Poems for May 13 and 15

 End of the Comedy by Louis Untermeyer 1885-1977; Cloud Hands by Arthur Sze;   i take my glasses off  Lucille Clifton 1936 –2010  (to share: my notes about Blake +); Their Lonely Betters by  W.H. Auden; Peonies by Danusha Laméris; Morning News by Marilyn Hacker; 

Nutshell

Nutshell

End of the Comedy:  A fitting comparison between the "theatre of war" and inferred comparison of going home after seeing a play.  The opening line may well refer to the news of the armistice signed on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".  The military vocabulary effectively compresses a sense of dread in the second stanza as the war was not officially declared over until June 1919 after this poem was published. For more about Untermeyer and a sampling of his poems and This explanation of the poem, with a score for piano and voice that the poem alludes to.  One person was reminded of MCMXIV (1914)  by Philip Larkin.

 

Cloud Hands:  It certainly helps to know T'ai Chi -- and know what  Cloud Hands and Grasping Bird's Tail look like.  "In the "Introductory" of  Modern British Poetry (1920), Untermeyer wrote, "All art is a twofold revivifying -- a recreation of subject and a reanimating of form. And poetry becomes perennially “new” by returning to the old -- with a different consciousness, a greater awareness."

Arthur Sze provides us with a mosaic of scenes "outside" the T'ai Chi movements, providing a sense of moving energy in the couplets with the indented second line.  As one person put it, we feel the grace of T'ai Chi as we journey through the images.  Indeed, metaphor in motion!

i take my glasses off: We commented on the pros and cons of small case "i" and absence of punctuation.  Lucille is consistent and it is part of her style.  Short lines unfold and yet the line breaks do not feel like separation.  Is she able to better to see herself without the "outside help" of glasses?  We enjoyed the ambiguity of visioning visions vision where noun/verb/adjective possibilities roll into one bed of a line. 

Some were reminded of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12,  which beautifully captures the human experience of limited understanding, uncertainty, and the mysteries of faith.  One person was sensitive to existential implications of what it is to simply "be".  

I shared this about Wm   Blake, Auguries of Innocence    "Blake would insist that visionary sight must be developed before a judgement can be made and this plea is fundamental to learning from him. He offers both an invitation and a challenge. Can you too see more?  Anything that speaks of Eternity may be an angel; thus the tiny skylark is ‘a Mighty Angel’. The poetry of William Blake is a study in contraries without contradictions. His verse rests on the fine balance of opposites, with the tension between divergent forces, such as good and evil, male and female, Innocence and Experience, playing a vital role in his work."Father Damien is the man who lived with lepers on Molokai. One person referenced "On Shapelessness."   which mentioned Clifton's poem.  Are the lepers a sort of distraction?

Their Lonely Betters:  The syntax, rhyme, add a certain charm to this contrast of the world of nature with man, his metaphorical sunglasses and assumptions about "higher selves".  Those who understand and study animals know in 2026 that animals have their own version of communication perhaps more effective as anything humans have invented.  The cautionary message is even more powerful for those of us relying on calculations, relying on words, their misuse, abuse -- and no promises.

Peonies: I asked if anyone would like to sum up a first impression of the poem.  "Wierd" said one.  There is something whimsical, celebratory, and enjoyable, and yet, it's hard to know if the poet is mocking the reader with what seem like "made up" ancient proverbs.  As for  Peonies are to loneliness/what wind is to the trees :  most of us couldn't fathom just what was meant or how.  Is the poem addressing something about the human condition as did Auden in the previous poem?  Why are peonies called "strangers" in the first line?  They are costumed in ruffled collars and at the end, whisper balletic tulle. Is there a message here in the last two lines about how beauty persists in spite of death?

The poet's note helped me appreciate the poem more.  She speaks to the mystery of peonies-- how even when cut, they continue to be alive and changing.

Morning News:  It took me a few readings to realize the form was imitating a sestina, so of course, there would be repeats of bread, branches, photographs, war, houses, kitchen -- but, there is a seventh word, was, and 8 stanzas, not six or even seven, to match the seven words.  The discussion brought up again the difference between poetry (and our expectations) and prose.  Why so many questions that are answered, so not really effective?  The only line that worked with a sense of some intuitive leap for me was this:  A knife flashed in the kitchen,/merely dicing garlic. It implies more than the words.  We agreed, the poem could have been written yesterday about the current situation in Iran.  Curious that it was published in 2003, Desesperanto. March 2003, was the military campaign known as Operation Iraqi Freedom

 

Since we had both Auden and Hacker in the same session, Judith kind provided this:

 

Critic, do not beat your breast,

            Though Chester Kallman is a pest,

            he must have done strange things to broaden

            the attitudes of Wystan Auden.

 

          --Marilyn Hacker, from The Motion of Light In Water

first version

End of the Comedy:  A fitting comparison between the "theatre of war" and inferred comparison of going home after seeing a play.  The opening line may well refer to the news of the armistice signed on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month".  The military vocabulary effectively compresses a sense of dread in the second stanza as the war was not officially declared over until June 1919 after this poem was published. For more about Untermeyer and a sampling of his poems and This explanation of the poem, with a score for piano and voice that the poem alludes to. 

Another was reminded of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12, beautifully captures the human experience of limited understanding, uncertainty, and the mysteries of faith.

Cloud Hands:  It certainly helps to know T'ai Chi -- and know what  Cloud Hands and Grasping Bird's Tail look like.  "In the "Introductory" of  Modern British Poetry (1920), Untermeyer wrote, "All art is a twofold revivifying -- a recreation of subject and a reanimating of form. And poetry becomes perennially “new” by returning to the old -- with a different consciousness, a greater awareness."

Arthur Sze provides us with a mosaic of scenes "outside" the T'ai Chi movements, providing a sense of moving energy in the couplets with the indented second line.  As one person put it, we feel the grace of T'ai Chi as we journey through the images.  Indeed, metaphor in motion!

i take my glasses off: We commented on the pros and cons of small case "i" and absence of punctuation.  Lucille is consistent and it is part of her style.  Short lines unfold and yet the line breaks do not feel like separation.  Is she able to better to see herself without the "outside help" of glasses?  We enjoyed the ambiguity of visioning visions vision where noun/verb/adjective possibilities roll into one bed of a line. Another was reminded of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12, beautifully captures the human experience of limited understanding, uncertainty, and the mysteries of faith.

 One person was sensitive to existential implications of what it is to simply "be".  I shared this about Wm   Blake, Auguries of Innocence    "Blake would insist that visionary sight must be developed before a judgement can be made and this plea is fundamental to learning from him. He offers both an invitation and a challenge. Can you too see more?  Anything that speaks of Eternity may be an angel; thus the tiny skylark is ‘a Mighty Angel’. The poetry of William Blake is a study in contraries without contradictions. His verse rests on the fine balance of opposites, with the tension between divergent forces, such as good and evil, male and female, Innocence and Experience, playing a vital role in his work."Father Damien is the man who lived with lepers on Molokai. One person referenced "On Shapelessness."   which mentioned Clifton's poem.  Are the lepers a sort of distraction?

Their Lonely Betters:  The syntax, rhyme, add a certain charm to this contrast of the world of nature with man, his metaphorical sunglasses and assumptions about "higher selves".  Those who understand and study animals know in 2026 that animals have their own version of communication perhaps more effective as anything humans have invented.  The cautionary message is even more powerful for those of us relying on calculations, relying on words, their misuse, abuse -- and no promises.

Peonies: I asked if anyone would like to sum up a first impression of the poem.  "Wierd" said one.  There is something whimsical, celebratory, and enjoyable, and yet, it's hard to know if the poet is mocking the reader with what seem like "made up" ancient proverbs.  As for  Peonies are to loneliness/what wind is to the trees :  most of us couldn't fathom just what was meant or how.  Is the poem addressing something about the human condition as did Auden in the previous poem?  Why are peonies called "strangers" in the first line?  They are costumed in ruffled collars and at the end, whisper balletic tulle. Is there a message here in the last two lines about how beauty persists in spite of death?

The poet's note helped me appreciate the poem more.  She speaks to the mystery of peonies-- how even when cut, they continue to be alive and changing.

Morning News:  It took me a few readings to realize the form was imitating a sestina, so of course, there would be repeats of bread, branches, photographs, war, houses, kitchen -- but, there is a seventh word, was, and 8 stanzas, not six or even seven, to match the seven words.  The discussion brought up again the difference between poetry (and our expectations) and prose.  Why so many questions that are answered, so not really effective?  The only line that worked with a sense of some intuitive leap for me was this:  A knife flashed in the kitchen,/merely dicing garlic. It implies more than the words.  We agreed, the poem could have been written yesterday about the current situation in Iran.  Curious that it was published in 2003, Desesperanto. March 2003, was the military campaign known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Since we had both Auden and Hacker in the same session, Judith kind provided this:

Critic, do not beat your breast,

            Though Chester Kallman is a pest,

            he must have done strange things to broaden

            the attitudes of Wystan Auden.

 

          --Marilyn Hacker, from The Motion of Light In Water

May 6+8

 Lochan  by Kathleen Jamie; This Morning I Pray for My Enemies by Joy Harjo 1951 –; Before I Was a Gazan by Naomi Shihab Nye 1952 Iris Song Rickey Laurentiis[1]  audio -- includes commentary;  You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford; An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire; Chocolates by Louis Simpson; Short History  by Jonathan Everitt; 

Also sent: AI images! -- see Nutshells, May 2026

 

Lochan: I gave a small note for the two meanings of the word, both a "small lake" and in the Hindu tradition, a term related to "eye" or vision.  It is helpful to know the poem comes from a collection entitled, Jizzen, yet another Scots term, albeit obsolete meaning confinement of a mother after birth of her child.  

 

I love a poem that can be addressing a sweeping universal and a particular at the same time. So it is in the opening line:  When all this is over, I mean... How many times do we say this, making promises?  I mean is enjambed twice.  Normally, we expect a re-definition or more details as opposed to what we intend to do.  The poet surprises us by telling us what she means to do:  travel north, find a quiet lochan.  The line breaks and spaces between couplets give a lovely sense of breathing, enhanced by the anticipatory thinking.  We wondered about the word "white"

implied perhaps in those mountain dog roses whose red can pale  to white, perhaps the in the color of water lilies, and comparison of their reflection but certainly the word "white" in the last line for a boat.  Here, it may not be chance that it is waiting as if part of a larger scheme, and under a Rowan tree which I associate with decorating with Christmas with its dark green leaves and red berries.  

 

If one interprets the first line as meaning "after childbirth" all these details make me wonder if perhaps the poem is about the loss of a child?  

Regardless, the poem slows us down, allows us to feel the travel from the "high/drove roads", those paths up into the hills where one drives the cattle in early summer to profit from the new grasses. And the Lochan? The word appears softly in the 5th stanza after imagining the physical landscape, launching a more metaphysical, meditative state of being before embarking on whatever lies in store.

 

This morning:  In this 9 line poem starting with a question, there are no line breaks.  Each line is a complete, unbroken thought, but escapes from feeling like a sermon or prose.  Perhaps it is the shorter lines that confirm a sense of optimism:  And whom do I call my enemy? The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.  It sees and knows everything. These short lines are not an answer

but direct the reader to the sun and the heart and the longest line comes as a surprise -- reversing the usual idea of "risk" as a positive.  We would never say, "watch out!  You might find or make a friend!"  What a delightful way to mirror to us the labeling of "enemy" that interferes with friendship.  In the discussion, people picked up on the indiscriminate nature of the sun which shines on us all, and undertones the Sermon on the mount. "Love your enemies; the sun rises equally on the just and unjust".  As one person put it, the poem is wonderful because it contains both the sense of particular and general which applies to all of us and reaches our "poetry soul".

 

It was one of the proposed "poem in your pocket day" poems.

Here are a few more examples:

There is something about the innocence of 2nd grader who writes:

 

They say the moon loves love

and will smile if you lend your heart.

 

I know the galaxy loves me like the moon--

look up at that starry path--

you can feel its love in the calm silence.

**

Another poem suggested was this delightful Emily Dickinson:

 

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,

One clover, and a bee.

And revery.

The revery alone will do,

If bees are few.

 

Before I was a Gazan: This poem also was proposed for "Poem in your pocket" day.

The title subtly suggests the problem of labeling.  We can imagine any boy, and can imagine the situation of being proud to arrive at school to show one has understood the homework.  Using the metaphor of math, the "subtraction" hits hard, and the grief multiplies.   How is it that what should be a normal day in the life of a child turns into a day of extinction of his friends, family, his life as it had been and will never be again.  The poem calls us to feel this need to do anything for a solution to end all war everywhere.  The poem was written in 2014, following the poet's interaction with literacy programs and children in Gaza.

 

Iris Song:  I put a footnote that the poet Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Death of the First Idea (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025).  The link to the poem shows a picture of Rickey, who identifies as transgender. 

Listening to Rickey read one feels the importance of the role of a spoken poem which conveys through tone and rhythm a sensitive layering of language one might not receive only reading the words.  The arrangement of visual cues by a poet do not always line up with how they are used. 

We noted the conventional capitalization of each line which emphasizes for instance, 3rd line "Themselves".  Whether this is intended to stress the role of a plural pronoun for a transgender person, I do not know.  The repetitions are delicate.  You matter.  (end of line 4.) Line 5:  Who in you is most material, so (line break to line 6)

You matter. One could imagine many different ways of saying, "so you matter".  

 

One person noted gone as a possible contraction of going to pronounced as gonna, but also could be implying past tense,has gone. It sounded as if on lines 7 and 8 the word looking was omitted.

 

In the spoken commentary Rickey says inspiration came from Kanye West and Rue Mapp, founder and CEO of Outdoor Afro, a national not-for-profit organization she established in 2009 to reconnect Black communities with nature. [1]Rickey mentioned also Toni Morrison who argued that the "very serious function of racism is distraction". [2]

We wondered about the title:  is Iris a person?  Perhaps the "you" in the first line?  Who is the "you" in the poem?  The poet? fellow transgender people?  fellow black people?  Iris could be referring to eye, and black pupil.  One person imagined adding a "k" pronounced thus, I risk.

 

 

 

You reading this:  There are many ways of interpreting "you" in the title which might call forth different scenarios.  I could imagine a hospice situation, or a letter written to someone in deep distress, or two intimate friends.  However it is, I am glad that I am the "you" reading the poem with the reminder of the importance of mindful awareness.  As one person summed it up, it's a gratitude poem. Another noted how the poem starts with two stanzas of questions and then it would seem gives advice for a turn in the journey, reflecting on this "interval" spent in a day... what someone called  a reminder of the "dash between the years" only to return to a confirmation that whatever it is to be remembered about it, is best gift of all -- but expressed as a question.

 

Gathered in a room discussing poetry,  whether at the library or Writers and Books, we are

 beneficiaries of a beautiful sense of "now".  At Pittsford, Graeme, who with his family, some of whom are in Australia, are in the middle of planning a wedding, received a "message ding".  He

texted them back, Here I am at the Pittsford Intercontinental Macrocosmic Poetic Lovefest... but I should be able to make myself available after 2:30 or so.  Imagine me, sprinting from the room mid-stanza.  We have some deliciously complex issues to discuss.  I believe that last bit was about the details of the wedding, but like to imagine our "poetic lovefest" embraces the same sort of discussion!

 

An aspect: At first, one think the author is LaBohem Brown, but scroll down, and you see that it is Gwendolyn Brooks.  Is the "We" at the end of line one a collective noun for two, for a group or for all humankind?  The versatility perfect to echo with the equal multi-faceted possibilities in the title.  "Ice and Fire" immediately brought to mind the poem by Robert Frost, "Fire and Ice" penned in 1920.

Some say the world will end in fire,            

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

 

I believe that LaBohem is an invented character, but it is hard not to think of the Opera, by Pucchini. Other poems by Brooks come to mind as well: https://poets.org/poem/sonnet-ballad

and "Intermission" (By all things planetary I swear...)

One person summarized the poem as "snatched intimacy amongst chaos".  It is highly charged and most seemed to capture the sexual intensity.  The spelling of African with a K was a way to signal Black Pride.[3]  

 

I look forward to continued conversations about this poem!

Jessica adds:

I notice that there are two unexpected capitalizations in the poem, "We" and "Camaraderie." Why does she choose to capitalize these two words? Is it intentional that the two capitalized words rhyme? At the very least, the capitalizations draw our attention to these two words. 

A "package of minutes" is an interesting image. The word "minutes" is an abstract noun and cannot be concretely packaged. Nonetheless, it is an image that helps draw attention to and even make sacred this particular experience at this particular moment in time. That they are merry foreigners is also interesting and suggests a moment that belongs to them but that doesn't entirely belong to them. 

"Because the world is at the window"-- The mention of a window summons a well-known Brooks quotation: "If you want a poem, you only have to look out a window. There is material always, walking or running or fighting or screaming or singing." The world is at the window, beckoning us to notice the outside world; it commands our gaze. These sights intrude on our private world and indeed, in this poem there is an interesting tension between public and private, inside and outside. To what extent are these opposite separate and distinct and to what extent do they intrude on each other?

"You rise," signifies an interruption of the lovers' unity: "you are in yourself again." The fifth stanza powerfully voices the lover's plight, in which we sense an intense longing not only for union, but for sustained union, a oneness that is "not-to-end." Yet parting is inevitable and the poem ends with the image of the two individuals going separate ways, having departed their private world and entered the public realm. The poem seems to be such a poignant expression of an intensely intimate love affair, again, referring to a specific experience at a specific moment in time; "an aspect of love" that is very much alive in the midst of a violent social environment. 

I learned that the poem was published in Riot in 1969, which Brooks wrote in the aftermath of the violence that ensued after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

Chocolates:  a delightful poem.  One person remarked that Chekhov remarked a conversation about fruit jam might be a convenient distraction from addressing politics.  The poet understands the fun of suc a ruse and deftly substitutes chocolate!

Short History:  Although written from a prompt, it feels to be an important poem just by itself.  If you were asked to think about "size" where would you go?  Size of ego, of universe, or length 

of history of the human race? Many liked the sense of a sense of omniscience, albeit not mentioned, but ending with our search for something that gives meaning to the greater scheme of life. We enjoyed as well the rhythms and repetitions of an adjective stretched to a comparison  with an image... We were brief.  Briefer... We were sad.  Sadder... We were happy... happier.

 

The elements of randomness give this poem a "punchy feel".  We enjoyed the 5 initial uses of the anaphor  We were further repeated 5 times mid line.

Interesting that the final "sentence" starts with We read, which could be present or past tense.

 

**

Extra:  Rick shared this site 

https://michaeljerling.com/pdfs/TheyLiveOninWordandSong-brochure.pdf

and these lyrics

 

When Words Still Mattered ℗ 2018 Michael Jerling

 

When words still mattered

When we were young

Petals and pearls 

Rolled off our tongues

 

In the ashes of Empires

The embers of change

We fought our battles

In the caffes

 

Oil on a canvas

Ink on a page

A bow on the strings

A turn on a stage

 

Perhaps we were too comfortable

We were to free

In between wars 

And calling it peace

 

It came on us slowly

It came on so fast

Out of the future 

And into the past

 

Take what you can carry

Pay all you can pay

I'm still a prisoner

Though I got away

 

When words still mattered

When we were young

Petals and pearls 

Rolled off our tongues

 

In the ashes of Empires

The embers of change

We fought our battles

In the caffes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

[1] Started as a kitchen table blog in Oakland, California, it has grown into a leading network with leaders in up to 60 cities.  

[2] In a 1975 speech, she explained that racism forces Black people to waste time explaining their humanity and reason for being, rather than engaging in their creative or productive work. This distraction hinders focusing on deeper, natural, or creative pursuits.

 

[3] AI will tell you: African" is the standard English spelling referring to the continent or its people, while "Afrikan" (or "Afrika") is a conscious, political, and cultural spelling used to reclaim indigenous identity, rejecting colonial influences that replaced the 'k' with a 'c'. Using "k" often signifies Pan-Africanism

---

[1] Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Death of the First Idea (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025)

At the Fish Houses = Bishop

 Elizabeth Bishop:  The Fish Houses-- References from Seamus Heaney

Me to Jessica:

I know you were interested in what Seamus Heaney had to say in his essay "The Government of the Tongue" about Elizabeth Bishop, that Bart kindly gave me.

I would be happy to share right away as I am curious about your take.  I didn't find I had much further insight about the poem.  I think the group addressed her "finical" (fastidious about detail) and discreet manner which Heaney expands on saying, "it would not have disturbed the undersong of conversations between strangers  breakfasting at a seaside hotel".   For sure, her inclination to believe in "the government of the tongue" and her "good manners" in the discipline of observation, are an accurate, and beautifully stated. truth .. but what about the poem????

On the 3rd page, the bit about the seal, the article becomes more interesting to me:  a "rhythmic heave"... one seal particularly... 

"Looking at the world of the surface, after all is not only against the better judgement of a seal; it is finally also against the better judgement of the poet.  It is not that the poet breaks faith with the observed world  (of human attachment, grandfathers, Lucky Strikes and Christmas trees) but a different estranging and fearful ement which ultimately fascinates her:  the world of mediated meaning, or a knowledge-need which sets human beings apart from seals and herrings and sets the poet in her solitude apart from her grandfather and the old man.... 

He speaks of the inner cadence which is deeply intimate with the "laden water of full tide" and continues:   "The lines inhabited by  certain profoundly true tones, which as Robert Frost put it, "were before words were, living in the cave of the mouth":  they fortify our inclination to credit promptings of our intuitive being. 

The last page contains sweeping remarks about the nature of poetry. I so enjoyed his last sentence, I the I quoted it (loosely) from in the nutshell:  "Poetry is more a threshold than a path, one constantly approached and constantly departed from, at which reader and writer undergo in their different ways the expdrience of being at the same time summoned and released.

Well... all that is well and good -- but does it enhance my appreciation of the poem?  I confess, I was a bit put off by the high-flown expression.

I added my take: 

Jessica's response:  

 Boston University Art of Poetry Video Repository website: it  was helpful to me, in which the commenting professor alluded to the leaps Bishop makes in the poem, from plain spoken to lyrical, ordinary to extraordinary. 

This very point struck me after my initial reading of the poem-- how deftly she moves from concrete to philosophical, physical to metaphysical. I am fascinated by the idea of the world of "mediated meaning" that you mentioned from the article, and the notion that the impulse to ascribe meaning sets human beings apart from animals. By virtue of the fact that we are human, we are motivated by quests of meaning and must necessarily make leaps into meaning; is the poet therefore obligated to make similar ones? 

The professor also draws attention to the language of ascent that originates in the stanza that starts with "down at the water's edge" (later in that same stanza, this language repeats, "descending"). Ultimately, the movement shifts, and we are brought into a sense of rising as the poet speaks, "above the stones, above the stone and then the world." This movement from low to high as we ascend may reflect the leap I just discussed, the shift from physical to metaphysical, ordinary to extraordinary. I think you capture this idea in the nutshell when you write that the diction and sounds "prepare an ontological dive," as the reader quite literally experiences a dive deep into territory from which one then ascends. 

I do love the way this poem immerses a reader into rich sensory detail and yet, the language is not particularly lofty. At the outset, it is rather concrete and straightforward, although it also bears an impressionistic quality. Descriptions are rendered of "what seems" and things are noted "as if": the sea swells "as if considering spilling over." The silver of "apparent" translucence. The water "seems suspended." "If you should dip your hand in...your hand would burn as if the water were a transmutation of fire." 

What fascinates me is the idea that perhaps Bishop is both pointing to the sufficiency and simultaneous inadequacy of a means of knowing that is solely based on sensory experience. If we are relying only on our senses as a means of knowing, how thoroughly do we actually know that which surrounds us? This is precisely what makes me think of Descartes and his thought experiment with the ball of wax (from Meditations) in which he concludes that our senses cannot be the sole source of our knowledge about the wax, as its sensible characteristics are unreliable. They change when melted. The wax, or any sensible object, must be perceived through the intellect. In this poem, Bishop seems to be hinting at a similar idea: knowing involves rich sensory experience as well as the intellect, as knowledge is historical, repository by nature. 

AI's summary of Jessica's comments: 

I confess I got a little lost in the high-flown language too, but I see what you mean about the seal section being more interesting.
I'm curious about your take on the poem's ending vs. your notes on 'flown' vs 'flowed'.

**

My comments about the Seamus Heaney essay  "The Government of the Tongue" about Elizabeth Bishop, that Bart kindly gave me.

I would be happy to share right away as I am curious about your take.  I didn't find I had much further insight about the poem from Heaney.    I think the group addressed her "finical" (fastidious about detail) and discreet manner which Heaney expands on saying, "it would not have disturbed the undersong of conversations between strangers  breakfasting at a seaside hotel".   For sure, her inclination to believe in "the government of the tongue" and her "good manners" in the discipline of observation, are an accurate, and beautifully stated. truth .. but what about the poem????

On the 3rd page, the bit about the seal, the article becomes more interesting to me:  a "rhythmic heave"... one seal particularly... 

"Looking at the world of the surface, after all is not only against the better judgement of a seal; it is finally also against the better judgement of the poet.  It is not that the poet breaks faith with the observed world  (of human attachment, grandfathers, Lucky Strikes and Christmas trees) but a different estranging and fearful ement which ultimately fascinates her:  the world of mediated meaning, or a knowledge-need which sets human beings apart from seals and herrings and sets the poet in her solitude apart from her grandfather and the old man.... 

He speaks of the inner cadence which is deeply intimate with the "laden water of full tide" and continues:   "The lines inhabited by  certain profoundly true tones, which as Robert Frost put it, "were before words were, living in the cave of the mouth":  they fortify our inclination to credit promptings of our intuitive being. 

The last page contains sweeping remarks about the nature of poetry. I so enjoyed his last sentence, I the I quoted it (loosely) from in the nutshell:  "Poetry is more a threshold than a path, one constantly approached and constantly departed from, at which reader and writer undergo in their different ways the expdrience of being at the same time summoned and released.

Well... all that is well and good -- but does it enhance my appreciation of the poem?  I confess, I was a bit put off by the high-flown expression.

Poems for April 28+ 30

 April Prayer by Stuart Kestenbaum; Sleepless City of Rising Light  by Matt Joseph;  World Leaders Praise Pakistan as a Mediator  by Khushrooh Kasi;  The Strongest of the Strange  by Charles Bukowski;  Ekphrastic Mystery with photo by Don Menges; From the Garden by Anne Sexton

Nutshell:

Nutshell of Poems April 29 _ May 1

 

April Prayer: Many picked up the echo of the title of this poem from the title of the book from which it is drawn, Prayers and Run-on Sentences. Indeed, the poem seems to be one long stream-of-consciousness sentence that flows up to the end of the 8th line (volta, or turn in a sonnet) when the idea of a mechanical signal enters.  Some questioned the word "miracle" on the 9th line as unnecessary and violating the sacrosanct rule of "show don't tell".  "Every signal/a call, and the switchboard/ is lighting up... is explicit in hinting at invisible things happening in Spring... and leading smoothly to navigate communication.  Some chuckled at the twist of Go make the call as if April were hosting a fund drive.  The humor was refreshing.

 

Sleepless City of Rising Light:  This poem is an ekphrasis response to Medellin Majestique (Rattle Magazine, Feb. 2026) by VerDarLuz.  Everyone concurred that the poem stands both solidly on its own, as well as enhancing the image, which in turn enhances the poem.  It is a welcome  portrayal of a city as a place that brings people together, a snapshot of humanity and celebration of diversity.  We remarked the virtuosity of the vocabulary in the opening stanzas.  The third stanza offers the more gritty and troubling sounds of fights, sights homeless, but immediately counteracts with the rewards of the smells and implied tastes of exotic places.   The artist note sums it up: ’ the poem surges with an exotic, eccentric, dynamic energy, carrying so much beautiful texture in its sound and a vivid movement of image—assonance, consonance, and strikingly specific details bringing the dreaming city and its craziness fully alive. Its ferocity and full sensuality—from salsa and bodegas to vagabonds and vendors dissolving into technicolor twilight, a kind of heavy metal bossa nova opera of tastes—create a bulldozing, beautiful chaos that ultimately resolves in a haunting, embodied yearning for answers.”

The opening question implies people as dreamers, all of us involved in a common search for meaning.  We questioned why the poet chose "dying".  I am reminded that a poem never is about answers.  Perhaps the poet wants to tease the reader with the line break, bringing up the inevitability of death, but using the present participle.  The occlusives in clenched fists/clutch crumpled lists followed by a thousand scrawled suggestions/a baker's-thousand questions emphasizes our desire that  some  solution might take place.  

 

World Leaders Praise Pakistan:  Listening to the poet read, one hears a faint accent. Her poem is from Readers Respondpublished in Rattle Magazine this month.  In this site that lists the winners of the 2023 ICU Youth Poetry Competition, it says she was from Garrison Academy, Quetta in Pakistan and won 3rd place for "Justice in Our Workforce".  The question came up whether she wrote the poem in English, or perhaps Urdu and then translated.  I couldn't find an answer.  However, one feels the hunger about which she writes, and the sharp contrast between the political face of a country, in this case the pride of mediating a global conflict, but which "rests heavy on empty stomachs".  We noted the shrinking of the stanzas, as if the words also are hungry, and  the pot becomes smaller and smaller space.

 

The Flower-Fed Buffaloes:  recordings of this stentorian performer.  You will see selections from The Congo which came up in discussion.  The stress of the long O, repeated in ago, low, buffalo accentuates the melancholic elegy for the almost extinction of the Buffalo and implied extinction of indigenous life.  There should be a stanza break before repeat of the first line, to accentuate the contrast of the once-was and the shrinking repeated lying low.  

 

The Strongest of the Strange:  It is helpful to know the story of this poet who was called "The Laureate of American Lowlife."  A rebel against the "elite" and convention, Bukowsky, (1920-1994) is known for his gritty realism relying on anecdotes and his own experiences.  He was one of the "strange", and his description of them as "being their own painting" pins down the existential attitude of "allowing ones intensity to  roar out" or as he would say, "find what you love and let it kill you." The 20 year old in the poem if not him, could be him.  We admired the way one short syllable on a line propelled the poem down the page.  When he breaks the line

after I see (sometimes I think/I see/ them— say/ a certain old/man...) one senses he possesses a deeper noticing in his observations.

 

Ekphrastic Mystery: The cat is out of the bag.  AI provided the two stanzas, but no title in response to a request to "write a poem to this picture".  Indeed, words help us notice details we might not see in a painting or photograph.  We admired the rhyming, not overdone, and in fact, very nicely executed to bring in "brace" for the log and rhyme "blood" with mud, as opposed to a less surprising choice of "flood" or "good" which gave an aliveness to the swamp.  The poem works well without the picture, and one has a peaceful sense of very ancient history, the resilience of nature, and what a place might have been like before.  Lovely tone of tranquility, but with a hint of something spooky.  We were rather discomfited to find out it was AI.  

One person brought up the March 2026  New York Times interactive feature titled "Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz". "The quiz, which garnered over 86,000 participants, presented side-by-side comparisons of human-written and AI-generated passages (primarily using the Claude AI model) across genres including fiction and poetry. Apparently 54% preferred the AI-generated passages, citing higher clarify.

 

We tried to come up with identifying characteristics of an AI poem, for instance, is it devoid of emotion?  Immediately, people thought of instances of human-generated poetry where no emotion is not a bad thing.  One person felt the poem had a feel of Elinor Wylie.

  

In the Anne Sexton poem,  we wondered what AI would do with her image of yacht and reference to lilies.  Here is an example.

 

The Garden on the Bay

 

White lilies drift on glassy sheen,

Amidst the water's quiet green,

While yachts with masts of silver-white,

Reflect the sun's warm morning light.

The petals bow to hulls that pass,

And mirror in the polished glass;

A fragile world of bloom and wood,

Where quiet wealth and nature stood. 

— [AI-Generated, 2026]

 

 

From the Garden: In our discussion, we noted the biblical references of the first three lines.  Who do you think is the speaker of the poem and  who is the beloved addressed?  Perhaps it is the poet.   Perhaps it is the serpent in the Garden of Eden.   Is it helpful to know a bit of Anne Sexton's bi-polar history and her institutionalizations?  Would it be helpful to know the context of the poem, when it was written?  I find such questions are helpful even without answers.  A poem is a threshold, as Seamus Heaney puts it, "... approached and constantly departed from at which reader and writer undergo in different ways the experience of being at the same time summoned and released."

 

I like the line in Sexton's poem:  "We talk too much".  It seems a fitting way to end this nutshell!

 

Post Script : What in the world is poetry???   

The  lost copy of a poem from 7th century came up. The Rome copy is significant because it contains the Old English version in the main body of the text, reflecting the language’s growing status in the ninth century, said Faulkner. “The absence of the poem would have been felt by the readers, I think, and so that’s why it goes in.” The poem is punctuated with a full stop after every word, which shows that word spacing was a relatively new invention, said Faulkner. “It is part of the early development of ways of dividing words and shows text starting to come towards the presentation of English that we know today.”

Marna comments:  I thought that it is wonderful that an ancient poem by a cow herder who could neither read nor write but dreamed the poem shows how deep poetry lives within us. I found this on the BBC website.

 

Eddy mentioned this poem, The Beginning  from the Slow Down (I too am intrigued by the lines A pocket / museum A natural / history / of music

 

The poem-a-day guest editor for May is Hala Alyan.  Questions that haunt her:  What motivates us?  What is meant by desires.  Why do we do things not in our interest?

They may indeed be a URL for everything, as she says in one of her poems.  My question is whether  it will replace the way we pose our own questions on thresholds of poetry, and if so, how?

 

 

 

 

 

Sent with nutshell of 4- 22+24

 Last week of April!  Where has the time gone!  

for Writers and Books only:

I wish to add this map that Mike kindly provided when it came up in discussion of the poem "Then" .  Yes, there is a gravestone in the Mt. Hope cemetary  with only the word, "Then" -- we all were curious if there was anything else on the other side of it!

For everybody : Sent with the poems, 

Saturday April 25: 2 PM

The poets laureate of Schenectady and Saratoga Springs (Adonis Richards and Jay Rogoff) read from their work to celebrate National Poetry Month 

This reading will be livestreamed on Facebook at

 https://www.facebook.com/CaffeLenaInc

and on YouTube at 

htpps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LehpBose0bg

or at this link:

4/25/2026 Poetry Open Mic featuring Two Poets Laureate: Jay Rogoff & Adonis Richards 

 

Writers and Books: at the Gell Center : contact W& B: (585) 473-2590 

 

4/25: EARTH Works at the Gell:

 

5/2:  1-5pm THE FLAME IN EVERY HAND: WRITING AS A CONTEMPLATIVE

with John Terlazzo

At the Gell Center: a finger lakes creative retreat

6581 West Hollow Road, Naples, NY

 

 

Tuesday April 28: 7:30 pm

Poetry and the Creative Mind: https://poets.org/pcm2026?utm_source=The+Academy+of+American+Poets&utm_campaign=66bf48dd12-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_07_09_02_15_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ec32cf876d-367624767&mc_cid=66bf48dd12&mc_eid=248758c95e

Poems for April 22+24

 Re-   by Dana Isokawa; The Agricultural Revolution by J. P. Grasser; Smalltown Lift by Brian Blanchfield; #64  by Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Then by Jorie Graham;  Don't Look Back by Kay Ryan; Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey; 

 Are we listening  loudly enough?  Trees live and breathe

- but i we could hear the tears they cry would we then stop the madness?

 

This "nutshell" I start with this peace postcard I received in February -- in honor of Earth Day.  Tomorrow at the Gell Center more Earth Day celebrations... see Poetry Happenings.

 

Nutshell:

Two Poems by Finalists...  For centuries, poetry has been an art that explores the mysteries, joys and sorrows of life through sound and form.  It would seem in Western culture, the Renaissance elevated Greek and Latin models which enjoyed a privilege status up until the 20th century where "modernists" broke rules in every field.  

I find it thrilling that poetry can branch out, exploring possibilities in so many different directions, where some  works  may well join the "classics" and still find original, delightful and surprising ways to do it! 

 

So, who were the judges of these finalists?  Why were they chosen and by what criteria?  I do not know.  The Poetry Foundation published Poetry, a monthly review.

Perhaps like the New Yorker choosing a poem because it reflects a theme in the issue, there is some thread in the selection that could be helpful to understand.  

 

However, the question comes up, and came up again this week, just how to define what it is we want poetry to be -- or what it is that intrigues us and draws us into some poems and not others.  There is no single answer about "taste" in art, what some call "good" or what some might shun out of dislike or indifference.  What we see each week in a group, is the sharing of what we like, what baffles us, and on the whole, are glad to stick with a poem even if at first glance it doesn't look accessible or meet our subjective standards for what is worth the effort.  I thank everyone for such an open-minded and open-hearted attitude!

 

Re- :  The title is curious.  Not Re:  followed by a colon as if about to start a memo but a hyphen as if coming to the end of a line and broken, then connected to the rest of a word we may not expect or know.  The hyphen acts as a preparatory hint, as after reading the poem there are multiple words with "re", repeats of the actual word "repeat" as well as examples of things that seem to repeat, and a diverse list of things that have multiple versions of themselves.  Rep, is not quite repeat, but like the French répétition, means rehearsal and/or practice.  Re, as in done again, for instance in rewired comes again-- with a chance to change! We did discuss the repeat of the number seven and how often it comes up, whether for 7 Brides, 7 days of a week, 7 deadly sins, 7 seas, as lucky number, etc.  When is repeating too much?  As for taking it from the top coupled with the example of how two things which cannot change gives yet another spin for contemplating the how of repeating mistakes, history, or the  degree of inevitability of repeating them. However, the poem ends with  reassurance of how seeds, pages, pauses, paint "at a slower distortion" allow more light.    

 

Why in the second stanza is the 3rd line not indented?  I'm not sure.  Is it because "Silence repeated" wants to be noticed?  

 

I think most everyone agreed, this poem was enjoyable and the process of "getting to know it" like the pleasure of meeting a new friend.  Perhaps after 6 more readings, we'll have 7 more ideas! 

 

The Agricultural Revolution:  The poem starts with a question, referring back to the title.  Instead of sermonizing, the poem explores evolution and revolution, invention, using unusual images.  What is happy accident, breakthrough, luck or love?  As the poem says, "We'll never know".  Why did we change from chasing deer to agriculture, and all we might associate with metaphorical cornflakes, packaged for profit ? 

Some found a hint of cynicism  going from 3rd to 4th stanza. 

Although not a sermon, the last line of the 4th stanza is an unfortunately accurate assessment of humans thinking to "control the world." 

 

I find the the changing lineation of the tercets interesting but cannot see a reason for alternating lineated and indented lines.  The enjambments give a breathless acceleration,  but then break s the flow.  Ending with the double meaning of "the rest was history"  could mean we are headed for the end.  What happens after "scarcity, need" to write the history?  The use of past tense locks down the end of the "Agricultural era" but gives no  hint of the next revolution.  

 

Smalltown Lift: For sure, rural America.  Wonderful short narrative with a scrambling of speakers, and yet, we see a"he" a possible "she" or a different "he", and yet an objective observer calls them "they", while one of the two of them refer to themselves as "we".  There's a certain charm in the telling... a little spice if you go deeper and think of the backstory or start to entertain thoughts not of a young teenager but possibly a scene with a pick-up hitchhiker.  Or maybe the lift in the title is about driving a fellow town mate home, or even a small lift of mood.

 

#64:  The poem starts out describing "the stage set", and since Shakespeare did write 13 of his 38 plays as taking place in Italy, although none specifically that take place at Piazza della Rotunda, one definitely can adopt a theatrical mindset. Is the flower seller part of the play?  Is she a Cassandra, a fortune teller, a version of Carl Sandburg's "Tomorrow"  as an old crone? "All the world is a stage and we are but players in it" (As you Like It) comes to mind.  But there is this juxtaposition between old and young which evokes the proverb, "too soon old, too late smart".  The  paradoxical detail of the youngsters' future as "very distant roaring" is a perfect note to confirm how unpredictable life can be.  The heedlessness of youth to see what they could well become. 

 

Then:  Then vs. Now.  Then as a sequence of events, or Then to introduce as one person said a sequence of events where words  are placed with fine tweezers.  Many 

heard the  roll and tensions as music or focused on what seems to count in the poem:

holding each other...  A different tone than the dark humor of the other agriculture poem,

but a sense of a tragic ending albeit embroidered with a delicacy of feelings.

Can love help by being aware of the world, its history, our illusions of how we want it to be.   The poem is mysterious and although difficult to understand, there is something arresting in it.  

 

Don't look back: This poem also has short lines but no breaks for breath.  It starts almost humorously but moves on to something serious, chopping up details of fish, geese on the way. Loss... regret, trying to understand -- and yet, if we lose our focus on the here and now, the risk of further loss.  Fish do feel pain.  Although we admired the image of them as "torpedoes of disinterest" the word "distinterest" also sparked discussion about the difference between that and "uninterested".   So neckless cannot be reckless and on what do they rely to check on their fry?  I write that to emphasis the touches of rhyme and obvious spelling play with goose/look and losses, loses. But back to the poem, tell me, how does it work for you?   I was glad it prompted several stories, including the myth of Orpheus.

 

Theories of Time and Space: The opening line pulls us in, as does the "tome of memory / its random blank pages" and the killer closing with the photograph -- the who you were, and the idea that you would return, to see it.  Indeed, written in 2006, so Hurricane Katrina and its devastation are present, but hinted in an ominous manner.

We didn't discuss the title, but certainly, that would be important to do.  Why "theories"?

How to understand time, space, disasters, life... perhaps is not through abstract theories but a few well-chosen particular details that the poet provides.  

The Thomas Wolfe novel You Can Go Home Again came up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Go_Home_Again

So did "Icarus Montgolfier Wright" the  1956 short story and 1962 animated film co-written by Ray Bradbury, exploring the history and spirit of flight through the dreams of an astronaut preparing for the first moon mission. The story merges mythological and historical figures—Icarus, the Montgolfier brothers, and the Wright brothers—to symbolize humanity's eternal drive to conquer the sky