Isherwood. I feel this literature-response form will inspire the first few poe, but hopefully the range of muses will expand gradually as the category grows.

Please feel free to check out the poe category on Octopoe.

Index of poe:

1. November 20, 2009: [Poe] Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind, 1929-1939
2. November 28, 2009: [Poe] Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
3. December 11, 2009: [Poe] Jacques Prévert, Déjeuner du matin (Paroles)
4. December 30, 2009: [Poe] Christopher Isherwood, Mr. Norris Changes Trains
5. May 17, 2011: [Poe] Kazuo Ishiguro, Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
6. June 10, 2011: [Poe] Christopher Isherwood & Kazuo Ishiguro, selected works
7. March 3, 2014: [Poe] Spike Jonze, Her
8. [Poe] J.R.R. Tolkien (coming soon!)
9. [Poe] Gore Vidal (coming soon!)