Suzanne (Mrs. Olson gave many suggestions including:
The Villain by William Henry Davies (1871 – 1940)
Bali Hai calls Mama by Marilyn Nelson
Butterfly Laughter by Katherine Manfield
The Nuthatch by Mary Oliver
The ones chosen:
Opus from Space by Pattiann Rogers
Returning Birds by Wislawa Szymborska
Returning Birds by Wislawa Szymborska
Ode to the Whitman Line “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd” by Kimiko Hahn
The next two poems come from http://www.ekphrastic.net a fabulous contemporary journal which posts a poem responding to an artwork each day, sometimes, several! Artwork:
The Swing, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (France) 1767, and Peonies, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (Scotland) 1920)
Fragonard’s The Swing by Dan MacIsaac
Peonies by Barbara Crooker
The final one is by local writer and teacher, Wendy Lowe: Continuing Education
Far too many for a half hour of sharing -- but a lovely variety... We will start with "first lines" --
what makes you want to continue reading?
How do you leap from the possibilities of the title to the tease of the first line?
1. Almost everything I know is glad// to be born—not only the desert orangetip,
2. This spring the birds came back again too early. / Rejoice, O reason: instinct can err, too.
3. I cannot consider scent without you, I cannot /think that color so gay, so Japanese, so vernal/without you
4. This slip of a girl, / pushed by a priest /
5. The peony on the left speaks: /So what if my leaves are starting/ to droop
6. The poet, at 75,// has learned to drive
Discussion:
We so enjoyed discussing the possibility in the titles and the leap to the first line. Just the focus on the set up of the poem allows the time to imagine what the poet is setting up for us.
Pattiann Rogers: Opus! Space! A great work? Who is writing it? Is space the outer space in which our planet circulates in its solar system, the "inner space" of our atmosphere, or perhaps some other idea of airy place? Is it a letter from space, or about space?
The first line sounds so optimistic -- "Almost everything I know is glad..."
the bigness of "everything" and "gladness" --! "to be born" -- emphasized in 4th stanza with
"Almost everything I know rages to be born" -- no enjambment. The rich vocabulary filled with sound... but what of those perfumed linen sheets? The craziness of birth, (and even before... dark, dust-congealing of pure frenzy!) the raging to be born-- the total fury towards this singular honor!
This should pull the most despairing out of depression... acknowledging the release from all the varieties of shells...
Szymborska
Returning Birds: Usually an optimistic sign -- but here... too early... what error is afoot?
contrast of reason and instinct... Aristotelian drama ... The adjectives in the first stanza: conscientious, sensible, stunning, Benedictine do not hint at indignation-- ... 3rd stanza adjectives: earthbound, living, singular, common, archaic, simpleminded, failed.
Woven into this mix of foolish fate... a recognition of bird (living kite, both name of bird and winged machine) as fallen "angel of earthbound protein". The ladies felt in spite of the injustice, the palpable optimism in what could be. One bird flying into a window, falling to the ground does not mean birds (plural) will not return.
MacIsaac: Delightful and vivid description... perfect sense of the French aristocracy... expression of a shoe dropping... but hers won't.
Crooker: personnification of peonies. Carpe Diem
Hahn: I explained how she said she has difficulty memorizing poetry, but remembers specific lines.
In this case, Whitman, from Leaves of Grass. First line... how to understand "last"? The liquid sounds of the l's are nailed by the final D... the last year, blooming, the year before... and this year... something gone. The richness of the word "last" -- to go on, to hold, to "memorize fast" as in keep safe.
Discussion:
We so enjoyed discussing the possibility in the titles and the leap to the first line. Just the focus on the set up of the poem allows the time to imagine what the poet is setting up for us.
Pattiann Rogers: Opus! Space! A great work? Who is writing it? Is space the outer space in which our planet circulates in its solar system, the "inner space" of our atmosphere, or perhaps some other idea of airy place? Is it a letter from space, or about space?
The first line sounds so optimistic -- "Almost everything I know is glad..."
the bigness of "everything" and "gladness" --! "to be born" -- emphasized in 4th stanza with
"Almost everything I know rages to be born" -- no enjambment. The rich vocabulary filled with sound... but what of those perfumed linen sheets? The craziness of birth, (and even before... dark, dust-congealing of pure frenzy!) the raging to be born-- the total fury towards this singular honor!
This should pull the most despairing out of depression... acknowledging the release from all the varieties of shells...
Szymborska
Returning Birds: Usually an optimistic sign -- but here... too early... what error is afoot?
contrast of reason and instinct... Aristotelian drama ... The adjectives in the first stanza: conscientious, sensible, stunning, Benedictine do not hint at indignation-- ... 3rd stanza adjectives: earthbound, living, singular, common, archaic, simpleminded, failed.
Woven into this mix of foolish fate... a recognition of bird (living kite, both name of bird and winged machine) as fallen "angel of earthbound protein". The ladies felt in spite of the injustice, the palpable optimism in what could be. One bird flying into a window, falling to the ground does not mean birds (plural) will not return.
MacIsaac: Delightful and vivid description... perfect sense of the French aristocracy... expression of a shoe dropping... but hers won't.
Crooker: personnification of peonies. Carpe Diem
Hahn: I explained how she said she has difficulty memorizing poetry, but remembers specific lines.
In this case, Whitman, from Leaves of Grass. First line... how to understand "last"? The liquid sounds of the l's are nailed by the final D... the last year, blooming, the year before... and this year... something gone. The richness of the word "last" -- to go on, to hold, to "memorize fast" as in keep safe.
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