The Mount

Poetry

Filed In:

Poetry

Dateline: 2/17/98

Now that Mark Pellington’s first feature, Going All the Way, has been released, I can tell some of those behind-the-scenes tales of The United States of Poetry which are guaranteed to incite insight into that most delicious of contempo marriages: Poetry vs. Television.

Many people have asked me if we are getting residuals on some car commercials that use That Thing we used in USOP. That Thing is the thing which looks like a cross between a viewfinder, bombsight, cowcatcher, and Dr. Strangelove’s zero-in precision gauge.

Let’s call it The Object.

The Object, which passes muster for most as a piece of technical film apparatus, was left in to show behind-the-scenes scenes. In fact, it was invented by Pellington as a means to make transitions between segments, to show inside outside and vice versa. It is used to roller-coaster exhilaration in the opening sequence to all the shows and throughout Show 1 of The United States of Poetry, although many swear they see it in other places.

Mark called it: THE MOUNT, and each shoot of our twelve-week road trip would conclude with his announcing, “It’s time for The Mount!” and Tom Krueger would attach the wire frame to the camera and shoot everything all over again. No one but Mark thought The Mount would make it into the shows.

But it did. In a big way. The Mount creates a very mechanical split screen, calling attention to the whole process of filmmaking that’s going on here. That allows, somehow, for an organic feeling, a truer understanding of how film works with, and over, a poem. In fact, I would say that the Mount implements a filmic translation of the conceit which textile is called Simile and Metaphor.

Whenever I am asked what The Mount is, I toss the question back -- what do you think it is? After all, naming is part of the poet’s job description, is it not? Here are some of the names people (who are poets) have come up with: