May 21-22

 I recommend (thank you Jon) How a poem appeals to our heart.. not an intellectual puzzle to solve.  Major Jackson from "How to Read a Poem" https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2025/05/15/how-to-read-a-poem/  It reminds me of the wisdom of Keats describing "negative capability" and the importance of a poem to embrace "uncertainty" and avoid  "irritable reaching after fact and reason".  The notes reflect the spirit of the discussion of these Poems:

 By the Front Door  by W.S. Merwin; A Rainy Morning by Ted Kooser; Adlestrop  by Edward Thomas; Ozymandias (1818) Percy Bysshe Shelley; At the Very Lengthy Meeting by Kevin McCaffrey; My Dream by Han Yong-un (1879 –1944); Anthem for America by Varsha Saraiya-Shah; Future History of Earth’s Birds by Amie Whittemore

from "As you Like It" -- Wm Shakespeare[1]

"And this our life, exempt from public haunt/Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,/Sermons in stones and good in everything."

commentary:  we came up with the idea of "homeopathic poetry" -- a little dose has a beneficial healing effect!  Judith helped us place the quote as the moment when the Duke is thrown out ( in the play, "As you Like It": https://www.playshakespeare.com/as-you-like-it/synopsis

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Nutshell of discussion. 

By the front door:  3 lines, 9-7-5 syllables with a haiku-like feel reminiscent of Basho's haiku "Old Pond /Frogs jump in... sound of water"--(the last line is particularly untranslatable: in Japanese: "mizu no oto"-- ). Given Merwin's translations of Basho, it is not surprising that his poem have overtones of this famous haiku!  (Kathy mentioned that Merwin's translations of Basho all seems to be "Merwinesque")  The feeling most had reading this poem is one of happiness.  Perhaps it is the association of a toad singing, perhaps a sign of return of spring,  as well as the "happiness" as "old as water" which augments a sense of timelessness.  In Merwin's poem,  the rain reinforces the element of recurrence.  Regardless, however you understand the poem,  whatever layers and associations evoked,  Merwin's poem passes the test of appealing to the  heart, engaging the reader as willing "accomplice".   

A Rainy Morning:  Kooser lends his "home-spun" tone in this empathetic description  with intricate visual detail and an unusual metaphor of the way a woman pushes herself in her wheelchair as if striking keys of a piano-- expertly, as if effortlessly,

a performance further compared to playing chords of difficult music.  One forgets perhaps that it is a rainy morning until the penultimate line, her wet face beautiful in its concentration and the cooperative role of the  wind in final line turning the pages of rain.   We do not know the story of the woman, why she is in a wheelchair, and perhaps some might even forget she is, given the dignity and grace Kooser creates,  emanating from this simple scene where  every line and detail counts. 

Adelstrop: Adlestrop (hyperlink tells you more about the poet).    Known as one of the  Dymock poets, Thomas, good friend with Robert Frost, penned this in June 1914, before the Guns of August and start of the First World War and the poem was published just after Thomas was killed in the war in 1917.  The mood of the poem makes you shiver with the hiss of steam, the blackbird, this chance moment of an unexpected stop no one knew aside from the name on the station.  For a sense of the place,  https://www.edwardthomaspoetryplaces.com/post/adlestrop

This poem, without knowing anything about the poet, the time period, circumstance, captures a sense of being anywhere and yet at the same time a particular place and time all at once.  We enjoyed the sound of "unwontedly", summarizing in one old-fashioned word the unplanned stop in a seemingly deserted station, with no one leaving or coming. What is in a name, except now the place is famous because of the poem and the connection with the poet and the war, and the mood of apprehension that makes you shiver, as a solo scree from a blackbird evokes an expanding chorus of all birds breaking the stillness.    Compared to the romantic poets (and perhaps Thomas is mocking them in the 3rd stanza with the "lonely fair haycocks" and "cloudlets".   

Oxymandias:  I chose it as follow-up from last week with Archive and Exodus.   A warm thank you to Paul who kindly filled us in all that Diodorus_Siculus had to say about  Ramses II and to Judith who brought up Abu Simbel.  I think this photo sums up the power of this poem written by 26 year old Shelley in 1818.  Just the legs stand... Do his words, "Look on my words ye Mighty and despair"  as a "colossal wreck" ?

A thank you to Judith as well for providing this contemporary (2018) take on Ozymandias by a local poet.

THE NEW OZYMANDIAS  by Kip Williams

 

I met a farer from a far-off strand

Who said, “Two giant feet of bronze, gone green,

In water sit, bedecked with broken chains

That show their maker well did understand

That bonds of former slavery, still seen,

Convey defeated servitude’s remains.

 

Near by, a broken torch lies, dead and dark

In grimy water’s tide that, fitful, passes,

And on the base, these words my eyes did mark:

‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses

Yearning to breathe free.’ Here ends the poem,

The rest is eaten by the restless water.

Along the shore, starved, feral humans roam

Whose brandished weapons offer naught but slaughter.”

At the very lengthy meeting:   This poet has clear knowledge of craft demonstrated in his other books which draw energy , like this poem  from a joyful spelling out of the tedious! True to life, but with a Billy Collins flair as he takes a metaphor of a moth and makes it real.  We came up with another phrase:  "associational short-circuits" -- how in heavens name, in a sonnet form no less, we go from a soul-sapping meeting, in the first 8 lines, (peppered with one pompous detail, describing   "impetuous emptiness" thrown by said soul, now a trapped moth)  only to embellish the metaphor in the next 6 in such a way everyone explodes in laughter.  Who has not witnessed such a "moth-soul" at an overly lengthy meeting?  "not exhausted, / but bored"... stained with all the breaths/and words and thoughts that filled the room... "the yellow-green color of old teeth".  

My Dream :    We noted the unusual repeat in each of the three stanzas:  when XYZ, my dream will become followed by a detail in a loved one's life.  From the previous comic poem, we returned to a highly romantic treatment of someone watching over a child or lover, with the tender expression of deep desire in the dream of joining him/her.   Apparently this poem was written in 1926 by Han Yong-un (b. 1879), a S. Korean monk and independence activist in the Japanese colonial era. One blog refers to the poem as "a good expression of the beauty of pure Hangul ( Korean writing system:  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Korean-language) written lightly in the form of a letter.  Many poets have described words as birds, as does the poet below who seems to capture beautifully the feel of Han Yong-un's poem.  Forgive me for not noting the name... 

 "words ha:ng in the air, like birds, verdicts -- some turn their back, others flutter, fragile with tricks of language... trying to hold them, they dissolve, and the stories, people become ghosts, and one day, we too become part of the air."

One person shared how the cricket's chirrup sounds like "cheer up" which indeed, is the effect of the cricket's song.

Anthem:  Here, using the form of an Abecedarian, many agreed that the form interfered with the sound and sense, although the variety is somewhat engaging.  Is the poet referencing Amanda Gorman in the 3rd line (The Hill we climb)?  It was disconcerting to have the  infinitive "to/Man up broken.  We were not sure what was intended by the series of XY's YX's, etc.  The ending two lines although a fine "spelling" of PEACE feel awkward, and fall in the department of "puzzle-solving" rather than poetry.

Future History of Earth's Birds:  The challenge I proposed was to imagine being one of the judges of the Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize and examining this poem as an example of an "exceptional poem".  Certainly, we learn interesting facts about birds, but the spacing and breaking of lines feels disruptive and does not fall into a pattern that supports the meaning.  As one person put it, if this was 3rd prize, perhaps there were only 3 entries.  Another take:  there is a repeat of the opening line to close the poem, but the filling needs work.  I confess, it is not fair to have introduced the poem in a negative way.  Click on the hyperlink of the poet, Amie Whittemore  born in 1980,  Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro, TN in 2020-21 and you will find out more including this judge's citation: “Future History of Earth’s Birds” is avian demise wrapped in thin shells, with the unhatched learning of horrible fates to come. It is kites at some pinnacle, or nadir of evolution, dropping fire onto a burning world that they didn’t ignite, while also providing humans with the field guide how-to instructions. Who’s to blame? The heart of it lies here: “Does it matter // what kind of birds did this? They’re all dead now.” These lines are solemn pronouncements of avian fate laid at the feet of humanity, which will suffer that same fate. No canaries were harmed during the writing of this poem, but our hearts heard them stop singing."

 

In closing, Jerry shared two hand-written copies of a poem he had written to a dear friend of his in Wisconsin.   The good news, his friend is doing well. 

May 12, 2025

 

Carla:

You are like a full moon

like the first cup of coffee

before the sun.

I don't know what I would do if

I would lose you.

You are my strength.

You are the needle on my compass that always points north.

You are the brightest star in the heavens.

You are  my peace.

 -- JerBear Rzat.

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[1] Poets Garden, Highland Park: https://hikeandstrollrochester.com/highland-park-poets-garden/--  one of the six Shakespeare quotes on the benches...