Instead of Losing by John Ashbery
#33 from “A Far Rockaway from the Heart” by
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Choice by Peter Goldsworthy
Nanny Fairchild Offers Wisdom to her Nearly Grown Up Charge
Day of the Refugios by Alberto Rios
The poems focussed on that tipping point of one thing shifting to another… “Instead of losing”
(1st poem) could be “Instead of grieving” or instead of losing your mind… the idea of “pulse” and living
seemed to appear in each poem. All the lovely “l’s” in Ferlinghetti’s poem… light, and more light…
Choice — where “this goes with that” — embracing seeming opposites…
the deadpan humor (and preponderance of p’s) in Nanny Fairchild… let us not confuse preserving with pretending… or losing with confusion (back to Ashbery)… and celebrate that childhood is a kind of country, where memory allows embroidering…
I’m not sure what it means to “find an edge in the middle”… on one hand, then again, on the other— or behind, above, below, inside… but I think every eulogy should include the 4th part of the last Rios’ poem
"The reason you can’t lose weight later on in life is simple enough.
It’s because of how many people you know have died,
and that you carry a little of each of them with you.”
For O Pen: September 13
Sonnet by Charles Sorley (found posthumously in his WW1 kit)
Lead by Mary Oliver
Leave No Trace by Maggie Dietz
Billy Collins is one of the most personable poets, gently tongue-in-cheek... unafraid of poking fun at himself as poet.
What is this poetry business about?
Why do we laugh at the opening line? : "I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title"
take pleasure at slant references, "Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve" and loosely quoted lines such as "I roam the decaffeinated streets".
He's captured the serious workshopper intent on telling you what lines are important... what sounds, the puzzlements, the "problems" and the voice... the note he returns to, in the final stanza:
The problem of the "I" -- and the useless commentary that points to some uncorroborated detail lumped as something", is all good fun.
"read" could be both present and past tense...
The next poem took half an hour of discussion -- associations with "the Hand" -- what it means to raise it... and many reminiscences of being in a classroom and many conjectures of "what was happening" and why the student didn't answer the teacher. And that apple... lifting up a desk lid
and taking out an apple! None of us would have dared... even if were to polish it to offer the teacher.
I love that a poem can be satisfying and remain "unsolved"!
For the di Piero, we felt for such a fine poet who has such a reputation as art historian, it was a disappointing piece. To draw a universal from the Vermeer, apply it to contemporary Haight St.
is an interesting conceit... but the final lines felt on the edge of clever, as if the poem did not earn them.
"because love says it’s so
picture that picture this."
What If the Invader Is Beautiful had originally been slated for September 6. If we had not had the poet's note, we never would have known it was about a Tamarisk tree.
The Sonnet, I had included as I found it sobering to think of a WWI soldier writing a poem
in the trenches as a way to survive. Most of us know the Wilfred Owens, Rupert Brookes...
Chilling lines about the power of death... the dismissal of those killed, "easy to be dead..." without
speaking of the difficulty of waiting your turn for death.
The Mary Oliver was a welcome read, much as the subject is difficult. Marcie brought up sighting a red-chested loon and we got onto the discussion of endangered species.
What terrific opening lines!
The Maggie Dietz is a beautiful poem about one of my favorite places in the world-- Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. "However long you stay you must leave nothing " takes on new dimensions
beyond carry in/carry out with the addition of fears, rage, grief... " If you think you’ve changed,Take all your changes with you."
And leave what you find there... !
Workshop by Billy Collins
The Hand by Mary Ruefle
Girl with Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer by W. S. Di Piero
What If the Invader Is Beautiful by Louise Mathias
Sonnet by Charles Sorley (found posthumously in his WW1 kit)
Lead by Mary Oliver
Leave No Trace by Maggie Dietz
Billy Collins is one of the most personable poets, gently tongue-in-cheek... unafraid of poking fun at himself as poet.
What is this poetry business about?
Why do we laugh at the opening line? : "I might as well begin by saying how much I like the title"
take pleasure at slant references, "Ancient Mariner grabbing me by the sleeve" and loosely quoted lines such as "I roam the decaffeinated streets".
He's captured the serious workshopper intent on telling you what lines are important... what sounds, the puzzlements, the "problems" and the voice... the note he returns to, in the final stanza:
...But then there’s that last stanza, my favorite.This is where the poem wins me back,especially the lines spoken in the voice of the mouse.
I start thinking about how hard the mouse had to worknight after night collecting all these thingswhile the people in the house were fast asleep,and that gives me a very strong feeling,a very powerful sense of something.But I don’t know if anyone else was feeling that.Maybe that was just me.Maybe that’s just the way I read it.
The problem of the "I" -- and the useless commentary that points to some uncorroborated detail lumped as something", is all good fun.
"read" could be both present and past tense...
The next poem took half an hour of discussion -- associations with "the Hand" -- what it means to raise it... and many reminiscences of being in a classroom and many conjectures of "what was happening" and why the student didn't answer the teacher. And that apple... lifting up a desk lid
and taking out an apple! None of us would have dared... even if were to polish it to offer the teacher.
I love that a poem can be satisfying and remain "unsolved"!
For the di Piero, we felt for such a fine poet who has such a reputation as art historian, it was a disappointing piece. To draw a universal from the Vermeer, apply it to contemporary Haight St.
is an interesting conceit... but the final lines felt on the edge of clever, as if the poem did not earn them.
"because love says it’s so
picture that picture this."
What If the Invader Is Beautiful had originally been slated for September 6. If we had not had the poet's note, we never would have known it was about a Tamarisk tree.
The Sonnet, I had included as I found it sobering to think of a WWI soldier writing a poem
in the trenches as a way to survive. Most of us know the Wilfred Owens, Rupert Brookes...
Chilling lines about the power of death... the dismissal of those killed, "easy to be dead..." without
speaking of the difficulty of waiting your turn for death.
The Mary Oliver was a welcome read, much as the subject is difficult. Marcie brought up sighting a red-chested loon and we got onto the discussion of endangered species.
What terrific opening lines!
Here is a story
to break your heart.
How else can we live but by breaking open our hearts, to care for our world and everyone/thing in it.Are you willing?
The Maggie Dietz is a beautiful poem about one of my favorite places in the world-- Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. "However long you stay you must leave nothing " takes on new dimensions
beyond carry in/carry out with the addition of fears, rage, grief... " If you think you’ve changed,Take all your changes with you."
And leave what you find there... !
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