Edmund Skellings

Edmund Skellings is a Nobel Laureate in poetry. He was the dude who invented the idea of putting audio with written text. He read one of his collections of poetry and put a vinyl record in the sleeve of the book. Just think...those CDs that come with your textbook, the idea of putting that stuff together came from him. Through the years, his audio media have shrunk.

He was also the first poet to put his poetry in a Dolby 5.1 surround sound format with visuals. I got to see (parts of) this DVD before it was officially released in a Forum class freshman year. It's pretty crazy, words appear and there's colors and stuff is flying on/off the screen in perfect harmony with the sound coming from the speakers placed in every corner of the room (and in the front center).

One of his poems that I liked more than the rest is called "Aisle of You." Before it was even played, I put it together. Then you heard his voice saying it over and over. One of those things quite like "What?? I said 'vacuum'!!" or "olive juice," only not really.

I hung out and talked to him for a bit after his presentation. He's a cool old dude. A little weird, but I guess that's how you get street cred as a poet (if the Nobel Prize doesn't do it). He told me that he's always looking to revise his work because you can never get something perfect. I guess there is no boundary to the open set of perfection. Balls.