Zero Circle by Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi translated by Coleman Barks. (Only Rundel...)
The Past Suffers Too by Ben Purkert
Invented form by John Lee Clark. He calls it a
"slateku".
Even the Rain by Agha Shahid Ali
Greybeard by Charles de
Lint. (Only Rundel...)
Spring Creek by Dan Gerber
The Wall. by Anita Endrezze (Yaqui). (Only Rundel...) (ran out of time, not discussed)
http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2017/02/03/the-wall/?doing_wp_cron=1522319485.6163020133972167968750
Pittsford discussed the passage from Beckett; the Cummings; the Dunbar -- (see March 28
for the Rundel discussion of them on April 5). Only Rundel discussed Greybeard.
Zero Circle: Whether discussed in conjunction with Symborska's poem, "Plato, or Why on Earth"
or Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal, Even the Rain, or simply read alone, it is important to know that
Rumi relied on oral tradition, and spoke the complex language of old Persian. Coleman Barks
would speak to translators, and channel what they said into his translations. He wanted the poems
to be accessible and gave contemporary expression of Rumi's Sufi mysticism.
By not taking self too seriously, one has a better chance of embracing the joy of life! **
http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2017/02/03/the-wall/?doing_wp_cron=1522319485.6163020133972167968750
Pittsford discussed the passage from Beckett; the Cummings; the Dunbar -- (see March 28
for the Rundel discussion of them on April 5). Only Rundel discussed Greybeard.
Zero Circle: Whether discussed in conjunction with Symborska's poem, "Plato, or Why on Earth"
or Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal, Even the Rain, or simply read alone, it is important to know that
Rumi relied on oral tradition, and spoke the complex language of old Persian. Coleman Barks
would speak to translators, and channel what they said into his translations. He wanted the poems
to be accessible and gave contemporary expression of Rumi's Sufi mysticism.
By not taking self too seriously, one has a better chance of embracing the joy of life! **
By avoiding judgement, not seeking answers, but rather being open to whatever the present moment offers, one can be closer to the Belovèd.
"Beyond ideas of
rightness and wrongness there is a field, I'll meet you there…"
The poem reminds us to whirl... to trust... to be multi-faceted... to surrender to the universe as our teachers...
**Joy is
important, not only as the antithesis of depression, but as a fundamental element
of our Divine service in its own right. Just as the love of G-d and the fear of
G-d are necessary for our Divine service to be complete, so too, joy is
essential to our ...
feel His
Presence.
The Past Suffers Too: is a contemporary contradiction of Rumi... How many of us can live in the moment when being cut off on the road? This poem shows the attempted mindfulness-- how hard
it is to be present... And leads to thinking about the past -- perhaps as in who has died before us...
or simply personified as suffering from anxiety... coming out from under the cemetery's grass every once in a blue moon to hiss... Is the poet's dying wish to have something besides death to look forward to? i.e. real, concrete, like looking forward to visiting places when alive... I love the ending lines with the earth as a "thin voice in a headset whispering breathe..." how believe and breathe
rhyme...
Even the Rain: This ghazal takes grief as main narrative, weaving in four different religions,
America/Kashmir, glosses from other poems (Adrienne Rich, 2nd stanza) a quaker love-knot
(a quilt with 4 different circles with words) and different aspects of rain.
If surrounded by drought, rain is welcome... if in a monsoon, it isn't... and if it is there in the balance of things, we pay no attention to it.
Noah's flood, a salt pillar for the lonely lot (Lot's wife), the Hindu tradition of bringing ashes from the ghat to the Ganges, the inner rhymes: knot, bought, taught, forgot, what, bergamot, despot, ghat,
lot, sought, plot, brought, not.... even the rain.
Even as verb, even as in "including" or "also, in spite of everything": he got even:
The ghazal, likened to a string of uneven pearls, each one independent, but linked the the sound
of the rhyming words and repeated end world. A perfect "Sufi" whirl of words reflecting a
multi-faceted mind at work with words.
Spring Creek:
Like the ghazal, and Rumi's whirling, Gerber weaves disparate ideas -- what do you do with 17,000 thoughts a day-- knowing if you grasp just one... the river stops flowing. And off he goes...
Chauvet caves... and Modern Art; Heraclitus (can't step into the same river twice); pigeons as nuisance and then, as victim of a hawk... and grief mixed with joy -- caught in the metaphor
of the bird, wingtip to talon, they circle, one closer at first, then the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment