sent out the poems on Thanksgiving Day with this note:
This morning, I was intrigued by this poem: Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene, 2015. by Craig Santos Perez https://poets.org/poem/thanksgiving-anthropocene-2015. A rather grim “naked truth” to counter with a prayer of gratitude for farmers everywhere: without them, there would be no food. The last line provides the closing of such a prayer: “May we forgive each other and be forgiven.
A Spell for lamentation and renewal by Ned Balbo
The Cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney
Weapon of Choice by Abby Murray
Improvisation by Adam Zagajewski
Cage by Rigoberto González
I love the set-up of the two columns of the Balbo poem: How to read? Perhaps someone belling
the word "Lamentation" before each couplet in that column, then like a call and response,
someone belling the word Renewal in that column.
The repeated opening line (quiet of hazel) morphs 5 stanzas down to for the hazel's dangling catkins
which twists the 4th stanza down in the Renewal column In the hazel's wealth of catkins.
Such word play tricks the mind... just as words do... preceding the catkins, the wavering of willow in the Lamentation column which prepares dangling implying precarious, certainly not sure to stay; wealth a fullness of a moment which rests in the shelter of the willow. From there to cowslips golden hour, to the lamentation for the cowslips common hour. Note the subtle changes: for beech tree: Brittle skin/ vellum; for ivy: steep ascent/timeless arc...
The sense of ash as both ash tree and cinder...
We discussed the fact that the poem used excised words from the abridged Oxford dictionaries.
Here is an excellent article on words, and the danger of relying on a dictionary to prove "realness"
of something existing. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/10/ever-remove-words-dictionary-people-stop-using/
How do you look at things? as lament? as source of renewal... as the ying/yang shifting within a universal oneness?
The Cure at Troy:
The tone of oratory, repeating what has been repeated countless times about suffering. However, the rhyme scheme is complex, never repeating the same pattern and often disguised. Would that hope and history rhyme -- once in a lifetime...
Weapon of choice: choice is intentional, and the weapon a tool with which to deal with a hostile world. The description of the tulle screen, with the pearls convincing us we are looking out at the much bigger picture of the Universe perhaps is what is needed to carry on.
Muddy: We enjoyed the sound of "mud."
Improvisation: The directive at the beginning is questioned in the 4th sentence. "The whole weight"? and it's curious how rapture sneaks in, its existence only in imagination, and leaves quickly to introduce the idea of improvisation. George brought up how moving it was to hear the National Anthem played by a jazz trumpet, and then a sax. Everything about improvisation is the how, not the what is written down, proscribed, but unknown until you try out the riff, the chord, the notes. (Quite different, Doris notes, from the President not knowing "My Country Tis of Thee" or the existence in the constitution of the separation of state.
Cage: this poem elicited a wonderful discussion in both groups. For those who did not read the note or pay attention to the title, calling it an "homage to a love poem", it was humbling to witness how easy it is to read for what we want to read. The fact that it is the point of view of the guard, and we recognize the kinds of things someone in that position must say to maintain sanity, but if examined, actually are horrifying (Don't you worry as I swallow you whole...) Not the person you trust if you have a broken wing to cradle you -- as you see more bars and danger, or hold your brittle bones.
Recommended: "America Eats its Young" by George Clinton.
We are at a time in our country where we are incredibly far from truth. To call a detention prison at the border for children, separated from their parents, "a summer camp" and say they are better off there liberated from their families is unbelievable... and yet reported. The cage "where you can always stay" leaves a menacing sense that there is no other choice.
Sent to O Pen.
A Spell for lamentation and renewal by Ned Balbo.:Judith brought up this book: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/02/the-lost-words-robert-macfarlane-jackie-morris-review. She was reminded by the words in the poem, those describing the natural world," determined “not needed anymore” by the Oxford Junior Dictionary.It is quite a hefty tome, but worth looking into.Many references came up with the Seamus Heaney poem: For reference, Philoctetes is a warrior who goes crazy on an abandoned island… call it shell-shock… battle fatigue… or PTSD, he is dealing “with a wound that would not heal.” References to Greek myths came up, such as Edmund Wilson : The Wound and the Bow (seven essays on the delicate theme of the relation between art and suffering); Yeats: Leda and the Swan; the Novel, Circe : http://madelinemiller.com/circe/ as well as Irish input on “healing wells” and Paul’s instructions on how to use, and his personal anecdote which prove their powers.“Weapon of Choice” brought up the musical “Crowns” https://www.govst.edu/About/Center_for_Performing_Arts/All_Events_by_Date/Crowns-_A_Gospel_Musical/and several more stories about the power of hats.To listen to Muddy, by Orlando White:For fun, sing along, as a few of us did to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjnOj9O16_I“Cage” provided a long discussion; a reminder to assess the power of title; whether or not you sensedthe invisible margins that keep the poetry inside its column, we ended up focussing on what was disquieting in the poem.Judith was reminded of this Goya painting: http://www.19thcenturyart-facos.com/artwork/saturn-devouring-his-children
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