Leaving English by Julia Alvarez
Different Hours by Stephen Dunn
Returning Birds by Wislawa Szymborska
Sixty by Stephen Dunn
July 24: back to me.
next to of course god america i, by e.e. cummings
Adios by Naomi Shihab Nye
Black Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966)
Peace by Patrick Kavanagh
On Raglan Road by Patrick Kavanagh
Hum for the Bolt by Jamaal May
I hope ;to God you will not ask by Esther Belin
Ode to Ironing by Pablo Neruda
How do you feel about being next to. "of course"?
Of course God. God America. The title announces the complexity and wit of Cummings to take patriotic songs and clichés, so easily substituted for what many people consider bona-fide and important patriotism. No punctuation, just one unending stream of words, jammed into a twitter-length 14 line poem. Complete sentence: He spoke. One person compared the tone to starting out like a brass band in major key, increasingly sliding into an unsettling minor key that makes you doubt
the original was as bright as we believed. War: we rush into it "like lions to the roaring slaughter"...
it does not continue that they did not die in vain -- but rather, instead of thinking, they died (instead)-- heroic and happy?
Just a hint of TS Eliot's Prufrock... in the centuries that come and go ("the women come and go, speaking of Michelangelo")... leading up to a truncated beaut--(iful).
We read it line by line, repeating each line but adding the next to more fully concentrate on the
simultaneous meanings and blends.
You could emphasize phrase such as in lines 5 + 6 "
my country 'tis of... (truncated... pause). Centuries come and go (line break) and are no more.
The poem could be re-parsed as a series of truncated, unfinished pieces that challenge sense.
Next to of course,
god, america and i love you land of the pilgrims and so forth
oh say can you see by the dawn's early my (is dawn all about what is possesses?)
(my) country, 'tis of (centuries). (not just one dawn, but implied centuries of them)
centuries come and go and are no more
what of it
we should worry in every language
even deafanddumb thy sons acclaim your glorious name
by gorry, by jingo, by gee by gosh by gum (read connecting line above and below
why talk of beauty
what could be more beaut/iful than these heroic happy dead ...
etc.
* I think (of the people, for the people by the people, where there is no "of" or "for" )
Whether enthusiasm for the Civil War, WW I, before the actuality of the senseless slaughter,
the absurdity of his pronouncements makes the speaker hoarse, trying to say it all...
then wash it away with a glass of water...
Congressional puffery... patriotic self-serving blathering... how the hints of national anthems,
like the anthems themselves, stoke people up.
Adios: like Adieu -- both of which start with an "a", God be With You... in one word...
spelling out wishes for another at the beginning of a journey--
how one word, can roll off the tongue, be carefully considered, become something as important as a spouse to whom you vow to be faithful. This is some word!
And look how it will serve you! Wings... guidance... and then the kernel of zen-ness:
it's not about you... but a way to rise out of sight... which directs the poem to consider things that linger. then the opposite, things that disappear... to what you love, what moves you...
Naomi guides us again and again to pay attention to words... the meanings that hold lessons...
the richness of what is sounded (as in plumbed depths, as well as spoken aloud) the meditation
on what was heard.
Now... this paraphrase is not to replicate the poem-- but I admire a poem which can stir me to
pause long enough to consider multiple angles inspired by "good bye". That she chose Spanish,
living near Mexico, perhaps is a key point for a non-English word understood superficially by English speakers, draws the poem to the subject of understanding.
Black Woman:
We wondered when the poem was written, as Johnson was born in 1880, so it could be before her involvement with the Harlem Renaissance. Her first collection of poems was published in 1918, (In the Heart of a Woman") and I am guessing she wrote it in 1916 as one of the poems published by MAACP's magazine Crisis. more info: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/author-biography/georgia-douglas-johnson/
The soft rhythmic tone of the poem embraces deep sorrow with deep love..
Peace: 9 lines that start off as if surprised in mid-conversation. Countryside and farming, a hint of a cemetery, battlefield... and look what peace is offering! We do not think of peace offering such items-- nor that it would "hawk" such. And what if it did in our daily markets?
On Raglan Road mistakenly followed with its title. Do you consider Love, Life, Time
as tyrants? Again, in the nostalgic setting of countryside, he wonders what fools climb up
to fight them... and launches into his first love, and loss.
Hum for the Bolt is a wonderful title... with loaded words... what kind of bolt? why hum?
The poem comes from his book, Hum whose poems explore machines, technology, obsolescence, and community. In an interview, May stated of his first book, “Ultimately, I’m trying to say something about dichotomy, the uneasy spaces between disparate emotions, and by extension, the uneasy spaces between human connection.”
I hope to God you will not ask. The title of the poem by this Navaho poet comes from the words of the 19th century Navaho hero, Barboncito (1821-71). I feel as if Esther is shadowing his words,
as a propos today as over a century ago.
Ode for Ironing: You can actually read the poem backwards and it is just as satisfying with its surprises, leaps. David reminded us of Wallace Stevens words, "a poem must resist intelligence almost successfully." This one smooths out possibilities of poetry, what "comes out" of the wrinkles,
Here is Mitchell's translation with Neruda's original
How do you feel about being next to. "of course"?
Of course God. God America. The title announces the complexity and wit of Cummings to take patriotic songs and clichés, so easily substituted for what many people consider bona-fide and important patriotism. No punctuation, just one unending stream of words, jammed into a twitter-length 14 line poem. Complete sentence: He spoke. One person compared the tone to starting out like a brass band in major key, increasingly sliding into an unsettling minor key that makes you doubt
the original was as bright as we believed. War: we rush into it "like lions to the roaring slaughter"...
it does not continue that they did not die in vain -- but rather, instead of thinking, they died (instead)-- heroic and happy?
Just a hint of TS Eliot's Prufrock... in the centuries that come and go ("the women come and go, speaking of Michelangelo")... leading up to a truncated beaut--(iful).
We read it line by line, repeating each line but adding the next to more fully concentrate on the
simultaneous meanings and blends.
You could emphasize phrase such as in lines 5 + 6 "
my country 'tis of... (truncated... pause). Centuries come and go (line break) and are no more.
The poem could be re-parsed as a series of truncated, unfinished pieces that challenge sense.
Next to of course,
god, america and i love you land of the pilgrims and so forth
oh say can you see by the dawn's early my (is dawn all about what is possesses?)
(my) country, 'tis of (centuries). (not just one dawn, but implied centuries of them)
centuries come and go and are no more
what of it
we should worry in every language
even deafanddumb thy sons acclaim your glorious name
by gorry, by jingo, by gee by gosh by gum (read connecting line above and below
why talk of beauty
what could be more beaut/iful than these heroic happy dead ...
etc.
* I think (of the people, for the people by the people, where there is no "of" or "for" )
Whether enthusiasm for the Civil War, WW I, before the actuality of the senseless slaughter,
the absurdity of his pronouncements makes the speaker hoarse, trying to say it all...
then wash it away with a glass of water...
Congressional puffery... patriotic self-serving blathering... how the hints of national anthems,
like the anthems themselves, stoke people up.
Adios: like Adieu -- both of which start with an "a", God be With You... in one word...
spelling out wishes for another at the beginning of a journey--
how one word, can roll off the tongue, be carefully considered, become something as important as a spouse to whom you vow to be faithful. This is some word!
And look how it will serve you! Wings... guidance... and then the kernel of zen-ness:
it's not about you... but a way to rise out of sight... which directs the poem to consider things that linger. then the opposite, things that disappear... to what you love, what moves you...
Naomi guides us again and again to pay attention to words... the meanings that hold lessons...
the richness of what is sounded (as in plumbed depths, as well as spoken aloud) the meditation
on what was heard.
Now... this paraphrase is not to replicate the poem-- but I admire a poem which can stir me to
pause long enough to consider multiple angles inspired by "good bye". That she chose Spanish,
living near Mexico, perhaps is a key point for a non-English word understood superficially by English speakers, draws the poem to the subject of understanding.
Black Woman:
We wondered when the poem was written, as Johnson was born in 1880, so it could be before her involvement with the Harlem Renaissance. Her first collection of poems was published in 1918, (In the Heart of a Woman") and I am guessing she wrote it in 1916 as one of the poems published by MAACP's magazine Crisis. more info: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/author-biography/georgia-douglas-johnson/
The soft rhythmic tone of the poem embraces deep sorrow with deep love..
Peace: 9 lines that start off as if surprised in mid-conversation. Countryside and farming, a hint of a cemetery, battlefield... and look what peace is offering! We do not think of peace offering such items-- nor that it would "hawk" such. And what if it did in our daily markets?
On Raglan Road mistakenly followed with its title. Do you consider Love, Life, Time
as tyrants? Again, in the nostalgic setting of countryside, he wonders what fools climb up
to fight them... and launches into his first love, and loss.
Hum for the Bolt is a wonderful title... with loaded words... what kind of bolt? why hum?
The poem comes from his book, Hum whose poems explore machines, technology, obsolescence, and community. In an interview, May stated of his first book, “Ultimately, I’m trying to say something about dichotomy, the uneasy spaces between disparate emotions, and by extension, the uneasy spaces between human connection.”
I hope to God you will not ask. The title of the poem by this Navaho poet comes from the words of the 19th century Navaho hero, Barboncito (1821-71). I feel as if Esther is shadowing his words,
as a propos today as over a century ago.
Ode for Ironing: You can actually read the poem backwards and it is just as satisfying with its surprises, leaps. David reminded us of Wallace Stevens words, "a poem must resist intelligence almost successfully." This one smooths out possibilities of poetry, what "comes out" of the wrinkles,
Here is Mitchell's translation with Neruda's original
Ode to Ironing
Poetry is white:
it comes from the water covered with drops, sale del agua envuelta en gotas,
it wrinkles and piles up,
the skin of this planet must be stretched,
the sea of its whiteness must be ironed,
and the hands move and move,
the holy surfaces are smoothed out,
and that is how things are made:
hands make the world each day, las manos hacen cada día el mundo,
fire becomes one with steel, se une el fuego al acero,
linen, canvas, and cotton arrive
from the combat of the laundries, del combate de las lavanderías
and out of light a dove is born:
chastity returns from the foam.
