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Thursday, July 2, 2020

Valley Manor - June 28

continuing w/ Poets Walk -- working through the alphabet -- up to Emancipation! (The first two are not on poets walk the others can be accessed here : https://mag.oncell.com/en/poets-walk-78374.html
look up the poem prompt tile and that will take you to the poem.   You can also listen to the poems by dialing  (585) 627-4132, you can hear the poems spoken aloud.)

Insha'Allah by Danusha Laméris
Here Together W.S. Merwin
For the Anniversary of My Death by W. S. Merwin 
what we can't know by James LaVilla-Havelin
Communion by Jessie Belle Rittenhouse
As Long As We are Not Alone:  by Israel Emiot, translated by Leah Zazulyer
From Gratitude by Cornelius Eady
Choose by Carl Sandburg
The Angels of Radiators by A. Poulin, Jr.

Whatever faith we have, however we mean "so may it be", "God willing", implicit in these words is
a hope and trust  that we will be able to figure out how to deal with what is dealt to us.
I love that the verb, "to hold" is modified by the manner indicated by the adverbs: lightly; carefully;

I also hope that any mother would do this with her child, insha'Allah.

The first Merwin poem was written almost 25 years ago, but I love that it was resurrected both in the Yale Review in 2016 with this drawing by Van Gogh, Fishing Boats at Sea, 1888

Three times, the present participle,  clinging,  first "us", "swept along";  then "I to you"  (to keep you from being swept away) an "you to me" , seeing the shore,
and then a question with cling together in the future.  How long -- and where will it carry us.
Beautiful love poem.

The one on poets walk published in 1967, has an unusual title...  Is the silence the tireless traveler, or the speaker of the poem?  Both possibilities work and reinforce each other... enigmatic... why surprised at the love of one woman?   Is it surprise, hearing the wren sing (the words on the tile on Poets Walk) as the rain stops?  He "bows in" to the surprise?     Perhaps.

It is interesting to contrast the Merwin with James LaVilla-Havelin's list of "what we can't know" which includes not knowing how we are (will be) remembered.  My favorite, "the lie's uncurling..."
and the group liked the perspective we cannot share with an insect...   Much more accessible, but certainly still filled with mystery, and no "aha" as summary.

 Communion harkens back to "Here Together", but contrasting the complacency of cows with the busy couple, who "remain forever two", and split from each other.

We thoroughly enjoyed Leah Zazulyer's translation: "As long as we are not alone" .
Hope, mystery.. the repeated words "as long as" (have a partner); we shall rejoice (insha'Allah)
a bird (like Merwin's wren), silence of God... And if musical sounds promote the growth of plants...
why not imagine a stone as well hearing...  (repeated twice.)

Cornelius Eady offsets the word "Love... bridges the bullies all to themselves with the brick of his poet self...  The sadness -- "Nearly all the things/that weren't supposed to occur/Have happened (anyway) is offset by the power of poetry... what is more powerful than rage... this love, this job
of writing poetry, as simple as breathing.


Sandburg offers us an aphorism in a way.  The context could be the Spanish-American war...
or the timelessness of choosing between confrontation or collaboration.

We thoroughly enjoyed Al Poulin's "Angels of Radiators..."  The alliterative "furnace fails...
the fallen angels... the rumble of resurrection... witty and a lovely ekphrastic music of the sound
of those singing radiators! 

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