https://genius.com/Eric-bogle-and-the-band-played-waltzing-matilda-lyrics
looked for Liam’ Clancy's version of singing and found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg
you see the lyrics here.
That set the tone for the rest of the poems. I thank each of you present for sharing so deeply.
Of note from the discussion, you might wish to consult:
https://patschneider.com/pat/peters-poem-lost-in-plain-sight-on-poetry-in-america-today/ you can also consult
You can hear Peter recite his poem “Lost in Plain Sight” and see a picture of him, meet his wife, find out more about him.
Scroll down to Peter and Pat the poem starts at 1:50.
You will want to hear “For This”. 6: 43
We discussed how knowing more about the poet, can enhance the poem… how some poems stand on their own.
Associations came up for instance
The Night I Wore the Purple Dress by January Gill O’Neil brought up popsicle toes : sung by Diana Krall
You can hear Philip Larkin reciting his poem: https://interestingliterature.com/2016/11/22/a-short-analysis-of-philip-larkins-days/
Line up:
Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey
A House Called Tomorrow — Alberto Rios
The Doll Museum by Caitlin Doyle
The Falling Body by Abby Murray
The Night I Wore the Purple Dress by January Gill O’Neil
Tender Buttons [A Long Dress] Gertrude SteinTo the Rain by Ursula K. LeGuin
Days by Philip Larkin
1. Theories: Delightful title... and invitation to reconsider how we "ground" the ideas "time" and "space". background: Native Guard: Ship Island: confederate soldiers guarded by first "Native Guard" of all black soldiers.
Hurricane Camille. Distortion of time… slavery… https://vimeo.com/126195546
I love that the boats become stitches... the reassurance that you must carry only the necessary... that the "tome" of memory has random blank pages... that this too, makes as much "sense" as anything else.
A day’s time repeats a lifetime. (James Joyce, Ulysses) A picture of Dorian Gray. images of soldiers … daguerrotypes… Maura: “the morning tells the day…for each newborn.
Layers of history … its undeniable effect what is passed on in our genes through trauma… buried terrain of the past…
our whole environment changing… we think a photograph can capture something... but that too has blind spots.
2. Lost: It's funny until it isn’t. We can all associate with typical aging. The title and last line describe alzheimers. Not sure who brought up WW 1 poets: Graves; Sassoon. Stairs and question of "What do I do now?"
The poem addresses a larger humanity and emptiness, not just a personal confessional or description of fog rolling in. Another fine poem about loss, like Bishop: One Art and the chapbook by
3. House: We may have discussed this poem before, but it felt like a fitting antidote... The optimism of building a house of tomorrow offsets a sense of loss. My favorite comforting line:
You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.
I will add what I told my grown-up kids:
With this knowledge, you never march alone.
I will add what I told my grown-up kids:
OK, you could say… what proof, what definition, what anything is there of "good"… or, you could say, hmmmm… however I don’t understand exactly what is being said… I like the pairing of “good” as in bounty, as in nourishing for body, mind, spirit, and by extension… family, community, world…
I greet the good in you — and by gum… I wager you will be greeted back by the good in others.
I have yet to see this fail in my 66+ years!
it is equally true, as Mary Oliver says in “Wild Geese”, “you do not have to be good…
I think she’s pointing out, that goodness is part of the scheme of things. http://www.phys.unm.edu/~tw/fas/yits/archive/oliver_wildgeese.html
4. Doll Museum: brilliant elegy... using Egyptian stone dolls, and those of a sister... curious end-rhyme that subtly reinforces the unfolding meaning. tomb/room... guard/yard... life/knife... stone and mid-line, alone.
5. Falling Body: brilliant portrayal of ptsd at work... a little girl falls, and the father in his mind is the medic trying to help a buddy. the red lotus carpet is a perfect detail for the scene.
6. Purple dress. Oh my! Oh my! the lines are so smooth... the zipper of the dress, the river... the blend of colors... and how that dress owned the narrator -- audience too captivated by " a condition of longing
that creates more longing."
7. paired with Gertrude Stein, with an equally electric effect of layering... sensuality and philosophy! what is current... as both machine but also fashion?
"Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it." So much in the long line... a line distinguishes it. Just.
"Scaparoni" crowed Judith! Indeed.
8, to the Rain: LeGuin:
alliteration in every line but the varied vowels ensure it doesn’t thump.
Takes you into large universal.
alliteration: mental process. we’re attracted to process.
comparative…
9. Days: Oh my. It's enough to praise the possibilities in days:
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
The second stanza brings doctor and priest who examine how do you lived them-- but of what use it that?
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