April 16

excerpt from "The Passing Strange"— John Masefield
The poems below come  in Christian Wiman’s book, Joy.  

Meditation on a Grapefruit by Craig Arnold

One of the Many Days  by Norman MacCaig

First Song  by Galway Kinnell

Blackbird Etude by. A. E. Stallings 

You might also enjoy Stallings Villanelle published in Poetry 2012 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55235/after-a-greek-proverb  The Greek proverb:  “Nothing is more permanent than the temporary”.  In one interview she mentions that the ancients show that technique is not the enermy of urgency, but rather the instrument. 

Poems to Take Shelter In 

Here is a selection of poems that were chosen from Poets.org by our readers for you to take shelter in: 

“The Days to Come” by Medora C. Addison
“Alone” by Maya Angelou
“The 19th Amendment & My Mama” by Mahogany L. Browne
“Hope is the thing with feathers (254)” by Emily Dickinson
“Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
“The Bronze Legacy” by Effie Lee Newsome
“Gate A-4” by Naomi Shihab Nye 
“Patience” by Kay Ryan
“Everyone Sang” by Siegfried Sassoon

**
April 15, 2020-- discussion
We did not discuss the Norman MacCaig or Kinnell -- both wonderful poems...

As I write this, I am reminded of Wordsworth's last stanza of "I Wander'd Lonely as a Cloud"  looking out at the Spring sunshine, daffodils nodding bravely in the breeze--before the sudden shift to snow.   There is a certain "bliss of solitude" no matter the weather, circumstance, but I hasten to add,  the welcome connection of ZOOM where, we can, in quarantine, "on our couches lie, in vacant or in pensive mood" receive a welcome "flash" of familiar faces, served like petit-fours.

We were 14 in the zoom chat... and I started with "Why Poetry in a Time of Uncertainty" --  with its reminding lines
of  poetry's "power to rally our thoughts, feelings into ink and voice/sift through the silt that buries or leads us astray..."

but more importantly, I believe in the power of SHARING poetry-- each voice sounding out the words of others,
so that, in the case of our gathering, we were joined not only by the poets of the weekly poems selected by John Masefield, Craig Arnold, A.E. Stallings, Richard Wilbur-- but Christian Wiman, Keats.  What a round table of uplifting reflections about joy--!
We ended the round of conversations through the centuries, with the Greek Proverb, "Nothing is more permanent than the temporary" (A.E. Stallings referenced in link above) and Wilbur's Hamlen Brook

Joy’s trick is to supply 

Dry lips with what can cool and slake, 

Leaving them dumbstruck also with an ache 

Nothing can satisfy

Full poem here: https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/wilbur/hamlen_brook.php

One recognizes echoes of  Keats' Ode to Melancholy--  and we discussed at length the interrelationship of fleeting, ephemeral joy, which "slakes our thirst" -- but, leaves us as in the Kinnell poem, "into the sadness of joy"..   

Individual poems:

Masefield:  This is only the second stanza of his long poem.  It is hard to resist bringing up the incantatory power of rhyme in English poetry, which as David pointed out, can draw on the rich array of meanings yet using similar sounds of root words.  Thus, "foam", "blown" and "Rome" is much more than a variation of inflected form.  In addition to the pleasing sounds, the enjambments, the repeated chime of "change"  (twice in 1st and 3rd stanza), and inner rhymes, Rosemarie emphasized the beauty of the images.

Craig Arnold: We appreciated the mastery of this poem-- lip-smackingly evocative of the joy of

preparing and mindfully consuming a perfect pale pink grapefruit (can't you smell that cloud of oil

misting out of its pinprick pores, sharp as pepper?). To wake... to come... to tear... to ease... to slide...

and only then, to eat.  A reminder to slow down and enjoy the taste, texture, smell, image involved--

like a Buddhist meditation.  Discussion about "precisely pointless" which captures the contradiction of what seems to matter with what doesn't, which is precisely the key to letting go!  The discipline, and also the embracing of the emptiness... each year harder to live within... without...

Sandwiching this poem in the 100 poems edited by Christian Wiman: before it, a quotation from

Simone Veil's "Gravity and Grace": Distance is the soul of beauty."  which provides another layer of meditation.  After it,  a citation from Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings: How can you expect to keep your powers of hearing when you never want to listen?  That God should have time for you, you

seem to take as much for granted as that you cannot have time for him."

A.E. Stallings: She dedicates her poem to Craig Arnold.  We launched into a sharing from birdwatchers, which corroborated the truth of the reality of sounds.  Borders abound, but also,

the poem leads to consideration of frames of habit like the visual of the branch, 

the break to  stanza 2, we find out "marks the brink of doubt"... and outpost, (edge from which to rout encroachers)-- as the music trills through the first three stanzas.  Twice, "it sounds like"... and the verb "signs", (with invisible staves), in a visual language...

We discussed the length of "We are glad" visually sticking out of the 4th stanza which opened up considerations about survival, the necessity of music, and joy,  how art pushes back against nature.

Back to Joy's trick... back to mysteries... to how we punctuate and sing our words, give space to 

them as we arrange and explore, balancing the contradictions.

As ever, it is such a joy to hear each person's voice.  Please feel free to amend, or add to this attempt to summarize our delightful hour and a half of conversation.