Remembering the Night I Dreamed Paul Klee Married the Sky by Jack Ridl (for Pittsford )
Mercy by Kelly Weber
Even-keeled and At-eased by Alberto Rios
Presidents’ Day by Louise Glück
Snowflakes by Howard Nemerov
The next four poems were in last week's line-up but not discussed by Pittsford. Rundel did discuss the Jack Ridl the week before:
Discussion: people felt the dream was about the homeless. My favorite lines:
its cross-stitch of stars and we half expected the light to shiver in our back pockets.
It was just that we knew. It was
just that it was cold.
Do you want to pronounce the emphasis on "just" -- to mean, it was "fair"... or "simply" -- or maybe put the accent on THAT.
Now, "just" takes on a sense of "only". I love the stanza break-- the sky has a large space to hold before mentioning stars!
The long space after "it was" holds the dream perhaps existentially, or simply as if to remember it... The placing of the spoon across his palm.. perhaps to remind him to eat? although normally one would say "on" or "in his palm".
The last sentence starts with a dangling "I"
(remember how big the napkins were".
My question: How does unraveling the complexity of this poem feel satisfying? frustrating? Knowing Paul Klee and his use of stars,
it feels like an ekphrastic poem. Why do we remember certain things?
2. Mercy: Comments: We enjoyed the strength in the horses, and how we can see something that can harm us… but only see the positive aspect of the strength.
3. Rios:
We howled at the fun... a sense of Mary Poppins. or Bad Tuesday and Bad Wed/. acting “owl-ly”
Snowflakes by Howard Nemerov
Club Icarus by Matt W. Miller
Emancipation Proclamation by William Heyen
November Night by Adelaide Crapsey
For the Anniversary of My Death BY W. S. MERWIN
The next four poems were in last week's line-up but not discussed by Pittsford. Rundel did discuss the Jack Ridl the week before:
Discussion: people felt the dream was about the homeless. My favorite lines:
Above us, the old sky held
It was just that we knew. It was
just that it was cold.
Do you want to pronounce the emphasis on "just" -- to mean, it was "fair"... or "simply" -- or maybe put the accent on THAT.
Now, "just" takes on a sense of "only". I love the stanza break-- the sky has a large space to hold before mentioning stars!
The long space after "it was" holds the dream perhaps existentially, or simply as if to remember it... The placing of the spoon across his palm.. perhaps to remind him to eat? although normally one would say "on" or "in his palm".
The last sentence starts with a dangling "I"
(remember how big the napkins were".
My question: How does unraveling the complexity of this poem feel satisfying? frustrating? Knowing Paul Klee and his use of stars,
it feels like an ekphrastic poem. Why do we remember certain things?
2. Mercy: Comments: We enjoyed the strength in the horses, and how we can see something that can harm us… but only see the positive aspect of the strength.
3. Rios:
We howled at the fun... a sense of Mary Poppins. or Bad Tuesday and Bad Wed/. acting “owl-ly”
The mobius strip effect. In French, when misbuttoning a shirt, one does say, the buttons line up like Sunday with Monday... In Spanish, I didn't find such an expression, but was reminded that mañana can mean both "morning" and "tomorrow".
Of course, the poem is making fun of conventions -- the right laugh... to look natural as if without a care... How, in the case of Rios, he could be referring to balancing the poet/teacher in him, as well as the Latino to get along…
Of course, the poem is making fun of conventions -- the right laugh... to look natural as if without a care... How, in the case of Rios, he could be referring to balancing the poet/teacher in him, as well as the Latino to get along…
"Even-keeled" is at odds with “at-eased” — action done to you…
How do we contract with the world… corporate world.. cultural divide… get along?
Judith and David brought up Hamlet… Act. 1 sc 2: I know not seems.
President's Day". We enjoyed the flippant tone of this poem which appeared first in January 2009.
January 4, 2009
Discussion: Loved the superstition of snow vs. salt... the present losses, the memory of sunshine,
how joyful to bask in it... The Great Recession—which officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009—began with the bursting of an 8 trillion dollar housing bubble. ... In the post-World War II recessions before the early 1990s, it took an average of 10 months for the economy to regain the jobs it had lost during the recession.
Snowflakes by Howard Nemerov -- a pearl of a poem! One sentence in 4 lines that is filled with sound, each line interrupted by hesitation; iambic conclusion. rhythm…
Snowflakes by Howard Nemerov -- a pearl of a poem! One sentence in 4 lines that is filled with sound, each line interrupted by hesitation; iambic conclusion. rhythm…
Note that the Emancipation Proclamation is from Poets’ Walk. Here is a listing of poems alphabetized by poets last name: https://mag.rochester.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/PoetsWalk-Alpha.pdf. To see/hear a poem, you need to use the cross-listing and click on the carved words (alphabetized here: https://mag.oncell.com/en/poets-walk-78374.html.). A little booklet of “fun” with the poems:
For Pittsford:
For Pittsford:
am pleased to share that my poem “Ugliness came up” was posted today here:There were many references that came up today —1. for the Rios: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday%27s_Childand Hamet, Act I, sc 2:“Seems,” madam? Nay, it is. I know not “seems.”'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,Nor customary suits of solemn black,Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,80No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,That can denote me truly. These indeed “seem,”For they are actions that a man might play.85But I have that within which passeth show,These but the trappings and the suits of woe.**2. For the Matt Turner poem “Club Icarus”: not only Auden, “Musée des Beaux Arts” http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html(link shows the Brueghel painting)but when someone brought up “Ignorance is Bliss” — the full context in the Gray poem here:and another poem in his collection Club Icarus:
Judith adds this to the Icarus discussion from Carol Ann Duffy’s book https://genius.com/Carol-ann-duffy-frau-freud-annotated thatShe mentions “Mrs. Icarus” is opposite the page with Mrs Freud’s poem—"a perfect sonnet, composed mostly of synonyms for The Freudian organ.”
Mrs IcarusMark your calendars: December 8: 4-6 pm a solstice celebratioI’m not the first or the last/to stand on a hillock,watching the man she married/prove to the worldthat he’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
**3. The anaphor, “whereas”— in the Heyen poem reminded Emily of Christopher Smart’s poem for his cat:4. For the Layli Long Soldierin this interview: https://poets.org/text/interview-joy-harjo-us-poet-laureateJoy Harjo speaks of the “ancestor tree of poetry”… and makes this reference to Layli:Layli Long Soldier’s poems emerge from fields of Lakota history where centuries stack and bleed through making new songs. The sacred and profane tangle and are threaded into the lands guarded by the four sacred mountains in the poetry of Sherwin Bitsui. America has always been multicultural, before the term became ubiquitous, before colonization, and it will be after.5. I did read the Adelaide Crapsey Cinquain on Poets WalkNovember Night by Adelaide CrapseyListen!With faint dry soundlike steps of passing ghoststhe leaves, frost-crisped break from the treesand falland mentioned the closing lines of the Poets Walk selection of Merwin’s poemFor the Anniversary of My DeathEvery year without knowing it I have passed the dayWhen the last fires will wave to meAnd the silence will set outTireless travelerLike the beam of a lightless starThen I will no longerFind myself in life as in a strange garmentSurprised at the earthAnd the love of one womanAnd the shamelessness of menAs today writing after three days of rainHearing the wren sing and the falling ceaseAnd bowing not knowing to what6. In closing, Maura shared Leo Buscaglia’s children’s book, the fall of Freddy the Leaf — captured here in video.
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