poems for March 7-8 -- finished March 14

Kathy kindly assembled some of her favorites and will lead Pittsford.  Mike kindly has accepted to lead Rundel.

R. Wilbur's "For C."  --- from The Voice of the Poet: Richard Wilbur,  2003

W. Szymborska's "Dreams"  --- from Here, 2009 

O.Vuong 's "Kissing in Vietnamese"   --- from, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, 2016 winner of the T.S. Eliot award https://www.amazon.com/Night-Exit-Wounds-Ocean-Vuong/dp/155659495X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1518903258&sr=1-1&keywords=night+sky+with+exit+wounds+by+ocean+vuong

C. Simic's "That Elusive Something "--- from Scribbled in the Dark, 2017

It has been almost a month --
and I am finally getting to the right ups...
Kathy provided more information about Ocean Vuong... worth looking up!

 I love this poem for the way Simic captures the very nature of "elusive" and how memory works.  Each detail is evocative... but why hurry home to forget... how to explain how the heart sees the world?

The Elusive Something  by Charles Simic

Was it in the smell of freshly baked bread

That came out to meet me in the street?

The face of a girl carrying a white dress

From the cleaners with her eyes half closed?

The sight of a building blackened by fire

Where once I went to look for work?

The toothless old man passing out leaflets

For a clothing store going out of business?

Or was it the woman pushing a baby carriage

About to turn the corner? I ran after,

As if the little one lying in it was known to me,

And found myself alone on a busy street

I didn’t recognize, feeling like someone

Out for the first time after a long illness,

Who sees the world with his heart,

Then hurries home to forget how it felt.

O Pen comments: senses… light; mixture of past/present// questions…

intimate.  not translated. 

ending allows us to continue… so pierced by the beauty… painful… exquisite…

painful … b/c can't unpack…  drawn into a different world…

alcoholic… don't trust life…

elusive thing more than seeing world w/ heart.