The pennycandystore beyond the El by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The world is a beautiful place by Lawrence Ferlinghetti https://twitter.com/dusttodigital/status/1364424169983782913?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (part 1) https://voetica.com/voetica.php?collection=2&poet=881&poem=7507
The Subject of Retreat by Yona Harvey
Tulips by Sylvia Plath (poem from 1962, reprinted in February 2021 by the New Yorker)
ABC by Robert Pinsky
Lament by Eric Rounds (Delivered in person! Thank you Eric)
Nutshell:
Ferlinghetti:
This week, to honor the passing of Ferlinghetti, three poems… You can hear him reciting a few lines from A Coney Island of the Mind in this NPR podcast: https://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=375206219:970672354&utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20210224&utm_term=5199753&utm_campaign=news&utm_id=53441583&orgid=
How much poetry changed focus thanks to his views on the role of poetry… which brings us to a medley of other poems both old and new, poets familiar and unknown.
We discussed the magic of Ferlinghetti -- the visual presentation, his voice, hearing his mastery of alliterations and rhyme
... seamless transitions that link surprises with enjambments, and linear steps... In a word, Terrific! and such fun --even if the polarities end up as in "The world is a beautiful place" with the smiling mortician... Yes... he engages us to pay attention to wonderful things in the second part of "The world is a beautiful place".. and yet we also get the message of amusing ourselves to death. (cf. Neil Postman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death
Coney Island of the mind has yet another brilliance... creating a world through Goya's unbearable paintings, in a few words, where sound, meaning do the work... make us want to know more.
We noted how in this poem, he moves deliberately, slowly in a complex web of distinctions... the electric shock effect of the word "exactly" in the brilliant phrase, of seeing the people of the world, "exactly at the moment when they first attained the title of "suffering humanity". No one speaks this way. And you can't paraphrase the poem. As David noted, our discussion gave insight into us.
June provided this quote: “A poem should rise to ecstasy somewhere between speech and song. Poetry is a voice of dissent against the waste of words and the mad plethora of print. Poetry is what exists between the lines. Poetry is made with the syllables of dreams.” (Ferlinghetti)
I forget who provided this one: "Poetry is the insurgent knock on the door of the unknown"
Much has been written: Goya gives overview of disasters of war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Disasters_of_War
Ferlinghetti… + art: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/interview/i-learned-a-lot-from-goya-an-interview-with-the-poet-and-artist-lawrence-ferlinghetti
full poem read by Ferlinghetti: https://owlcation.com/humanities/Ferlinghettis-In-Goyas-Greatest-Scenes-We-Seem
Yona Harvey: This poem, hard on the heels of Ferlinghetti, produced a lot of discussion. Bernie quoted the Sherlock Holmes phrase, "There are elements" -- but most felt challenged without clear direction, as if the poem were unfinished. Our discussion was more about us, as readers, than about the poem. We value clarity.. We felt the poem didn't stand on its own and the note, compounded the difficulty of seeing how routine, a snowstorm and domestic abuse made an accessible poem.
The problem with poems “turning into themselves” is that only those who are on the same page and want to spend a lot of time pondering what possibilities of meaning are there.
I wonder if the poet, Yona Harvey, knows about Hermetics. She says in her note that she is combining a snowstorm, which feels routine in Pittsburgh in Winter with domestic abuse, “collapsing those thoughts into one space”.
There were “clues” but the group was challenged and the discussion revealed more about the readers and their need to value clarity, than finding keys to feeling what the poet was exploring.
Sylvia Plath: We could have spent two hours on each stanza... Some saw the tulips as cut flowers... their energy killed... others as tulips in a pot... but however, none of us will look at tulips quite the same way... or consider whether flowers are welcome at a hospital bedside... Ken suggested this biography of Sylvia: Red Comet: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Comet-Short-Blazing-Sylvia-ebook/dp/B083RZ5MKG
This poem, perhaps a prelude to her suicide, reveals tulips as one more thing to deal with... Perhaps the poem has too much metaphor... but that does not reduce the fact that the poem allows us to feel her anguish.
Emily was reminded of this poem:
https://poets.org/poet/corrinne-clegg-hales?mc_cid=e641712ef7&mc_eid=d22ada811b
Eric Rounds
We were honored to have Eric, a local poet, join us. Amazing how an "ABC" poem can create 16th century trumpets... and creates an entire drama for this bee... We discussed the title, the spirit of fun in the poem... how the story of this "inseminator, kinetic lancer, opulent pollinator" is told, with a sense of regret missing its "urgent virtue" and zeal.
This skillful elegy was inspired by started with ABC... where you hear the letters "a bee ceases",
however, the good energy is not betrayed by the abecedarian form.
More references:
Stephanie Burt: Don't read poetry
Friendly review: https://kenyonreview.org/reviews/dont-read-poetry-by-stephanie-burt-738439/
Bill Heyen:
His poem: Poetics of Hiroshima
Bill Heyen’s reading:
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