July 12

Poems for 7/12

How Do You Really Do?  by Peter Sears

When the Red Wind Blows  by Peter Sears

When I Listen in My Car to Mozart's "Don Giovanni" by Peter Sears

Postcard to Herself  by Peter Sears

By the White Toppling Sea  by Peter Sears

A Pretty Pass  by Ted Kooser

Answer July by Emily Dickinson

 

 “poetry’s medium is the individual chest and throat and mouth of whoever undertakes to say the poem.” It is a physical embodiment that changes us and the spaces we occupy. The poem creates an environment.-- Robert Pinsky

 

Perhaps the above quote is one of the secrets of our enjoyable in-person discussions!  Each voice participating, whether to read a poem aloud, or to make comment is joining the poems to create a humane environment in which to consider where these words take us with our thoughts and experiences.  Dividends this week: The Kooser poem brought up the various implications of "pretty" associated with pass, and Judith was reminded of this trio from the Mikado:  https://www.gsarchive.net/mikado/webopera/mk204.html

 

She also mentioned her introduction to Poetry, her grandmother's book... Doorways to Poetry when I quoted Yannis Ritsos and his idea that each word was a doorway... we will discuss his idea in the last stanza of The Meaning of Simplicity at a later date.

 

Finally, Paul provided us a reading of 1936 by Stephen Vincent Benet:   

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8513525-1936-by-Stephen-Vincent-Benet

 

 Nutshell:  to find out more about Peter Sears: https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/beyond-the-margins/remembering-peter-sears/

How do you really do? The title can be read in multiple ways depending on where you put the accent. We had fun with the "left field" details as one person put it and how the poem veered to a tone of the wondering mind, appropriate to the POV of a child.  Then again, the "one straight line" in the poem "I try to forget that I'm letting myself down" which addresses the theme of how we response to the exigencies of societal correctness exemplied by "Mr. and Mrs. Very Big Deal" , seems spoken by an adult.  Perhaps, as in the next poem, a hint at our fear that we are not being courageous enough?  And  when (and how) do you stiffle your inner squeal?  That aside, a brilliant exposure of "bullshit" sharply observed with a clever parallel of visceral reactions...

There are multiple ways of understanding, "How are you doing":  as financial question, a general interest in well-being, or curiosity about what someone is up to.  We did spend a minute admiring the use of "vegetable wad" for money, which led to other ways of looking at food metaphors for it : https://savingk.com/food-slang-words-for-money/

 

When the Red Wind Blows: the title opens the poem  and closes it with a repeat.  Beautiful form with a long fog-horn O blowing (perhaps howling) through.  We discussed possibilities of what a "red wind" means, and how the poem is serious but with overtones that feel devastating.

The ghost of the dog that " flies over landscape- gesture of undulating wave" changes the tone from the opening philosophical questions, moves on to a war image.  So red, and death certainly seem coupled. Perhaps too a sense of ecological disaster... Regardless what conclusion, a memorable poem worthy of memorizing.

 

Don Giovanni:  As one person summarized: wow!  he sure packs a lot in one poem.  This one deserves multiple re-readings to capture the nuances of music, how we relate to it, are moved by it.  The small nugget about our concern over "how we appear to others" comes at the end.

I gave this link to  an amusing article about Mozart -- towards the end a glimpse of insights about Don Giovanni.. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/07/24/the-storm-of-style

 

Postcard to Herself : The vocabulary, to the point of playing with the French city "Nice", and the pretty and nice image of a self-absorbed young lady -- you can see from these lines:  

 ruffled, she went sluffing by the sea,

sealed in the pink envelope of herself.

Oblivious to "fireworks of flowers", the reader gathers that she missed out on the one bird with wings of black glass, rocking down a slope, she watched fade out.

 

By the White Toppling Sea: One is immediately captivated by the meter, like Longfellow's Hiawatha. I had made I was curious about Lithuanian folk tales.  Not sure if this poem has any reference to the legend of Neringa, a good hearted giantess. We enjenjoyed the form, imagined niads (sea nymphs)

 

Pretty Pass:  Technically, this is a sarcastic reference to things not going so well... but Kooser works the "pretty", the returned letter, not passing up the opportunity to try again, the sewing, mending, covid, yes, a look at our world, and how it's not so bad to leave it at a certain point.

 

Dickinson: One of Emily's delightful short poems of question/answer that rhymes us through the seasons.