Introduction to Poetry by Abby Murray
Conversation with Immigration Officer by Ae Hee Lee
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
The Gift by Li-Young Lee
What Work Is by Philip Levine
Instructions on Not Giving Up by Ada Limón
Where Love will Need no Proof by Kitty Jospé
Waterwheel Review published my poem today…. 4/1
Whether or not you subscribe to "April as Poetry Month" -- it does give an excuse to put a spotlight
on sharing poems which touch us deeply.
We spoke last week of the "ars poetica" of Craig Santos Perez... and the amazing power that poems
exert on us. I was reading an article in the NYTimes about the "preference of human beings for negativity in their stories" -- that "bad news invites us to cut through self-promotion to find truth" and hence, newspapers respond to this "consumer demand".
Poetry is a much-needed antidote to such negativity. I feel the poems help us cut into a fuller picture
to contemplate the multiple angles of whatever "truth" is there and if delivered with empathy, give us
the courage and tools to help each other deepen our mutual understanding.
Thank you to Marna for bringing the joy of nonsense which reminds us of our human need to chuckle,
guffaw, poke fun at ourselves--indeed a gladsome poem to start out this “fool’s day”. Her other poem choice is well worth pursuing, although I do not reproduce it. As she put it, "The second is new to me and I chose it because of my concern for Asian Americans and immigrants. Due to problems of formatting, (Italics, indentation refusing to cooperate and extra spaces) I ask your indulgence to click on the attachment to read it.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/151146/conversation-with-immigration-officer"
Thank you to Elaine for the next two: Perfect follow up with another Li-Young Lee, and an old favorite of many from Phil Levine. As she puts it, “They are very different but hold for me the same thread....that of love.”
Enjoy the line-up!
Nutshell:
Introduction to Poetry: see note published April 9 in this blog.
Conversation with Immigration Officer: (Marna's pick)
I shared the screen so people could follow two voices: One, the Immigration Officer, the other, the person being interviewed, whose words are interspersed italics. It is a strong story, where we are exposed to the cut and dried manner of the officer, devoid of humanity, no smile, and despite the lawyer's reassurance "everything is going to be all right", even the lawyer isn't smiling either.
Marna was struck by the strength, the resilience of the "liquid" text inserted in the narration of the detainee's viewpoint.
We might say somewhere is "decidedly (not) a beautiful place-- but "undecidedly beautiful" stands out with an underlying beautiful at risk, vulnerable in its "undecided" state.
Does everyone commit lies / & wants... does one commit a lie? a "desire"-- or does one want something (& the object is cut off)?
Jabberwocky: (also Marna's pick-- for the delightful sounds! Apparently "chortle" did make it into the Webster's abridged dictionary but not all these combination words. For fun, here is a glossary https://floridarti.usf.edu/resources/pl_modules/intensive_interventions/day2/5.%20Jabberwocky%20Vocabulary.pdf
David proposed a reading where the opening repeated in the closing stanza create a sandwich of the order of the world we know.
The advice of father to son, is to pass on the heroic tasks (with vorpal sword). Marna, out of sensitivity to a less patriarchal reading, tried changing "beamish boy" to beamish one... and all the "he" pronouns turned to "they". It worked in her mind, but not necessary.
The Gift: (Elaine's pick)
The poem hints at the complexity of passing down of love from father to son given the tumultuous life of Li-Young Lee's family. What do we know of another's life beyond the words of a poem? Elaine recommended Lee's memoir, The Winged Seed: a remembrance. His father had been personal physician to Mao Tse Tung... fleeing China... living in a Leper Colony, a prison colony before arriving in the US... we suspected the "unchildlike lines" of what Lee "did not hold that shard/between my fingers and think" which contrast so sharply with the final two sentences, have an echo of some of the pain experienced.
We share the mystery with the poet, not knowing what story the father told. The healing hands, the measures of tenderness,
and yet a planting of a flame. Is it a silver tear, as in teardrop, or silver tear, as in rip-- how sliver slides so easily to silver...
as easily as this memory, which drops in unexpectedly as the grown-up Lee removes a splinter from his wife's hand.
Many could feel a visceral response of splinter-removal; Bernie shared his childhood memory for sure, in his mind, where three large looming doctors would work to get his splinter out!
What work is. (Elaine's pick)
It helped to understand the poem by examining the use of pronouns: It starts out with "we", and you can imagine a young
Levine and his brother, the standing in line hoping you would be lucky enough to be able to work. There are many flavors
of "you". The understood "you", the dismissed you , the faceless you, the personal you of Levine who thinks he sees his brother... the you who is the other. It is not straightforward to understand "what the work is". The poem is reminiscence embedded within
reminiscence... past and present intertwined. However we understood the poem -- the work of the brother at his German
so he could better sing Wagner (which Levine hates the most); the work which may or may not include your brother;
the sense of love is so strong -- the urgency of it, and the reproach for its absence... how is understanding what work is
tied up in this? Accepting a brother for being who he is, no matter what you think of his paid work, his unpaid work,
to say sincerely, "I love you"-- is an emotional and psychological angle of work larger and truer than anything else.
Instructions on Not Giving Up
A perfect Spring poem... Rose-Marie commented on the staying power of the green of leaves-- how durable it is, whereas the blossoms (described in frivolous terms: cotton-candy-colored, baubles, trinkets, confetti) are like the mess of us, here in a burst, and gone as quickly. Hurray for patient, plodding reminders of green skin, impossible new slick leaves arriving, not necessarily to challenge the order of things (although at first unfurling like a fist) -- but opening up, vibrant with life, offering and receiving.
Where Love will need no proof: I appreciated the comments.
I was glad for Waterwheel Review's prompt of slipstream" -- it made me ponder what is in a name? but perhaps more importantly, echoed aspects of all the poems today... how poetry allows us to hold what seems impossible; echoes with heartache; the constant work that allows love to work its healing.
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