Poems for July 2
Ellen Bass said she writes poetry, so she won’t miss this lifetime.
Her take on poetry is that a poem is a window between two human beings, not a mirror of a “me”.
Laughing Song by William Blake
Advertisement by Ingeborg Bachmann
Bardo by Peter Grizzi
Black Boys Play the Classics by Toi Derricotte
Vermeer, by Wislawa Symborska
**
Summary and further references.
What fun to revel in "corny" green laughter and wonder if Blake were chumming around with Robert Burns , Martin's excellent take on how to read Advertisement, without any "carefree", to highlight the juxtaposition of ads and personal angst, explore the concepts of Bardo, and imagine being there, which perhaps, as Carmen pointed out with the mention of Midi: a company that creates electronic instruments electrical equipment doing magical things, is a way of reviewing our present life. The novel way Toi Dericotte takes a snapshot of American attitudes (two choices end the poem), the mind-bending way to think of time, space and who we are, what we see provided by our new poet laureate, Nathalie Trethewry along with a new take on Velasquez (painting refered to in her poem about the kitchen maid here: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/14.40.631. How well we could relate to someone we love after they die "being in the objects they used" .
To quote the New Yorker article (June 10 issue), "As an African American cultural laureate and a woman holding a national office, she is poised to build upon the powerful legacy of Gwendowlyn Brooks and Rita Dove. We can look forward to the fresh direction that Trethewey’s compass will, inevitably, point our verse.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/06/a-new-poet-laureate.html#ixzz1zWbDs74i
Certainly each poet is worth looking up and next week, we'll see a few more poems from each.
Bachmann: http://www.poemhunter.com/ingeborg-bachmann/
Grizzi: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1445
Dericotte: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/107
(Elegy for my Husband is listed here: it was published in the Spring 2012 issue of "American Poet")
(BTW — apologies for the cut and paste job — the poem "Black Boys Play the Classics, ENDS on this line:
B: Amazing! I did not think that they could speak this tongue.
Thethewey: http://www.blueflowerarts.com/natasha-trethewey
For the Szymborska — we ran out of time for discussion — however, you might enjoy comparing, as those present did briefly,
The translation below with the Cavanagh translation in the handout. We'll start our discussion of poems next week with this.
Vermeer
As long as the woman from Rijksmuseum
in painted silence and concentration
day after day pours milk
from the jug to the bowl,
the World does not deserve
the end of the world.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Poems for June 27
I Dream a World – by Langston Hughes
Picture Postcard From The Other World – by Philip Levine
Numbers – Mary Cornish
Passage by John Brehm
The Effort -- Billy Collins
**
I had sent the poems with this prelude..
Dreams, Numbers, Passages and a touch of mockery…
"Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
(A Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3, scene 2, 110–115)
but come to think of it... following the discussion, we thought that superintendents of schools should have them to distribute to all math, english teachers, and use the opening poem as a school motto and use the Levine poem for the philosophy club,
which, if it doesn't exist, could start with a discussion of alternative
worlds and what that means from Plato's cave and beyond.
So what was special about each one? The anaphor in Hughes "I dream a World" slightly modified the 3rd time, and ending the poem "of such I dream, my world"
allows the reader to join of dreaming of a just world -- and if it is addressing the world as an intimate, we all join in. The poem is stronger than rap, more Martin Luther King style -- and it would be cool to hear a black person read it outloud.
That Rich was so taken by this poem, he set it to music, starting with a trumpet fanfare, in true heroic style, fits the semi-formal aspect.
For the Levine, the fact that the poem is very long with six lines before the first period, 8 lines before the 3rd period, 10 lines before the 4th period, with irregular line breaks, makes it an ideal poem to read aloud. The images evoke a desolate distance, set from the start in the title with the idea of the "other world" -- the I of the speaker inventing a you. And yet, the magic is that we are the you.
In the 19th line, "I give you the gift of language..." with the speaker's idea of what language is, without defining it, is followed by a pronouncement about the power of words "words... meaning no more/than the full force of their making" and the role of the you in translating them... This allows both the rambling up to that point and rambling after... and what it is we do when we invent -- creating gifts...words, sleep, waking. We looked up "chiffonier" the high chest of drawers with a mirror, and tried to image a face balancing on an orange -- but that's not the point really.
What is it? has as answer "it could be... 5 times -- putting face on things, or the nothing said so perfectly-- the "how" of a postcard...
Numbers is pure delight -- playful! "subtraction is never loss" turning addition into a recipe, multiplication into breeding fish, amplitude to long division, and a peppering of daily details whose "remainders" end with the one footloose sock, that isn't any where you look!
A delightful meditation on generosity, plenty, remainders, and the surprise of the unexpected.
Passage is a delightful poem juxtaposing human nature and our tendency to get caught up with doubt, fatigue, exasperation, while the forest stretches calmly--
Ending with Billy Collins, juxtaposing teachers expecting answers and the nature of art which requires that we not set out to state a question and provide an answer,
Martin pointed out, in art, what is bubbling under the surface, but not explained or perhaps "obvious" is the most important part. His example was Street Car Named Desire --
what is not said is that in 1947, women who had been doing men's work during the war, all of a sudden were being told "get back in your place".
As always, a delightful discussion, which enhanced the appreciation of the poems!
What a gift!
Picture Postcard From The Other World – by Philip Levine
Numbers – Mary Cornish
Passage by John Brehm
The Effort -- Billy Collins
**
I had sent the poems with this prelude..
Dreams, Numbers, Passages and a touch of mockery…
"Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
(A Midsummer Nights Dream Act 3, scene 2, 110–115)
but come to think of it... following the discussion, we thought that superintendents of schools should have them to distribute to all math, english teachers, and use the opening poem as a school motto and use the Levine poem for the philosophy club,
which, if it doesn't exist, could start with a discussion of alternative
worlds and what that means from Plato's cave and beyond.
So what was special about each one? The anaphor in Hughes "I dream a World" slightly modified the 3rd time, and ending the poem "of such I dream, my world"
allows the reader to join of dreaming of a just world -- and if it is addressing the world as an intimate, we all join in. The poem is stronger than rap, more Martin Luther King style -- and it would be cool to hear a black person read it outloud.
That Rich was so taken by this poem, he set it to music, starting with a trumpet fanfare, in true heroic style, fits the semi-formal aspect.
For the Levine, the fact that the poem is very long with six lines before the first period, 8 lines before the 3rd period, 10 lines before the 4th period, with irregular line breaks, makes it an ideal poem to read aloud. The images evoke a desolate distance, set from the start in the title with the idea of the "other world" -- the I of the speaker inventing a you. And yet, the magic is that we are the you.
In the 19th line, "I give you the gift of language..." with the speaker's idea of what language is, without defining it, is followed by a pronouncement about the power of words "words... meaning no more/than the full force of their making" and the role of the you in translating them... This allows both the rambling up to that point and rambling after... and what it is we do when we invent -- creating gifts...words, sleep, waking. We looked up "chiffonier" the high chest of drawers with a mirror, and tried to image a face balancing on an orange -- but that's not the point really.
What is it? has as answer "it could be... 5 times -- putting face on things, or the nothing said so perfectly-- the "how" of a postcard...
Numbers is pure delight -- playful! "subtraction is never loss" turning addition into a recipe, multiplication into breeding fish, amplitude to long division, and a peppering of daily details whose "remainders" end with the one footloose sock, that isn't any where you look!
A delightful meditation on generosity, plenty, remainders, and the surprise of the unexpected.
Passage is a delightful poem juxtaposing human nature and our tendency to get caught up with doubt, fatigue, exasperation, while the forest stretches calmly--
Ending with Billy Collins, juxtaposing teachers expecting answers and the nature of art which requires that we not set out to state a question and provide an answer,
Martin pointed out, in art, what is bubbling under the surface, but not explained or perhaps "obvious" is the most important part. His example was Street Car Named Desire --
what is not said is that in 1947, women who had been doing men's work during the war, all of a sudden were being told "get back in your place".
As always, a delightful discussion, which enhanced the appreciation of the poems!
What a gift!
poems for June 13 and 20
Poems for June 13
Ezra Pound said that poetry was “news that stays news.” William Carlos Williams added a warning: “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / But men and women die every day / for lack / of what is found there.” The great Renaissance poet Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote that “the poet nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.”
What is news? How is it told?
This is a very enjoyable interview with Philip Levine: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/levine.htm
For June 13, enjoy these poems from
Philip Levine: (from News of the World)
Our Valley by Philip Levine
A Story by Philip Levine
Love and Other Disasters by Philip Levine
Before the War by Philip Levine
Fixing the Foot: by Philip Levine
this comment by David Young, Poetry Daily, on the prose poem: “The choice of prose for this anecdote helps highlight the rhythms of the experience. The prose movement is of a piece with the circumstances, where the speaker, overhearing and not knowing the language, must intuit the circumstances from the rhythms of the speech rather than its content. The deprivation—he is unable to see the doctor, child, or parent—is what makes his imagination lively and attentive.” http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_young-d.php
**
Poems for June 20:
“... it seemed to me that Machado was able to validate these very basic experiences that we all share -- and that we begin to think of, in our busy lives, as marginal. But Machado brings them into the center of his experience and his poetry. And I thought, Oh, what genius that was, to take what we've marginalized and pull it into the center and make it what sheds light on everything else.” Philip Levine
The following 3 poems came from: http://www.poemhunter.com/antonio-machado/
which gives a little background. We may have discussed them before, and there are different translations – but certainly the images come through.
Has My Heart Gone To Sleep? by Antonio Machado
The Wind, One Brilliant Day by Antonio Machado
Last Night as I was Sleeping -- by Antonio Machado
Gospel by Philip Levine
for more poems by Machado: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/Machado.htm
I saw this translator’s Rimbaud work, which was OK, but not totally accurate. I can’t vouch for his Spanish.
Ezra Pound said that poetry was “news that stays news.” William Carlos Williams added a warning: “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / But men and women die every day / for lack / of what is found there.” The great Renaissance poet Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote that “the poet nothing affirmeth, and therefore never lieth.”
What is news? How is it told?
This is a very enjoyable interview with Philip Levine: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/poetry/levine.htm
For June 13, enjoy these poems from
Philip Levine: (from News of the World)
Our Valley by Philip Levine
A Story by Philip Levine
Love and Other Disasters by Philip Levine
Before the War by Philip Levine
Fixing the Foot: by Philip Levine
this comment by David Young, Poetry Daily, on the prose poem: “The choice of prose for this anecdote helps highlight the rhythms of the experience. The prose movement is of a piece with the circumstances, where the speaker, overhearing and not knowing the language, must intuit the circumstances from the rhythms of the speech rather than its content. The deprivation—he is unable to see the doctor, child, or parent—is what makes his imagination lively and attentive.” http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_young-d.php
**
Poems for June 20:
“... it seemed to me that Machado was able to validate these very basic experiences that we all share -- and that we begin to think of, in our busy lives, as marginal. But Machado brings them into the center of his experience and his poetry. And I thought, Oh, what genius that was, to take what we've marginalized and pull it into the center and make it what sheds light on everything else.” Philip Levine
The following 3 poems came from: http://www.poemhunter.com/antonio-machado/
which gives a little background. We may have discussed them before, and there are different translations – but certainly the images come through.
Has My Heart Gone To Sleep? by Antonio Machado
The Wind, One Brilliant Day by Antonio Machado
Last Night as I was Sleeping -- by Antonio Machado
Gospel by Philip Levine
for more poems by Machado: http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Spanish/Machado.htm
I saw this translator’s Rimbaud work, which was OK, but not totally accurate. I can’t vouch for his Spanish.
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