Discussion below.
Sent out:
bilingual version of Pablo Neruda: A callarse /Keeping Quiet
the English column is missing two key things:
1) n the 6th stanza, it should read:
What I want should not be confused
with inaction. (total inactivity)
2) and the last stanza is missing the final verb:
“Now I’ll count up to 12
and you keep quiet and I will go."
In honor of celebrating Nowruz, the Persian New Year: (for quick review: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nowruz
What Was Told, ThatJalal al-Din Rumi - 1207-1273; translated by Coleman Barks,
For a change from Patrick Kavanagh, Raglan Road, or general Saint Patrick’s Day, an anecdote about W.B. Yeats
with a thank you to Paul Brennan. Yeats, had been asked by a friend to help boost the reputations of struggling young poets whose futures in the trade weren't bright. The result --this poem by Yeats
To a Poet Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine
For a little Gilbert and Sullivan style fun: Seen on face-book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shaVy41ZCbc
I am the very model of effective social distancing!
Dreams by Langston Hughes, interpreted in ASL by Dangerous Signs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSn3o0kv4khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shaVy41ZCbc
I am the very model of effective social distancing!
What’s on the web: Special issue of Rattle: https://www.rattle.com/a-dispatch-from-seattle-by-sherman-alexie/
Lord of the Flies by Dorianne Laux
Darling Coffee by Meena Alexander
(from mass mailing forward I sent from American academy of Poets -- Poems to connect us)
The Days to Come by Medora C. Addison
**
Discussion:
1) Neruda: A callarse / Keeping Quiet. There are many links which show both version and contain discussion. Here’s one: https://exploringyourmind.com/pablo-neruda-and-keeping-quiet-the-art-of-connecting-with-kindness/
and another one with even more poems:
Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Qué significa para ti no hacer nada? (What does “doing nothing” mean?) ¿Puedes compartir una historia personal se un momento en el que sentiste que la vida interrumpía tu tristeza debido a haber hecho una pausa? ¿Cómo reconcilias la expresión: "sigue avanzando” (always moving) con la crítica del poeta hacia nuestra obsesión por movernos constantemente?
** We enjoyed how the common, everyday language could express so much… Being quiet is a calm stillness that should not be confused with inaction, inactivity. Just as distractions, moving out arms around, should not be confused with “worthwhile pursuits.” The point is to understand ourselves (both individually and collectively).
A timely poem in these strange times.
The second poem, addresses our connection to and understanding of life.
The “That” in question is the repeated cause and effect — if we take time to listen to all around us, however you understand God, or love, or whatever is speaking… The opening line makes the universal message clear — whatever was said to the rose, the cypress, the jasmine, people of Chigil, pomegranate flower… can be understood with our heart that underlies any eloquence of language.
We skipped to page 3 and the poem by Dorianne Laux.
is poetry more reportage… word as play (as in stage)… less personal take, reflection?
We enjoyed the fine crafting, playing on “the last shall be first, the first last"
Matthew 20:16 King James Version (KJV)— but in the end, we all die… chosen or not… The play on “top of the pile” as a good thing, no longer is… the word “shrouds” as both noun and verb… How does the the note by the poet about the poem elaborate, contribute to its meaning?
Darling Coffee: I saw it as the name of the café… as well as personnification of a coffeeshop and what is served in it.
Everyday elevated to conjugal bed “tucked under wild sheets:/fit for the conjugation of joy.” A bit precious… but we all “get it”—
coffee, connection, sources of warmth…
The Days to Come with its repetitions had a “Wordsworthian” flavor.. a hopeful message, infused with nature’s beauty, music and our unique ability of using language to preserve memory and the food for future thought.
**
Such notes do not do justice to the sharing.
As always, it is gift to have many readers sharing — turning a 2-D poem on a page into a rich prism, first sounded by voice,
then rounded by response.
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