January, by William Carlos Williams; Making Luxury out of Flat Soda by Frederick Joseph; Sign by Sahar Romani; Sandpiper by Elizabeth Bishop; After Rain by Michael Pfeifer (Ekphrastic response to Paradigm Shift” by Morgan Reed. Image: https://www.rattle.com/after-rain-by-michael-pfeifer/ ) Claim by Kasey Jueds; To the New Year by W.S. Merwin
Poetry echoes loudly and unapologetically the transformative power that language has to connect, challenge, and inspire....
We started with mention of the Public Defendant Heather Shaner and her key for 2025: humanity. In this video,
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+New+Yorker+Documentary+A+Public+Defender%E2%80%99s+Radical+Approach+to+Representing+the+January+6th+Riotersyou can see her at work with those involved in the Jan 6, 2021 insurrection. Each of us have a story, and it behooves us to try to understand each one.
So it is with poetry. The selection started with the poem January and ended with To the New Year. I can't think of more unlikely pieces of bread to make a sandwich of poems!
What we all appreciate in these sessions is the wealth of angles shared in trying to understand the words some other human being has penned to share something of importance to him or her.
William Carlos Williams: What was going in 1921 when he published Sour Grapes, a volume of poetry in which you will find this poem January? It is not an especially accessible poem, even if you are a musician and know about chromatic or perfect fifths[1], or perhaps find an association with John Donne's Holy Sonnet, Batter My Heart Three-Person'd God (see below) which has a more convincing form replete with tripled adjectives and triplet of verbs [2]
Again: first word, and one thinks of how January rolls around each year, announcing a "new year", but what are the triple winds? Winds of fortune? time? the physical winter wind? And how are they filled with derision for the poet who twice attributes derisive to the wind and its music? We were not insensitive to the double meaning of "sentences" . Donne also develops this idea of being "imprisoned" as well. How to understand "You will not succeed". The wind, perhaps unlike Donne's 3-personed God, cannot enthrall.
On surface, given the set-up of the poem, it implies the wind and poet seem to be in a fierce contest. As one person said, "Williams seems to be saying, Bring it on. Perhaps this is a poem where an inner struggle is reflected in the outside weather.
I saw an explanation of Williams' poem The Red Wheelbarrow, as a series of implied chromatic intersections. If one makes 3 circles out of details, such Red (wheelbarrow) overlapping with Blue (glazed with rain water) (with a small slice of purple); Blue overlapping with yellow (beside the white chickens) (with a resulting slice of green) and the yellow overlapping with the red with a slice of orange, one can see a small triangle of the interconnected overlappings of all six colors as visible light. This was labeled with the opening line, So Much Depends On...
Perhaps January is a similar arrangement where the first 3 lines and final 4 lines as outside wind overlap with the inner sanctum of the poet's world.
Donn';s Sonnet: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44106/holy-sonnets-batter-my-heart-three-persond-god
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Making Luxury out of Flat Soda: A different sort of metamorphosis happens here.
This poem was an immediate favorite and for good reason: story with universal appeal well-crafted sound, delightful alliterations, imagery.
We could feel the particulars of Grandmommy's kitchen and had no doubt about its authenticity. One person remarked on the detail of "gossiping over cognac" which is usually something reserved for the well-to do. One possible explanation is to elevate the "metaphorical status" and importance of the family gatherings. One senses a feel of an idealized "Aunt Jemima in the South", and yet it is not contrived but a real Grandmother delivered importance life lessons. The opening and closing lines both contain the verb "breathe" -- which sets up the central line of "learning to fill my lungs with survival". Joseph skillfully shows us how the Grandmother leads the way--
"how deserted became a diamond for joy's crown". A meaningful, heartwarming poem of reminiscence, filled with all the senses. Perfect material for a sermon called, "How to make positive choices".
Judith brought up Frances Hodgson Burnett's story T. Tembaron. You can read it free of charge here : https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2514
Sign: This poem about coincidences, starts with a statement: What aren't you willing to believe. Not a question. You can hear her read it here: https://poets.org/poem/sign and one doesn't sense a challenging tone, but rather an exploratory meditation about "sightings and significance". She mentions the poems leads her towards an answer. I'm not sure what that is.
I love that she embraces the multiplicity of a yin/yang approach to life, indeed, quoting the line from Bishop's poem, Sandpiper where the world is mist, and then all clear. For sure, the final line could be a statement about reality and what we think we believe is real. Does it take whimsy and ego to believe the universe will tape your shoulder? If so, she doesn't show how. She only says she believes this to be true, and is convinced there is such a thing as truth, contradictory as it might seem.
We felt we were witnessing a mini scene in a play or film. What aisle though? in a store? a church? a tram? We all picked up on the poem's yearning for a hint of meaning in life.
I brought up Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning. A rich inner life can help us through horrific circumstances, provide alternatives to protective apathy, or a sense of despairing helplessness.
Sahar is an Arabic name for girls meaning "dawn, morning, awakening". https://poets.org/poet/sahar-romani I am not sure where she is from, but the nod to Rumi, the detail of her mother's bracelets places us somewhere in a timeless sense of Persia, and yet, the mention of the Indian actor, producer and television personality Shah Rukh Khan places us in contemporary times. The poem is an example of the rich conversations we can carry on, whether from the 13th century with Sufi mystic Rumi, translated by Halah Liza Gafori in 2022, or 20th century Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) and contemporary (and fabulously innovative poet) Terrance Hayes (b. 1971)[3]
Sandpiper: wonderful poem where one could easily transpose "he" for human, not bird.
One observation was, if human, he was self-absorbed and prisoner of his own self-imposed panic. If a student of Blake, the quote, "to see the world in a grain of sand" runs through the poem, like a reassuring anchor. Rather like Romani's statement, "Truth is not going anywhere. It's your eyes passing by". No need to be obsessed looking for something, repeated 3 times.
After Rain: In viewing the image, the co:mmentary by the series editor doesn't jive that the women have their backs turned to us-- we see many faces... The subject of the poem, "she" is intriguingly described as shadow, fog and rememberance -- and that haunting image of being
a "collapsing umbrella after rain". Other "resurrection sisters "hold a ticket/for a train of sand and fear", another unsettling image. That the rattle of goods confident they willbe sold, is akin to a mystery confident it will be told, creates a sense of urgency, perhaps like the obsessive sandpiper searching for food, and for us, trying to cajole meaning out of chance moments.
Claim: Many stories about animals, the comfort they bring us came up after the reading of this poignant poem. The opening sentence set the scene of someone out of touch with the world, insecure and wanting a sense of connection and belonging. We agreed this was a "feel good" poem which is successful in providing a deeper meaning. with the reversal that the dog would be the one to say to the human, stay.
To the New Year: from Merwin's book Present Company. The soft sounds provide a magical antidote to the opening poem. Perhaps if you live in Hawaii, one is exempt from the cold with little light we experience in the Northeast. However this may be, "we have ccome with our age" -- meaning, our years, this point in our human history in the time period in which we live,
.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth : perfect fifths are more consonant than other intervals; Chromatic is the straight path through all 12 notes in an octave. It is often jarring to listen to applied to atonal music.
[2] line 2: knock, breathe, shine; line 4: break, blow, burn; verbs 11th line: Divorce, untie, break
[3] Since the publication of his first book, Muscular Music, in 1999, Terrance Hayes has been one of America's most exciting and innovative poets, winning acclaim for his sly, twisting, jazzy poems, and his mastery of emotive, restless wordplay. Hayes structures his poem using the poignancy formula, which is a variant on the Greater Romantic Lyric form. He invented the "Golden Shovel" and "The poignancy formula" which simply presents the present, then the past, then the present with the past, normally using imagery.
