Global Warming by Jane Hirschfield
Arthritis is one thing, the hurting another by Camille T. Dungy
Tribute to Adrienne Rich: (links and 3 poems: (At Willard Brook, For Example, T
We will start Feb. 7 with Rich: Translations) continue with
Enough by Ellen Bass + note on epigraph (Rimbaud, "Départ" from Illuminations)
In the ten years of leading poetry discussion, we have never spent 45 minutes on just one poem. This is a tribute then,
to Jane Hirschberg's "Global Warming", where the discussion could have continued even after three-quarters of an hour. So much is in this 4-line poem! At first glance, one wonders why something seemingly prose-like is a clever metaphoric procedure rife with poetic devices.
Title. Not "Climate change" which is more accurate, but the sense of "Global" -- and warm, as in getting closer to the heat.
First line, announcement of location,
second line: juxtaposition: Cook .. natives
third line: what Cook says... ambiguity: either he wrote: The natives continued fishing
(and Cook did not look up [from his writing which seems unlikely]) or the natives continued fishing and did not look up.
(which makes more sense and gives the feel of two worlds which, although they SHOULD collide, in fact,
do not really recognize each other);
these 3 shorter lines then are followed by a longer line, in the voice of the narrator:
a commentary, like an Asian form Marna was explaining.
The rhythm of the third line, two sets of 5 syllables, is quite compelling…
Two disparate things are held by the poem-- two opposite worlds; each unable to perceive the consequence of
what's just happened. Like Inventions (the car, the telephone, the internet, etc.) the geographic "discoveries" happen, without planning any consequence. (What if America remained populated by indigenous natives?!) The shorter lines recount a brief moment in time, held by the longer thread of the final line--
which does not announce a conclusion, but rather makes a commentary on the way humans perceive.
We are like the natives... we do not look up... many are unable to comprehend Global Warming or imagine its consequences. It reminded one person of Breughel's Icarus. Who sees that splash of legs in the corner...
to what do we pay attention?
Hirshfield is generous in her attitude… both to us…as well as the obvious victims.
Another person compared the situation to the oil business... unable to comprehend the impact or what we need to remedy…
The bottom line: we can't go proving with fact, but need to imagine a different world than the one we think we encounter…
The Camille Dungy poem uses a similar metaphoric technique: arthritis... and hurt... You can peg the world events
in 2006 with the details in the poem... yet they are told in a way that we feel this could be any year...
massacres, burnings, wars, injustices...
The play between the advancing rheumatoid arthritis in the hands of Adrienne Rich and the incomprehensibility of world events is sharpened by simple sentences: "It is not the year for knowing what to do"... for both the poet and her activism. Dungy draws us in by asking, "Should I use indirect voice"... none of us are Adrienne Rich; ..but "these are not my hands"
is packed with ambivalance. Sure, literally, our hands are not crippled. We might think we have no "hand" in world events... the year of W and X and Y and Z-- the sense of a long enumeration of bad things... This poem makes me feel the hurt of both arthritis and the pain of the world.
At Williard Brook: powerful poem. Reflects Adrienne's advocacy… her life devoted to try to change things… the spirit here – got to dive into the wreck
and find out where these things happen… Beautiful opposition of spirit and "law"--
the spirit cannot be pinned down in scientific or human or sacred law or fact... There's a sense that if you want "law"
you take the spirit out of nature and present moment.For Example: in Pittsford, we talked about "reverberation", perhaps a tribute to William Carlos Williams... the beauty of rhythms heard in the world... repeated... and got side-tracked on typewriters...
at Rundel, Mike pointed out the date: the day after JFK's assassination... a very different sense of reverberation.
Rundel discussed the final selection: What happened on Christmas Day in 1972? It could have been a masscre in Vietnam...
It is part of a book of the same title which is helpful for a fully understanding.
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