Stopping along the Way by David Wagoner; The War in the Air by Howard Nemerov; Laundry by George Bilgere; For Robert Frost, in the Autumn in Vermont by Howard Nemerov; Life by Eric Rounds; 2008, XII by Wendell Berry
I opened with 3 quotes from the September issue of The Sun: If we could have new knowledge, we must get us a whole world of new questions. -- Susanne K. Langer; The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. -- Isaac Asimov; Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Sharon Bagley
Nutshell:
Stopping along the Way: We read this sentence by sentence, which helped accentuate the humorous run-ons which stretch over 9 lines, 17 lines and 15 lines after the first one and the rather abrupt two referring to a car honking. Indeed, there was a lot of chuckling by the third lengthy passage describing the 'possum's response to two cars honking. Axel brought up the bonding characteristic of shared laughter, often ignored when describing beneficial effects. She also brought up the fact that a 'possum might seem not to care, or seem to choose to play dead. Actually, it is not in control of the reaction, and it is its body shutting down. As Graeme put it, "automation, not agency". How beautifully this mimics the opening, with the car's brakes making it stop "almost on its own." We all appreciated the segue from honking cars, to the geese, with another gentle poke at our human tendency to consider ourselves important. The "very young possum" and its "personal intersection of human cross-purposes" later is described as comparing the sound of the car to "some distant sound/ somewhere deep, far back/ in his old, new mind". Something "old" as in some wiring from archaic DNA perhaps.
Not only does Wagoner treat us to a delightful account of a brief moment which paints a vivid visual painting, but also provides wonderful sounds and rhythms. Stopping ... along the way, as title, could be a title of a sermon or advice column.
War in the Air: The title perhaps plays on the fact that human history would confirm war is as common event as breathing air, and always seems suspended above our heads. He adds a bitter irony with the justificatory adjectives of "clean", "good" which one sometimes hears applied to the second world war. Judith provided us with a description of being a bombadier which confirms the bloody messiness of war. The motto of the Royal airforce: Per ardua, per aspera: through hardship to the stars. Nemerov was a pilot in WW2 and knows first hand. His clever manipulation of clichés adds a bite to the irony introduced in the first stanza. The use of "incompressible" to describe hitting the sea, the play of "shades" as both drawing an image but also souls of the dead, leads to a reiteration of the invisibility of the dead -- "as if there was no death, for goodness's sake". The final line hangs like an unhinged door.
Laundry: Many things in daily life provide metaphors for unspoken hardship. Many brought up memories of hanging up laundry -- and clothespins, both the old-fashioned ones and those with the hinged spring so a pin could pinch... Bilgère uses "black/and white" deftly to define the action of blouses and shirts flapping in the wind and "immaculate" light. Axel saw a parallel of the speaker of the poem (as a boy) and the 'possum poem as sharing a "dire situation". Eddy admired the use of present tense applied to the past, present, and implied continuation in the future of this snapshot. Marna was pleased that the sound of the poem, the feel of it in the mouth was as important as the visuals. We all could relate to the hard work, the joyful feel, like laughter, and sensitive to the repeated struggling applied to laundry and marriage. The line breaks in the second stanza add to the sense of fragment which ends with the effective shrinking of space between her-but and continues with initial capitals to the final period. There is an unpinning of how we turn a snapshot of a moment, to the creation of photograph, left with a deeper understanding that confirms a foreboding but also a choice to return to a joyous dance of blouses and shirts.
For Robert Frost: The question came up if Robert Frost knew this poem. The answer is no. He died in 1963 and Nemerov wrote it afterwards, inspired by their friendship with him Frost's views on poetry. A beautiful sonnet with an unusual "painting" of Autumn and foreboding of death. The key word is "reverse" like a weaving. Just as the Chinese say, translation is like fine brocade, but to fully understand, one must look at the "tangle" of the underside hidden under the perfect façade. Some have said that the Resurrection is the beautiful side of the tapestry, the crucifixion the reverse. Does the tone match the content? I wonder if Nemerov is not sharing Frost's disdain for "leaf peepers" coming up from the cities to Vermont in the Fall. The p's of puzzled pilgrim, epiphanies. We weren't sure how to understand, "the price on "maidenhead if brought in dead" aside from a critique of Puritanical times. The oxymoron of "cold and fiery" repeats the "brilliant/dies; dying/realms of fire juxtapositions. We all agreed it is a stunning poem about autumn, but also a lovely elegy.
Life: The technique of erasure can be highly effective. Here, a selection from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi recreates for us a beautifully poetic version of the Mississippi which before "management" was a difficult river to navigate. Judith pointed out Twain made his living as a jokester, and hid his feelings about society but also his poetic intentions captured in his mastery of tone.
2008, XII: Wendell Erdman Berry is an American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. Closely identified with rural Kentucky, Berry developed many of his agrarian themes in the early essays of The Gift of Good Land and The Unsettling of America. Kathy pointed out his consistent message, always thoughtfully crafted. In 1973, 40 years prior to the New Sabbath Poems, he wrote Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, a more forceful delivery. https://cales.arizona.edu/~steidl/Liberation.html He has written a series of "Sabbath Poems" starting with a line from the Bible, but this #12, even though a variation on a different Sabbath Poem #12, confirms the ability of a good writer to continue to explore an important theme. Judith summed it up: "You're weighed in the balance and found wanting."(Daniel 5:27)
