Not me by Alberto Rios
The Middleman by Alberto Rios
Border lines by Alberto Rios
The Broken by Alberto Rios
The Flour Man by Alberto Rios
Cold Solace by Anna Belle Kaufman
My Species by Jane Hirschfield
Desert Bestiary Sonnet, One by Alberto Rios
The Pedestrian by Tommye Blount
Why not look at a border as what joins us,
The Broken: I love how simply Rios writes his convincing lines.
He does not change or soften this truth: "Something is always broken.
We started out with a tribute to Leap Year from Paul, citing Gilbert and Sullivan: Paul. Pirates of Penzance.
followed by an inspired listening of.
I am the very model of a biblical philologist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x2SvqhfevE
followed by the announcement... of Harold Danko … 11th annual Feb. 29th concert... https://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/rochester/harold-danko-the-piano-worker/Content?oid=11463145
The Rios poems were taken from Stories About the Sky.
Not me
How many people live inside of us? The discussion brought up obsessive compulsive people…who have a harder time with detachment.. (Martin);
Kipling — two sides of his head… https://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/two_sided_man.html
consciousness… bicameral mind… (James)
whale’s two eyes never merge into one vision… (Melville's Moby Dick)
lyrics of The Man in the Looking Glass — I’ve seen that face before
Not I… disembodied face … no answer. Beckett
We enjoyed Rios' humor and humanity of the fact that we are both the subject and object.
The Middleman :
always someone one-upped…. Why are we always striving… feel being stymied…pursue the futility of “if…”
Rodney Dangerfield…
Universal desire to be unique… “individuation…”
elephant: which part does a blind man feel?
middleman: passing things on. trying to get recognition… employment… and that immense elephant in the room...
Loved the details of the only thing "real" the middleman does -- track mud in the room! We all do. It is not an accomplishment-- but at least it's honest.
Loved the details of the only thing "real" the middleman does -- track mud in the room! We all do. It is not an accomplishment-- but at least it's honest.
Border lines starts with an epigram:
A weight carried by two
Weighs only half as much.
What is a map? Who draws the lines? How do we look at it? Like a cow in a butcher shop...
"But in truth we live in a world made
Not of paper and ink but of people.
Those lines are our lives. "Why not look at a border as what joins us,
The Broken: I love how simply Rios writes his convincing lines.
He does not change or soften this truth: "Something is always broken.
Flour Man: brought up old recipes and memories... what is passed on.
Love this line about the Grandmother:
Moving with the rhythm of the centuries
Inside his grandmother, years for hands,
and the skillful way Rios' "son" as the grandson, becomes her son again.
"But who turned and saw himself for a moment
In the broken mirror of her face"
**
Cold solace: We all enjoyed this one. pain of loss and love.
Challah on Shabbat like eucharist… tortillas staff of life.
step on dead wife’s poem… Golden Bells : Poe
how love carries on…. what the communion service… Frost. Directive…
oral tradition of passing on … oral tradition of food.
My Species; What a title... what a metaphor. the heart of an artichoke just as spiny inside the
edible leaves. Layers... why we keep testing the spiny leaves, not wanting to believe there is only a spiny heart -- surely there is something beyond?
Bestiary -- how a poet sees the desert in a list of beasts. Not all beauty at all -- but imaginative and alive.
The final poem uses brackets the end ni[ght, neighbor]
ni, could turn into "nigger"... or the carry on "no one died" with second syllable of deny...
We speculated about what's on the "side" --
how we use our side mirrors, or not, or fail to see, in this case a black pedestrian -- and the dismissal of what could be fatal.
Fine poem, good use of line breaks, and much more than about "walking down the street".
edible leaves. Layers... why we keep testing the spiny leaves, not wanting to believe there is only a spiny heart -- surely there is something beyond?
Bestiary -- how a poet sees the desert in a list of beasts. Not all beauty at all -- but imaginative and alive.
The final poem uses brackets the end ni[ght, neighbor]
ni, could turn into "nigger"... or the carry on "no one died" with second syllable of deny...
We speculated about what's on the "side" --
how we use our side mirrors, or not, or fail to see, in this case a black pedestrian -- and the dismissal of what could be fatal.
calm down, all good, no one died, ni[ght, neighbor]—
no sense getting all pissed, the commotion
of the past is the past; I was so dim,
he never saw me—of course, I saw him.
Pittsford brought up "code switching".
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