December 2

 

The line up for the coming week includes poems by Richard   and Dorianne Laux read at the Dodge Festival opening session on October 22… https://vimeo.com/469337858/09f9eb057e at minute 53:32 Richard Blanco reads his poem below at minute 6: 28 at the same session. at another session I heard Naomi Shihab Nye read her poem…  Enjoy!

America, I Sing You Back by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke**

Streets  by Naomi Shihab Nye

Snowdrops  by Louise Glück

Revolutionary Letter #1 by Diane di Prima

Carlos  by Alberto Rios****

Refugio's Hair  by Alberto Rios

Joy  by Dorianne Laux

My Father, In English  by Richard Blanco 

**** 

Nutshell:  I started the session mentioning what Ed Hirsch said in his session in the Dodge Festival about "How to read a poem"... that a poem's purpose is really to inspire the reader... and that the meaning is about the relationship of poem and reader... that when you read the poem aloud, the poem goes through you... He quoted Borges, something on the lines of "it is only by accident that I wrote this, and you are reading it, as it could be the other way around." https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68427/it-is-something-of-an-accident-that-you-are-the-reader-and-i-the-writer

The topic came up of how much one needs to know about the poet to truly understand the poem... Can the poem stand alone, by itself?  In the case of the first poem, it enhances our understanding to know it is

written by a poet of mixed indigenous and European roots.  She is known for addressing issues of culture, prejudice, Indigenous rights, the environment, peace, violence, abuse, and labor in her poetry and other creative works. The dedication to her father, to Whitman and to Hughes pays tribute to voices of America that are not considered mainstream, such as Native American, gay, black.  She paints in rhythmic lines with beautiful images the insinuated heartbreak of the abuse of the natural beauty of America.  A powerful singing of a Motherland-child relationship... We spoke about the "yes... and" vs. the disillusionment of "yes...but"... An example her power: "as I cried this country, my song grew roses in each tear's fall"; and "I remain high on each and every peak, carefully rumbling her great underbelly, prepared to pour forth singing"... 

The implication of "they" as greedy politicians, violators of the earth for personal profit runs deep.

The more you read the poem, the more the placement and repeated words make an incantatory and memorable impact.

**She calls on Whitman, I hear America Singing, and Hughes, I too…

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/america-sing-back?mc_cid=3cb4e03adc&mc_eid=248758c95e

https://poets.org/poem/i-hear-america-singing

https://poets.org/poem/i-too

It brings up associations with Elizabeth Alexander’s Praise Song: https://poets.org/poem/praise-song-day    

 

In a 2019 interview, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo says, “I always tell my students about poetry ancestors. Every poem has so many poetry ancestors. How can we construct a poetry ancestor map of America that would include and start off with poetry of indigenous nations?” Read more.

**

Streets: We discussed at length the idea of streets as metaphor for life, for what leads us to come together. We were taken by the image of the fig tree continuing even after the death of the man who will no longer harvest and enjoy them, but the birds will.  We are all interconnected... and short as our "street" may be... it is peopled by memories of all we have experienced.  We discussed as well how grief will find its right place, as Naomi says, "Each thing in its time, in its place."

Bernie offered the idea of a triptych in the third stanza... the crowd... the grackles, the sky, 

and we all appreciated the personification of the sky, which sews, sews, tirelessly sewing... a sense of endless continuation even with the daily drop of a purple hem.

Snowdrops: The opening admonishment, the choice of snowdrop as speaker, make the words "yes risk joy" even stronger.  Indeed, a message of "hope springs eternal" but we could feel it is a hard-won statement.  

Revolutionary Letter #1. Without any background on poet or poem, we sensed a sadness, a sense of isolation perhaps borderline desperation.  The "(we hope)" in parentheses perhaps will be realized in a future letter... Why revolutionary?  Perhaps her authenticity in speaking her voice... this is no rehearsal for life but a game played in earnest.

Carlos:  I had found this tucked into an article where Rios speaks about Refugio's hair.  It is referenced

in Whispering to Fool the Wind — published in 1982.

 https://poets.org/national-poetry-month/dear-alberto-rios-carlos

Yes, perhaps a real man, the same uncle "whose soul had the edge of a knife"... but also the embodiment of what touches us all: loneliness, pain inside...  boat... the fisherman, anchor...by any other name... and our desire... really, just to grow old, be happy...  We didn't quite understand all the pieces, however, felt how Rios could invert what should be familiar to something far more complex.

Refugio's Hair: Story telling at its vivid best with a hint of magical realism.  What shouldn't be a bad thing... learning how to ride a horse... turns into a horror story... and the "unspeakable deed" is indeed exposed.  Powerful.

Joy:  A wonderful reminder...the "Joy" in the title  "even when... even...//when... when... as you would... (fragment)... as you accepted... (and the quiet unfolding repeated as the final sentence threads through the last two stanzas... to that final word, "amazed".

Why is it we feel guilty if we can feel joy when bad things happen... Thank goodness for it!

My Father, in English:  Beautifully read... in fact, the question came up, why the poem appears as a long block... Blanco does not read it that way, but puts meaningful pauses in.  It is the kind of poem that immediately grabs the heart.

 

Nov. 25

 

Signs of the Times by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Thanksgiving Time  by Langston Hughes

Dignity  by Too-qua-stee

Dreams by Mark Strand

WHEREAS ["WHEREAS when offered..."] by Layli Long Soldier

Neighbors  by James Crews

In these times, what signs of Thanksgiving?  Dignity?  What dreams?  What "whereas" marks us and all our neighbors?

It is curious to me that the titles of the poems this week make a sort of poem in and of itself. 

My letter to all sending out the poems: 

This is a season labeled Thanksgiving—  where perhaps you are thinking of the contradictions of this “National Holiday”.  However we behave as human beings in the culture in which we land, the idea of gratitude for being alive remains at the root of providing nourishment for our minds, hearts, spirits. We will meet at noon on Wednesday to celebrate words that celebrate a spirit of such thanksgiving.

The best gift to me over these months of shutdown, is the knowledge of all of you who not only treasure poems as gateways to understanding,

but treasure the art of listening to others and sharing observations as we explore the myriad possibilities  of what it is to be alive.

I am grateful to each.  May you be safe, healthy, find joy in the simple and unexpected.

**

Below links to Barb's monologue; the TED talk about the Danger of a Single Story.

Nutshell: 

Signs of the Times:  This dialect poem comes from Dunbar’s collection published in 1895  called “Majors and Minors” which shows his dexterity to write in both standard English and and dialect. Hurray for Jan, David H., John, Ginny, Barb for giving dialect a whirl!  

The dialect reminded some of us of Uncle Remus, and how Joel Chandler Harris captured these tales told by Slaves. http://www.uncleremusmuseum.org    “Although Harris disavowed regionalism in art ("My idea is that truth is more important than sectionalism, and that         literature that can be labeled Northern, Southern, Western, or Eastern, is not worth labeling at all"),      his writings are unsurpassed in reflecting the southern environment. His short stories are born of the           Georgia soil, his novels echo the strains of the Civil War South, his editorials for the Constitution deal with       southern social and political issues, and, of course, his famed Uncle Remus tales capture the diction and           dialect of the plantation blacks while presenting genuine folk legends. Enlivened with gentle humor and     irony, Harris's portraits of the Georgia Negro and his faithful handling of the folk tales constitute his major      contributions to southern and American literature. His was a southern voice with a national range.”

            https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/harrisj/bio.html

            Thanksgiving Time: We appreciated the form and sounds which evokes the kind of weather we associate   with end of                                     November here in the North.  The  repeated “ow”sound of the opening and closing stanzas contrasts with the sparkling frost, sharp, cheery air, and all that those “ingenious cooks” will bake.

            

Dignity: Much as rhyming and form can be calming, it also depends on the skill of the poet to make it work well.  Too-qua-stee, also known as DeWitt Clinton Duncan, (1829-1909) born in the Cherokee Nation in Georgia was indeed, such a skillful wordsmith.  He worked as an attorney for the Cherokee Nation, as well as a teacher of Latin, English, and Greek. He unwraps all that dignity ensures for great character: tolerance, humility, encouragement of others, fair— the key to “the soul’s repose.”  Definitely a good poem to memorize!  We all enjoyed the mountain comparison.  Much more to admire, such as the play on “base” as noun,(fundamental to the framing of character) and “base” applied as adjective to emotion.

Perfect Thanksgiving reminder that man without dignity , is indeed like an apple pie, with the fruit left out.

 

Dreams:  a real tour de force which not only captures the complexity of dreams, the subconconscious at work, but as Jan remarked, had a “Shakespearean” overtone and beautiful sounds.  The lines are short,

each one complete in itself.  What is the truth?  In this time, perhaps the pandemic makes everyday living also seem like dream… nothing certain… nothing clear, as if life we live perhaps doesn’t belong to us.

Another poem to memorize!

 

Whereas: this is an excerpt from a book-long poem written in response to the U.S. government’s official apology to Native peoples in 2009, which was done so quietly, with no ceremony, that it was practically a secret. Layli Long Soldier offers entry points for us all — to events that are not merely about the past, and to the freedom real apologies might bring.  The passage we read pays attention to many aspects of how it feels to receive such an apology… 

Marne brought up the way nominalization can label and curtail any interest in pursuing understanding. It conveys an objective, impersonal tone. The reader is invited to imagine the feel of “crouched in footnote”…feel apology as a failing “noun-thing”… We use the verb “dash” for crushed expectations—

but here, it is more personal and physical:  Expection is “a terse arm-fold”. Metaphor is turned into verb.

 

Pages are indeed “cavernous places”.  Powerful and gripping.

 

https://swarthmorephoenix.com/2020/10/24/layli-long-soldier-reflects-on-americas-unapologetic-apology-to-native-americans/

 

Neighbors: delightful reminder of small kindnesses… connections.  We discussed rural life, Vermont,

how during the pandemic when out, we wave more.  Jim told of his experiment counting waves he received on his bicycle following the canal — 100% of the boaters waved first; about 70% of others… 

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en

 

The fictionalized monologue that Barb shared is a part of an entire show called "Voices in Isolation: Pandemic and Protest." The director is Beth Johnson. Here is the link to the whole production:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sVr87Gykus&list=PLyRPgXovFmrb5ijva7vkFPQkk6cZoAMBR&index=2

Her contribution is called "Ballerina in the Bird Bath," and it is definitely about appreciating small things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYxoiwkM3-g&list=PLyRPgXovFmrb5ijva7vkFPQkk6cZoAMBR&index=16

For those who may want to hear the 16 poets selected by the American Academy, in last night’s reading, a list of poems, some of the quotes and a link to the recording here: 

https://poets.org/anthology/gather-poems?mc_cid=31319dd5d2&mc_eid=248758c95e 

 

 

             

 

 

 

November 19, 2020

 On Joy and Sorrow by Kahlil Gibran (excerpt)

How will it feel months from now by Mary Jo Bang

excerpt: to believe in things by Joseph Pintauro

Long Live Everything  by Joseph Pintauro 

Singularity  by Marie Howe

The Moment  by Marie Howe

Part of Eve's Discussion by Marie Howe 

Twilight by Louise Glück 

The two Joseph Pintauro poems were inspired by https://www.brainpickings.org/2020/11/10/to-believe-in-things-joseph-pintauro-corita-kent/

Without really paying attention to it, it appears the selection of poems allow the reader to imagine and wonder about what the "it" is all about..."  After the session, I was reading Glück's essay "Ersatz" which delves into "incomplete sentences" as the aborted whole and the sentence with gaps... a finger pointed to the nonexistent... and the unspoken becomes the focus... A sort of strategy of incompleteness... 

Many thanked me for this selection... especially for the links to the Pintauro which included the poem about his mother's star blanket... 

Nutshell:   

Mary Jo Bang:  We enjoyed the beautiful images and feelings in her poem which left a sense of hope--

with confirmation in the 3rd stanza:  It's so beautiful/when it sinks in.  Hold me, closeness/says.

Discussion included the notice of the "cart overturned" and "I fold myself away"... the juxtaposition of

short sentences and longer fragments and use of sight and sound. The sound of the word "sink"...  For me, a sense of ink penetrating slowly, making whatever "it" is real... whether it be the sky, and whatever color of sky... or perhaps the line before of the piano key.   What a great idea to start off with her title... How do you imagine it will feel months from now?   

Pintauro:  

In the beginning... some say, it was the void...  but Pintauro invites us to imagine nothing as

perfect, restful, about to vanish... and the sudden arrival of something. All alone.  Discussion included views about religious stories of creation, big bang theory, and the admission that they we will never be able to answer the question of how life began.  What is consciousness? 

In Long Live Everything... the pivot word, "somewhen" startles, but is also welcome... everything is not attainable... and never has been.  It reminds me of how with an overdose of  information... we often face uncertainty... polarization.. and seek to focus on things in our "control", and soon, that failing, settle for meditation and empathetic understanding.  Pintauro gives us such empathy as he presents big questions.

Marie Howe:  The first poem, "after Stephen Hawking".  We touched briefly on Stephen Hawking, his scientific contributions, his amazing coping with ALS, as well as some autobiographical detail about Marie Howe.  We appreciated the pondering, peppered with her precisions, how she balanced the personal with the vastness... The is,is,is,is,is has such an impact of sound, the opposite of the  six No's it follows -- and then the final line allowed to resonate.  3 words:  All.  everything.  Home.  Although there are no periods.  The middle line that hit us all in the gut:  "nothing... before we came to believe humans were so important/before this awful loneliness."  Enigmatically pleasing.

Her poem The Moment picks up the same theme... 

Part of Eve's Discussion:  Before the apple... but "It" starts the poem.  an unspecified moment... perhaps intensifying the moment before it all falls apart.art.  art.    Eternity... The end line words work well... still... and drop... about to say... The repetition of "it" at the end... "like that, and after that, still like that... only all the time."  

Louise Glück: This poem appeared in an October 2020 issue of the  New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/louise-gluck-whisperer-of-the-seasons.  She received the Nobel Prize in Literature, "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."But what does that mean?  Here is a February 2005 recording https://lannan.org/events/louise-gluck-with-james-longenbach

which starts with a wonderful  introduction by Jim Longenbach.   Although her voice really turns me off… it’s good to hear what she has to say.  

Yes, you can read plenty more about her, her poetry.  We enjoyed  discussingTwilight without it.  Do not confuse this poem with her poem "September Twilight" and 9/11.  I felt an ominous quality to the poem and was glad others did too, although not all.  A sense of anxiety...

with a non-identified "he"  about whom one only knows he works at his cousin's mill... The one window, the squared-off landscape... the slow diminishment, the arrival of sleep which removes sight, sound, smell... and then "I" we presume to be the poet.  Passage of time, life... what diminishes... rather like a modernist "tone poem" in music which is more about mood than melody, an invitation to a transition time, with the last line sounding like a prayer.  

**

Bernie had mentioned this article from The Sun  in response to the general lean in discussion toward everything being screwed up.

Pat Schneider, "If I were God", originally published 1997: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/539/if-i-were-god-pat-schneider-issue-539

 

November 11

 Armistice Day... In the United States, Veterans Day honours American veterans, both living and dead. The official national remembranceof those killed in action is Memorial Day, which predates World War I. Some, including American novelist Kurt Vonnegut and American Veteran For Peace Rory Fanning, have urged Americans to resume observation of 11 November as Armistice Day, a day to reflect on how we can achieve peace as it was originally observed.

The following poems by Marvin Bell were chosen for discussion because they were read in a tribute to the Poet Marvin Bell on November 1, 2020.  The name of the poet reading each poem is listed.

There are two ways to go with poetry we learned in our workshops with Marvin. “My God!  It’s poetry.  Hey… it’s only poetry.”

A Man May Change -- read by Tree Swenson

Around Us -- read by Eric Pankey

The Alphabet  (not read, but a fine poem!)

Poem After Carlos Drummond de Andrade-- read by Michael Wieggers (Copper Canyon Press)

The Mystery of Emily Dickinson-- read by David Hamilton

The Dead Man and Government-- read by John Irving

"Why Do You Stay Up So Late? read by Tyler Erlendson

Things We Dreamt We Died For -- read by Tess Gallagher

The Last Thing I Say -- read by Naomi Shihab Nye

**

Nutshell:

A Man May Change: The subjunctive tone of the conditional  "may" reflects the "it sometimes happens" -- which is a subtle reference to the fact that how we perceive and live life is not a clear-cut black and white affair.   Comments included appreciation of the mysterious yet purposeful  meditation.  The use of "regular weather in ordinary days " is a wry underside to the fact that a life can go unobserved in the poignant ending that one can slip away before anyone "can find out" (that a man has changed...) And what kind of change?  The more time one spends with this poem, the more complex it becomes.  Who are we in the mirror, in the office? how slippery are we in terms defining ourselves as our life goes on.  

Around us: In just two sentences (and 17 lines), Bell creates a comforting, quiet tone in the description of what is helpful for the "rumbles that fill the mind"-- some might refer to as Monkey Mind.   The surprise at the end of the poem of a little sound of thanks -- with the humorous choice of zipper or snap-- to " close around the moment and the thought of whatever good we did" is so welcome.  Unlike some sermonizing statement, it is a humble meditation or a prayer.

Both poems give a sense that how our lives go may not have much impact... but poems make a difference and by extension, for those of us who worry... to help us confront the fears.  (an attempt to summarize David's observation.)

The Alphabet:  People! 5 times -- Three things people are saying... a bit E.E. Cummings-esque- https://poets.org/poem/9**

What is the authentic voice-- so simple... and what better than to feel encouraged... Specific (proper) names, could be a pun, just like the last line == 26, which might be the ideas the line before, using the 26  letters in the alphabet-- the endless possibilities.  Delightful!

Poem after Carlos Drummond de Andrade:  hearing Marvin read it is almost as good as the poem itself, often called "The Life Poem".  Comments included expressing appreciation of the juicy feel of being consumed by life... reference to the idea you cannot know joy without suffering... but at the end of the poem, one feels positive...  For reference, Khalil Gibran's passage https://poets.org/poem/joy-and-sorrow

Dead Man and Government:  I explained a bit about the Dead Man poems... The  name comes from the Zen admonition to live as if you were already dead. In other words, be present but have a long view too.   Each poem has two parts... organized by sentences-- no rule as to length.  This article gives the whole story and much more.  https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-lifetime-in-poetry-marvin-bell-on-iowa-and-the-dead-man-poems/

A timely reflection on absurdity... on oppression...  and perhaps part 2 is about futility... until the 3rd line from the end:  There is hope, there is still hope, there is always hope.

We followed with The Dead Man's Recent Dreams... it reminded Emily of the artwork of Robert Marx.

Another very interesting person!   https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/the-late-robert-marx-and-the-faces-in-the-mirror/Content?oid=12311658

The poet, person of imagination, "cannot stop seeing what is not there" -- the not yet... often called the fool, the "joker" ... and yet speaks the truth.  

We ended with "Why do you stay up so late?"

My favorite line:  The person I was, does not know me... again... as among the living we are constantly changing... and have the "last unanswered question."  Jan offered the idea that that question is "why are we here?".... The sounds of w's, the repetitions that never say the same thing... Unlike the poem, "The last thing I say" which is one sentence, this poem is peppered with short sentences.

A wonderful sharing... all these poems feel like companions with which to converse -- and you know the conversation will never be boring. 

** the idea of "mostpeople" developed in the introduction by  E.E. Cummings of his 1938 collected poems.

https://www.questia.com/library/97902356/collected-poems

The link is only an excerpt -- the rest of the passage...

They don't mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science,in its finite but unbounded wisdom, has succeeded in selling their wives.  If science could fail, a mountain’s a mammal.  Mostpeople’s wives can spot a genuine delusion of embryonic omnipotence immediately and will accept no substitutes— luckily for us, a mountain is a mammal.  The plusorminus movie to end moving, the strictly scientific parlour-game of real unreality, the tyranny conceived in misconception and dedicated to the proposition that every man is a woman and any woman a king, hasn’t a wheel to stand on.  What their most synthetic not to mention transparent majesty, mrsand mr collective foetus, would improbably call a ghost is walking.  He isn’t an undream of anaesthetized impersons, or a cosmic comfortstation, or a transcendentally sterilized lookiesoundiefeelietastiesmellie.  He is little more than everything, he is democracy; he is alive: he is ourselves.”

November 4

 The first two we didn't have time to discuss last week (10/29).  The day after elections, perhaps it is good to be challenged by poems which present more puzzles than comfort.  

A Noun Sentence by Mahmoud Darwish  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9qBXq5_hI

This is the recording in Arabic.  To understand the title, “It’s a nominal sentence” you need to take Arabic 1. https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/arabic-sentence-structure-nominal-and-verbal-sentences/

The translation below is by Fady Joudah and comes from the 2007 book, The Butterfly’s Burden.

This article will give you more background: https://aashiqepakistan.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/28.pdf

Night Migrations by Louise Glück

The Long Boat by Stanley Kunitz

Daffodils  by Henri Cole (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/daffodils)

What There Was by Janice N Harrington 

Wind Talker  by Frank X. Walker  (not discussed) 

First Snow, Kerhonkson by Diane di Prima 

To Dorothy  by Marvin Bell 

Sent out Nov. 11 poems with a link to hear "To Dorothy"  read by Marvin Bell (last poem of today’s discussion)  go to minute 12:17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-__g7iXlEk

It is followed by a poem for next week, Poem After Carlos Drummond de Andrade.

Nov. 11 poems sent with  this poem from Judith.  Nutshell discussion of 11/4 follows.

 

This is a poem that I turn to often in times of uncertainty. Maybe for me it's not even a poem now, but a prayer or hymn. It's titled "Great Things Have Happened" and it's by Alden Nowlan

 

We were talking about the great things

that have happened in our lifetimes;

and I said, “Oh, I suppose the moon landing

was the greatest thing that has happened

in my time.” But, of course, we were all lying.

The truth is the moon landing didn’t mean

one-tenth as much to me as one night in 1963

when we lived in a three-room flat in what once had been

the mansion of some Victorian merchant prince

(our kitchen had been a clothes closet, I’m sure),

on a street where by now nobody lived

who could afford to live anywhere else.

That night, the three of us, Claudine, Johnnie and me,

woke up at half-past four in the morning

and ate cinnamon toast together

 

“Is that all?” I hear somebody ask.

 

Oh, but we were silly with sleepiness

and, under our windows, the street-cleaners

were working their machines and conversing in Italian, and

everything was strange without being threatening,

even the tea-kettle whistled differently

than in the daytime: it was like the feeling

you get sometimes in a country you’ve never visited

before, when the bread doesn’t taste quite the same,

the butter is a small adventure, and they put

paprika on the table instead of pepper,

except that there was nobody in this country

except the three of us, half-tipsy with the wonder

of being alive, and wholly enveloped in love.

 Nutshell discussion  11/4

Helpful to read about Darwish, and the difficulty of being exiled from one's homeland.  The structure of the Arabic language has either nominal or verbal sentences.  In the case of the nominal sentence, there is no verb, and the verb "to be" is not considered to be a verb... hence, each image is static, cannot be displaced... cannot be moved in time/tense.  Displacement, with a foothold only in the painful present.  Almost haiku-like... 

 

Night Migration: The poem came from her 2006 book, Averno, the place Romans ascribed as entrance to Hades.  The title leads one to think of movement at night, not just of birds, but perhaps the soul, navigating from waking reality to dream, what belongs to life, this world, a “next” world.  Susan mentioned a “verbal thumbnail image” of the first stanza.  Whether this is 

related to the story of Persephone or not, the poem provides a meditative space about what seems 

to bring solace for the soul— both living and dead.  It would seem to be a nightly recurrence.  What do the dead see?  Perhaps like the Zen admonition, this poem asks the reader to imagine   

living as if you are dead.

 

The Long Boat:  Metaphor of letting go… a comfort to balance the two “Peace!” with the two “as if”.  June mentioned the story of the nurse telling her father as he was dying to “imagine you’re in a boat and floating out.”  I love that the poem includes the idea of mottoes we stamp on our name tags.  

 

Daffodils: It is the daffodil speaking in this surprising poem which takes a turn from yellow dust to talcum and tranquilizers… from erasure to trust in one sentence.  Is the woman dying? in a mental institution?  The similes are both intriguing and elusive.

 

What There Was: Another intriguing poem with 10 denials of specifics belonging to general categories: 4 couplets concrete:  tree, bird, flower, stench.  Silence, distance, music, continue with a quatrain and two tercets.  The longest stanza hints at stories.  A tercet hints at secrets… but here it is true, “the fire burned all evidence but not death”.  Finally, a poem, the hair of the dead, the connection with the dead,  clothes passed down but not memory.  Comments included appreciation of the spoken rhythm of the poem, the "noun sentence" feel, the internal rhythms, what feels to be autobiographical detail, perhaps an undercoat of anger, that whatever was, had an element of negation.

First Snow: enigmatic poem... nostalgic, but is the end line good or not?  She is free to go... 

To Dorothy: the power of love, makes me want to cry each time.

October 28

i woke up and the day caught me by Kara Jackson

The Undertaking by Louise Glück

Balance by Adam Zagajewski  (translated by Clare Cavanagh)  

Locked Doors by Anne Sexton

We Lived Happily during the War by Ilya Kaminsky

mountain language — Öykü Tekten

A Noun Sentence by Mahmoud Darwish  

The Night Migrations by Louise Glück - 1943-

Nutshell:

The Kara Jackson poem was not only "molested" in the first 2 stanzas, but incomplete, missing these lines at the end: but when the day calls i will answer to my name

but when the day calls i will answer to my name

 

claim it like a fire rushing toward living things

 

i will rise       because there is someone praying

 

for me to remain still.

full poem (with nice picture of the US Youth National Poet Laureate!) https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-02-2020/the-friday-poem-i-woke-up-and-the-day-caught-me-by-kara-jackson/

Linda thanked me for sending the original but with this comment:  I thought it was a deliberate way to present how our thoughts are so jumbled and disconnected in that waking up confused moment! In fact I shared it, saying that was my favorite thing about the poem; it caught me and gradually woke me up. Linda

Great discussion-- We appreciated the positive infusion and imagery; day, as both diurnal, but also the moment-- when the time "catches you"-- and "waking up" both the physical act after sleep, and coming to a realization; layers of history -- she asks for rest... as did her mother, and her mother's mother...   David S. brought up the strain of expectations on the young, which could explain in part desire for rest...  The tone is one of determination-- "I will be a fire... return to that burning chin... (we wondered what that was-- the moon?) and at the end, answer the call of the day (carpe diem!) "i will answer to my name/claim it like a fire rushing toward living things/////i will rise;  a bit of Maya Angelou... and the fire perhaps a slant reference to James Baldwin, The Fire Next time.  It may have been Marna who used the image of a cape around the world -- ?  

We did not discuss the very bit... "because there is someone praying/for me to remain still." The desire to  engage in action increases when we know someone is looking, is caring.  Still, as in "remain "even now"... or maybe, "nevertheless" or as noun, deep, meditative calm... 

Play between "I woke" in the past tense, and "keeping waking" in present... and whatever that persistent candle is (made me think of a vigil), ignites the future-- "who will the day catch if I am not the centre of its tongue"...

Louis Glück:a little more background:  https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-louise-gluck-nobel-winner-for-poetry-that-celebrates-the-individual-6716517/

Who is you?  Or are the multiple possibilities part of the beauty.  There was a comma after the last word of the first stanza:  Love,

It could be an address to love, or an imperative to "you" or a directive.  An undertaking is normally something much effort, planning, but here, the peace of the poem flows as if no effort is involved.  Perhaps a personal meditation, as well as reaching out to the reader as fellow human to remind us of the power of imagination.  If an "undertaking" perhaps, also a nod to the work involved with imagining something positive out of negativity.    It is hard not to associate "undertaking" with "undertaker", a term coined in 1382 as the helper or assistant to the one who assists with preparing the body for burial.  

Emily was reminded of the Stanley Kunitz poem, The Long Boat.  The last word, “luck” is worthy of discussion.  It is neither good, nor bad… reflecting the usual tendency we have to ascribe and project a positive or negative quality to it.

Luck is merely how the cards are dealt… not in our control.

Adam Zagajewski:  Balance... hovering above the earth... balancing between space and "vulnerable" earth, white of clouds and of snow, as well as balancing the polarity of nothing and fullness... and the paradox such as "lovely nothing",  " sweet darkness".    The description of the view of the "comic gardens forgotten by their owners" / "pale grass plagued by winter and the wind" approaching landing, is as surprising as the image of the concrete, the adverb, "assiduously" for the circling through the airport's "labyrinth".  Wonderful sounds such as the repeated "d's" in the final stanza add to the pleasure of feeling the ever-changing emotional landscape... I love the final stanza -- "I once again knew nothing" followed by the resuming of wandering, and the juxtaposition of the self that counts and measures, and the one who remembers and forgets.   Who is the "you" here?  How does it play into the final stanza?

Anne Sexton:  Powerful and frightening poem, perhaps reminiscent of Grimm's Fairy Tales and illustrates the sad story of Anne Sexton, who committed suicide at age 46.  Angels are given cold potatoes and a bowl of milk on the windowsill?  The hell described captures the mental state of someone fighting depression.  No touch, no hope, "cracking like macadam; mute; they do not cry for help/except inside/where their hearts are covered with grubs".    It reminded Rose Marie of the book The Butterfly Lampshade. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/211463/the-butterfly-lampshade-by-aimee-bender/

Here, the mother asks to be locked in, with the lock on the outside so she can't get out and potentially harm her child.  The idea of the devil locking the door from the inside (hence, with the prisoner); or the horror of an angel on the outside, snapping the lock... 

Ilya Kaminsky: 

This is a powerful poem filled with irony.  The title and last line book-end the question, how can anyone live "happily" during a war?  The we/they is immediately introduced with "And when..." the line breaks accentuate the reluctance first to protest... line break

but not enough.  Then protest but not/

enough.

The first five sentences contrast with the long sentence broken into two uneven couplets and the repeated 

title on its only line -- except the subject and the small aside "we (forgive us)" is on the line above,  and an extra space of a stanza break.

the nesting of words (invisible house)... and  money repeated 5 times -- the house transferred to the street of, the city of, the country of, our great country of money.

Perhaps not so much an indictment as a statement about our helplessness to change lack of awareness 

of what is done in our name.  The two first person singular pronouns... I was /in my bed, around my bed America//

was falling... The speaker's reaction?  to take a chair outside to watch the sun.

The American Academy paired it with this image https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-march-7-2016/

with a series of guided questions in "Teach This Poem".

Öykü Tekten:

A Turkish name... I couldn't find out what else she has written, her bio: https://poets.org/poet/oyku-tekten

I'm not sure this is a "poem" as much as an exercise in irony, pointing to the absurdity with which some people are stripped of trees, their language pronounced dead, and then the gesture of (ineffective) rescue sent is bombed, for the reason of no longer being allowed.  

Unsettling.  Deep sorrow in these non sequiturs which brought the next poem.

Mahmoud Darwish: Although we ended by reading "A Noun Sentence" we will discuss it  the Mahmoud Darwish next week.  I have added this information to help us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9qBXq5_hI

This is the recording in Arabic.  To understand the title, “It’s a nominal sentence” you need to take Arabic 1. https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/arabic-sentence-structure-nominal-and-verbal-sentences/

The translation below is by Fady Joudah and comes from the 2007 book, The Butterfly’s Burden.

This article will give you more background: https://aashiqepakistan.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/28.pdf

As ever, a rich and meaningful discussion.

I thank everyone present.

Poems for October 21

 1. Ode to the Head Nod by Elizabeth Acevedo

2. I Sit Outside in Low Late-Afternoon Light to Feel Earth Call to Me by Tracy K. Smith

3.  won’t you celebrate with me  by Lucille Clifton

4. Directive  by Robert Frost

5. be careful by Ed Roberson

6. one of the many Haikus about scarecrows by Richard Wright:  #543.

 This poem is too long for our short once-a-week session, but I highly recommend it : Runagate Runagate  by Robert Hayden. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52947/runagate-runagate

 (Hear Tracy K. Smith read it at minute 52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9aU_MUcVME&feature=youtu.be

#2,3,4  are also part of Tracy's  given on September 30,  at the  Philip Roth Lecture:  

# 5 and 6 : come from Black Nature,  poems edited by Camille Dungy  to illustrate "The Nature of African American Poetry”.   Camille gives us a thorough and varied lens both in her 15 page introduction and selections for the 10 sections.   Available in the library and for purchase at Writers and Books. If you wish to view the excellent seminar with guests Dante Micheaux and Allison Meyers, on Saturday 10/17,  let me know. 

Nutshell:

1. Acevedo is writing a series of odes on small gestures...She points out in her Dominican culture, they "point with their mouths".

Our discussion brought up other aspects of using heads... for instance in Greece and Turkey where an American vertical nod meaning yes, means no. How a nod can be a civilized sign of respect to a passing stranger.  

Her note about the poem:   "This poem is very much based in the literal situation: can a piece of text hold the friction of a writer writing specifically about such in-group gestures being edited by a well-meaning outsider who ‘corrects’ the language? I wanted to sit with what it means to not only have language lost in translation, but being told even our embraces, our greetings, often color outside the lines of the literary stylebook.”

We noted the 4th -5th lines -- how beautifully she captures the nature of respect -- the "gilded curtsy", and indeed, a beautiful definition of a human being, as "sunfill in another// (stanza break) in yourself". (big space)" tithe of respect"

Her use of white space both horizontally and between the couplets, breaking into an extra vertical space before the "you"

placed solo to the far right, another stanza break for the final two words, even further to the right "are here" has multiple possibilities of understanding, like the layers of what is often missing in translations. 

Some felt she could have developed more about the head nod-- as an ode to it, she paid "curt" attention to it before bringing in

the copy editors cut.  We all could relate to that censorship of meaning.   We didn't go into the play 5th stanza of "means" 

with the underlying "means" by which an editor corrects meaning-- accentuated by the enjambment, which in turn leads to

how the speaker of the poem understands the editor as being fluent in only one language of gesture.

We spent a good half hour discussing the visual effect, including how it mimics the use of positive and negative space in art,  and in calligraphy where the white spaces set up  the words inked in black with their own (unspoken, unmarked) expression of what words cannot say.  Her use (and lack of use) of punctuation is similar-- no capitals; one semi-colon, followed by a question mark which does not end the question; two ampersands (& maybe// (end of the line) and  starting the last (indented) couplet, & find the color.  

Is it a satisfying ending?  Perhaps she is asking us to call on our imagination, how our subconscious is working on what happens when you take out "the head" and only leave the nod.  A haunting poem... with many layers to ponder, with no "final copy."

The name of prize-winning Jhumpa Lahiri, (author of The Namesake and translator of Italian came up. She commented in 2018,

“One can read something so closely that it's only by translating it that you really do feel you've gone through the looking glass, that you are on the other side and you're in that other world,” she says. “I would wish that pleasure and education and marveling — that sense of amazement — for any writer.”

2. We listened to the link of Tracy K. Smith reading her poem https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/05/i-sit-outside-in-low-late-afternoon-light-to-feel-earth-call-to-me. It is in the Oct. 5 issue of The New Yorker and I showed the cover:  https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2020-10-05

To commemorate her, the artist Bob Staake said, he “needed to think of a graphic metaphor that embodied Ginsburg’s life and legacy.” He wanted something that was “honest and no-nonsense,” like Ginsburg, and he landed on her lace collar, a symbol not just of Ginsburg but, in Staake’s drawing, of women everywhere.

As discussion unfolded, many started to comment on her form -- an arc of  A-Z; (5 stanzas)  to  Z-A (5 stanzas) but with subtle changes.  The title suggests a meditation on perhaps a time of life (low-late-afternoon light) or sadness of the times.  Her questions are both universal and specific to being a black woman, part of a "we" of being black, being American, being woman.

Is the world intended for me?  Not just me but/the we that fills me? (4th couplet)

She turns the repeat "what if" which ends in question,  (following the statement about blood) to statement, (starting with the blood, leading to a new and different question repeating the one of the 4th couplet -- 

(Our blood swimmers, stirred back.  What if

the world has never had--will never have-- our backs?

The world has never had-- will never have -- our backs.

Our blood simmers, stirred back.  What if

he we that fills me, our shadows real and dark,

 is the world intended for me?

To use "recursive" as  Bernie put it... the effect of the repeats  leaves us with haunting ambiguity.  John thought of Fellini's film 8 1/2... The couplets slow us down... and as she reads, in a calm, steady voice, the tone is at odds with a sense of desperation.  Plenty of shadows (subconscious, unconscious, unpinnable) in this low late-afternoon light... and a wish to feel Earth, be grounded... 

3. Clifton: Tracy K. Smith had included this poem and the Frost in her Newark, NJ library reading. In her introduction, she speaks about how poems help readers build a reserve of perspective... strategies for living... Indeed, Lucille Clifton "brings us a dynamic, rich voice, invites us to view life as mysterious-- to let go of allegiance to an individual self."

 David brought up the reference to Babylon as a place of exile and summed up Jewish Holidays this way:  Here we are, they tried to kill us.  But failed.  Here we are, let's eat.  The tone of self-sufficiency is reminiscent of Maya Angelou's "still I rise" .

This poem is an invitation to the reader to "know yourself"-- but also to understand we all "make it up" as we try to figure our the missing pieces.  The "star shine" reminds of me fo "sunfill" in the Acevedo... Oh, yes!  I say each time I read this poem,

oh yes!  I celebrate with you, thank you for this invitation!

poems help build in readers a reserve of perspective even…  strategies for living 

help us think of life as dynamic, instead of static, mysterious and rich instead of not flat… life as

mysterious — instill in us a sense of our own private participation

long history of human joy, sorrow and hope… level of self, ego… 

this speaks to me… helps me… private engagement… what possibilities for insight —

let go of allegiance to individual self… 

narrative of race in America… incomplete and inaccurate… black not white in charge of the missing pieces… 

OK to let go… 

4. Frost:  We are grateful that David Sanders was present to help us navigate through the complexities of "Directive".

Tracy had picked it calling on the first line -- "Back out of all this now to much for us...." saying, the poem's subtext is that it is OK to let it go.   Where does Frost take us as we follow the road he presents-- suggesting a guide who "only has at heart your getting lost"?  We discussed a sense of comfort in all the confusion... starting with taking a step away from whatever "now" is.

For sure, everything has an end -- we know we all will die... we have plenty of stories with the moral, "nothing lasts forever"-- and Frost provides us with a catalogue of echoes of times past, of villages no longer, even the make-believe houses and worlds of children... echoes of Indians, the shrinking of field as nature takes over, the "firkins" (small casks) eying you from a cellar hole now filled with lilac.  We spoke of the Grail, of the innocence of children, and parable of the Seed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower

As David summarized... it is a pitch for metaphor...  what stays are the words, that language is a source of sanctity.  

We all will die... but the "momentary stay against confusion" rests in what children instinctively understood, creating out of a broken goblet the very vessel by which to drink the essential water-- provided by imagination.

5.   Roberson

Ah the sounds... the warning of not being tooooooo wildly elated by nature -- "not to jar/ the fragile mountains against the paper far-// ness... A brilliant jewel of a poem... ending with the powerful metaphor both for living and writing --- "set the precarious words like rocks, without/one snowcapped mistake" in this gentle wilderness...   

6.  Richard Wright has written many haiku about scarecrows.: http://carolpeters2013.blogspot.com/2014/11/richard-wright.html

 

So simple!  Two sentences!  The "exuberant" wish -- and the consequences -- like those precarious words...

As usual... so much more to recount from the fine contributions.  Thank you all.  Elaborations and more responses to these poems are welcome!