Humour is what I can write even when
overwhelmed with emotion. What surfaces at such extremes is not joking per se
but word association. Leaps of language take over rational thought in ways that
surprise: the usual container of logic does not hold. In
bypassing the control of mind, word play leaps straight out of a larger
unconscious realm that is both personal and collective. Such a vast source
often includes the etymology of language itself. And so it is the truest
expression of a poem for me, when the depth of emotion cannot be contained.
Amazed by what springs to mind without my intervention, I am jolted out of funk
into delight and spontaneous laughter.
The
resulting poems are silly, yes… but look at the etymology of that word:
“'silly' has undergone a dramatic shift from positive to
negative, originating in Old English as sǣlig, meaning happy, blessed, or fortunate; it then evolved
through Middle English to signify innocent, harmless, and pitiable, before
taking on its modern sense of foolish, simple, or ridiculous by the
1570s, a journey from holy to daft reflecting changing cultural perceptions.”
So I
return to origin, evoking the holy Fool of the Tarot, jauntily stepping into
the abyss, confident of support from the play of language itself. WORD ravels
WORD revels WORD rebels WORD regales WORD regains WORD regurgitates WORD avers
Word unravels Word knits Word nits Word nerds Word nuts Word knots. Word not,
lest you be not heard. Word a lot, and you’ll be freed.
My sense of language is shaped by puns. Around
my family’s dining room table, repartee claimed attention; wit was the quality
most admired. Puns were not just intended but encouraged and celebrated… and
endlessly repeated if so merited. Giggles ensued. So I learned to think fast.
To be en garde, ready with a quick quip. To convert tales from school into
family entertainment.
War stories shaped our household. As a Navy
officer in World War 11, language was my father’s method for deflecting trauma.
Jim Kemp’s wicked sense of humour was expressed in satirical wartime cartoons,
now archived in the Ottawa War Museum. One cartoon published on the front page
of The Montreal Standard in 1946 presents a line of green-faced sailors,
leaning over the side of the Corvette to vomit. 1His 1940s graphic story, George
The Purple Spotted Horse (published by Pendas Productions), reflected this
sardonic response: the hero is a horse of a different colour, despite
obstacles, wins both race and girl.
Jim Kemp was also a practical joker, the jokes
sometimes on us kids. The year after his near fatal coronary, instead of a
Christmas tree, he created a life-size paper mâché figure of a black vulture.
Its talons grasped a polished bough, the cane he leant on at the Beaux Arts
Ball in the photo I have included. Embracing and at the same time defying his
status as invalid, he dressed as Old Father Time for the Beaux Arts Ball. His
companion was the normally staid museum curator, Clare Bice, as the New Year
baby in diapers. Their wives dressed as their nurses (!).
In the face of
trauma, some of us have learned to turn to humour as default. Levity is a way
of taking control when you are feeling powerless. Laughter mitigates the effect
of stress on the body. Maybe you can’t control what has happened, but you can
always choose your reaction. Electing a light-hearted response is a way of
taking action so that the trauma is somehow lightened, limited, boxed in and
manageable. Once back in charge, you are free to create. Over time, the
practice of levity becomes a habit and then a character trait. And sometimes a
family tradition.
Dad
showed me how language is malleable, elastic: meanings shift; words contain
multitudes. My work has a sound poet derives in part from that sense of
possibilty. Words could be re-defined through sound as homonym. This kind of
language emerges in my book/CD collection, Incrementally. Hemp Press
published a free e-book: https://www.hempressbooks.com/shop/p/incrementally-by-penn-kemp and digital album, https://angrystarlings.bandcamp.com/album/incrementally.
Levity
U
U more
humour or
humour or less
humour or lesson
humour or less undo
humour or less undo what
humour or less undo what U
humour or less undo what U D
humour or less undo what U D sir
humour or less undo what U D serve
U
U re
U re see
U re see if
U re sieve
a
a chore
a chore till
a chortle or
a
bell
E
laugh
hour D fence
a gain st
all sere E us
un as sail a bull
man ooo vers
Incrementally is a compendium of my trademark sound poems. These
works span the whole of my career: they are a crowd pleaser in participatory
performance because they’re such fun. I love to lift the poem off the page and
plant it firmly in the imagination through humour. As poems on the page, these
are concrete poetry, in which the shape and motion of the words on the page are
part of the intended effect. In performance, the vocal acrobatics elicit amazed
response, especially for first timers. A sounding performance in a school
setting is guaranteed to jar loose the inhibitions of the most jaded
teenagers.
Sounding is a hoot! As
our first and perhaps our last resource, sounding allows for any eventuality.
For me, sound poetry offers creative expression when words fail the enormity of
emotions. Sub-verbal, sounding explores language in widening waves of individual
expression until the experience becomes participatory. Between image and sound
as a poem's priority, I can not choose, so the work becomes concrete and/or
performance poetry, where improvisation interweaves surprising dimensions.
Incrementally is a collection of sound and pattern poetry, built up
to a statement from a simple syllable. It plays with sight, sound and puns. An
externalised language, the pattern poetry passes through traditional forms to
current concrete structures and soundings. Meaning is produced through the
patterned building of language, assonance, and transformation of thought
through interaction. Each line tricks the reader into hearing more than one
meaning. A wall of sound gradually builds a coherent structure in the same way
that children learn language as meaning emerges. These poems are meant to be a
shared exploration of sound in participatory play.
Poetry comes alive as
words spring and fall from the page creating visual and sounds patterns,
connotations, and transforms the integrity of the language into a motion of
surprise for the readers. Sounding explores language by widening waves of
individual expression, as the experience becomes participatory. Between image
and sound, the language's motion becomes the poem's priority. The work becomes
a concrete form of performance poetry, where the improvisation interweaves
surprising dimensions.
The poems are humorous
responses to the stresses of contemporary life on a body that would rather
follow the rhythm of its own phases. Sound poems burst out of the complexities
of living in a setting that overwhelms the natural world with artificial stimuli.
Poetry is my defence against such forces, an energy outlet. Whatever the
subject, it is great fun to continue the play of invention in performance,
especially in participatory performances.
Each piece is meant to
lift off the page as you read it. Aloud is allowed, so please try these words
out on the tip of your tongue!
List Ten
List
List ten
List ten to
List ten tooth
List ten to the
List ten to thumb
List ten to the hum
List ten to the hum of the
List ten to the hum of the Bee
List ten to the hum of the Bee Love...
List ten to the hum of the Bee Love Ed
winging a way a cross a crow dead room or (rumour) heard only by spirit
ears
SIN TAX
in
in tents
in tent's eye
in tents I'm
in tents Ima
in tents I'm a
gain
in tents I'm
again in
in tents I'm
again in gnat
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun brie
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze lit
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeds litter
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze lit tear rare
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze lit tear airy
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze litter eyrie hiss
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze litter eyrie his store
in tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze litter eyrie his store in
tents I'm
again in gnat shun breeze litter eyrie his store in tents
I'm again in
gnat shun breeze litter eyrie his store in tents I'm again
in gnat shun
breeze litter eyrie his store in tents I'm again in gnat shun
breeze litter
eyrie
his store in
tents I'm again in gnat shun breeze litter airy history
intense
imagination breeds literary history intense imagination breeds
literary
history intense imagination breeds literary history in tense
intense
imagination breeds literary history intense imagination breeds
literary
history intense imagination breeds literary
history in
tense imagination
press
sent
passed &
few sure
Here’s my
latest example of a poem as
word play:
Lethologica
The technical term for a typical type
of forgetting: the image that squats
on tip of tongue, resolutely refusing
to release the word we know so well.
The name you know like the back of
your hand slides off the tongue down
the little red lane, lands in a splash
of acid reflex not to be regurgitated whole.
O, how to put together what
springs to mind. What pops up.
The tongue worries the hole where
the tooth once was, where the name
is still, somewhere, lurking on tippy
toes tongue-tied unwilling or able
to announce itself boldly, skirting
the premises, hiding behind the molar
column next door. I know you are
there. Nicky knocky nine doors.
You’re It. Flit. And you drown in
saliva, the flood onslaught of
thought to catch you by, word
association won’t work now. What
will? Begging, beseeching?
Demanding?
My paralyzed tongue cannot wrap
itself round a nickname in the vernacular.
An image beckons, nameless
but it’s the name on the tip you want.
You.
"Lethologica" up now in swirling
versions with my sounding on https://seaofpo.vispo.com?p=pk. So much fun to
perform!
Poetry comes alive when heard. Try it on your
tongue...
CAPTION: “Famous Couples”, New Year’s Eve,
London Ontario
Poet, performer and playwright Penn Kemp [photo credit: Harold Rhenisch] has been
celebrated as a trailblazer and a literary ninja since her first book from
Coach House Press, 1972. The League of Canadian Poets honored her with their
Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award (2025), as Spoken Word Artist of the year
(2015), and a foremother of Canadian Poetry. Recent collections include:
Ordinary/Moving (Silver Bow Publishing, 2025); Lives of Dead Poets (above/ground press, 2025); INCREMENTALLY (Hem Press, 2024); POEMS IN RESPONSE TO
PERIL, an anthology for Ukraine (co-editor, Pendas Productions, 2023); P.S.
(with Sharon Thesen, Gap Riot Press, 2022) and
https://publicreverie.com/poems-for-barry-a-digital-chapbook/ (2026). Penn is
active across the web with multimedia collaborations: see pennkemp.substack.com
and pennkemp.weebly.com.
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