Sarah says this about her poem: Please know that I’m grateful to anyone and everyone who has read and shared this poem since it first appeared in The Sun Magazine in 2012 and again in my book Sad Math in 2015. And to those people who bought the book after/because they read the poem, so much gratitude! In 2019, the poem was shared 6,000 times on Facebook. It went around again this spring and was shared nearly 700 times!
I usually do not encourage those who will be participating to read the poems in advance, however, this time is an exception. There are two poems with the same title, one inspired by the other. The same with a golden shovel technique (Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “we real cool” provided the inspiration for this form to Terrance Hayes who invented the form) which links her poem to Michael Collier’s.** (see link below)
"All poems are in conversation with other poems" (Michael Collier and in the case of the last poem, with a musician…\
**
Overview: A tale of two sessions
Wednesday's session was so different from Monday's -- not just because one was in person, the other by zoom-- but "so much depends on..." so much -- the background of the readers, the mood of the day, the ordering of the poems, etc. Case in point -- on Monday, I made a bigger deal of Szymborska , not feeling the positive vibe on the Gary Soto poem inspired by hers. The Wednesday group had such a good time reading it, it felt as if each person had tried out for the stanza he/she read and was hand-picked for the part to the point that I thought I was listening to a theatre group...
Another fact: on Monday, I was flummoxed (Paul suggests a better adjective is "puzzled") by the fact there were several DIFFERENT versions of the Michael Collier poem, Len Bias, a bouquet of flowers and Mrs. Brooks.
One of my questions to both groups was how much each person is willing to google and use do a little research.
I know for myself, I had to do a lot of work to appreciate the Gwendolyn Brooks, the Michael Collier which both rely on
untold parts of a complex story. As for the Terrance Hayes, the Monday group
poem discussions about having patience and time to spend on a poem that doesn’t seem to have
something to say. A poem always has something to say — but whether we pick up on it depends on whether we are able to hear more than our own story— or delve deeper than what triggers it.
Nutshell:
Wondrous: Sarah came to the Pittsford Library many years ago and read this poem, (see notes sent in the email... I saw her post of it on the anniversary of her mother's death this past April).
So just what makes this the kind of poem you are glad to read again? Send to a dear friend?
The discussion in both groups was so rich -- each person sharing a special story -- some of reading Charlotte's Web, and how they too cried, and the children to whom they read it cried... And indeed, you read this poem, and there's a shiver, and a plug
into grief. We shared stories of how grief repeats-- how each funeral service for Maura's grown son, would bring the grief of
funeral of his father who died when he was four... how EB White must have had some large grief that had nothing to do with Charlotte that he cried 17 times trying to record the words of this beautiful book where the last words are: " It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." You might want to read that last chapter: https://legacy.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/ebwhite3.html
Sarah captures with math references the deep emotions of loss, the repeats of a story (the fifth time Charlotte has died...)
how each grief (line and stanza break) multiplies... and that 17 times, like the syllables in a haiku...EB White tried to record the
words, She died alone. Our own fear, perhaps the biggest. Just like Charlotte, Sarah weaves her threads from the title, Wondrous to the 14th line-- a spider "spun out of the silk threat of invention-- //wondrous how those words would come back and make// (line and stanza break) him cry... and the word wondrous repeats, but this time for the poet's
mother... ten years (talk about exponential...) -- and that generosity of reassurance... I'm ok. Our greatest hope, that indeed,
despite death, somehow, yes, not only our loved one, but we too are OK.
This poem provides a bridge for each of us to connect to those we love...allows us that wondrous phenomenon that allows us to replay meaningful connections and the importance of friendship.
Valerie shared her metaphor of wheel: "Basically, each of us is the rim of the wheel, supported by the spokes radiating out from the center, which are the other people in our lives. If we lose one spoke in our wheel, it's not too bad, because the other ones can provide adequate support. However, if a second spoke drops out, the loss of structural support is greater, and so on; just as the loss of people in our lives becomes exponentially rose with the more people we lose. The advice that someone wisely gave me was to put a lot of spokes in my wheel, while I am young."Indeed, the physical shape of a wheel reminds us of a spiderweb, (minus the cross-threads.)
Lori's poem (see below) and Jane Hirshfield's poem both use an inventive "math".
In Praise of Dreams:
How do we define ourselves by our dreams? There is a sense the Szymborska title has a more visionary quality beyond an autobiographical sketch.
Soto: In his version, inspired by Szymborska, we enter a crazy dream... it's playful... vibrant, vivid. Perhaps he chauffeurs Picasso because Szymborska mentioned Vermeer and a car that obeys her... and what delicious wishful thinking -- that all it takes is to lick your fingers, and you play guitar masterfully! Compare to Szymborska's tongue-in-cheek reference to her virtuosity on the piano! Both sessions enjoyed stanza 4: "I use index cards to make sense/Of the universe".
Would Soto have written this poem without knowing Szymborska poem?
So what is a dream? Our way of processing experience, our subconscious at work. As Martin observed, Soto's stanzas seem more like sharing of imagination. Monday's group felt the tone was frivolous. Wednesday's group enjoyed the poem and called on Soto's non-fiction which paints poverty. Marna suggested a possible understanding of the 8th stanza about the refrigerator was a sense of gratitude for a small miracle... that things work. Bernie shared the doctor joke about the patient
who got up to pee in the night and told his doctor a light went on and he was sure he saw God. The doctor's reply: oh, I've heard that before, it simply means you opened the door of the fridge to pee.
As for the final stanza about a trophy: several ideas of what that might be, but the best was understanding a metaphor for "messing up a chance".
Szymborska: Paul mentioned how her details (stanza 3, car... stanza 4 major saints, ) invite the reader to provide names; Monday's group felt her poem was more autobiographical, witty, and delved deeper in more subtle ways that seem to ask the reader to explore what else is meant. ("I am, but need not /be a child of my time." ) In particular the stanza about the outbreak of war and the pun of the "favorite side" which addresses the greater issue of war, and our response to it.
Did she play piano? We know she is talented, (stanza 4) so why is this in a dream? Does she want to write long epic poems?
Two suns- star wars? Was this around when she wrote this poem? And what about that penguin, seen with utmost clarity?
The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till:
Another brilliant technique of Gwendolyn Brooks where the story of this 14-year old's life, an innocent black teenager, lynched in grocery store in Mississippi in 1955 is not told. The reader only sees the mother... and Brooks paints the scene with colors--
the caramel taffy (her sweet face), the black (bitter) coffee... the red repeated twice. John explained "windy grays" refers to the whites trying to exonerate racial injustice. The occlusives (coffee, kisses, killed, chaos) cut through.
In the last two lines, I felt the spare suggestion and rhythm of Ezra Pound's "In a Station in the Metro:" -- The apparition of these faces in the crowd:/Petals on a wet black bough
Len Bias, a bouquet of flowers, and Mrs. Brooks**
In spite of the confusion of several versions, like The Last Quatrain above, this poem does not tell the whole story and uses the golden shovel technique ** borrowing the lines "She kisses her killed boy and she is sorry" but turns it around. Is it his magnified gaze (from cocaine) or hers as featured poet at University of Maryland-- or both? He was not late because he had been playing basketball... she knows, can see he is "gone"-- and like Emmett's mother regretting she allowed her son to go south to visit family, is sorry he's made the choice of snorting cocaine. And his flowers... an apology to her, also sorry...
As Reginald Dwayne Betts remarks in his selection of this poem in the NY times magazine 6/5/21, "it is difficult to hear from the poems."
Muscular Fantasy: ***
Below, I give a few references. I had provided references to Satie, the actual piece "Muscular Fantasie" -- part of a series called "Things seen right and left (without glasses). his satirical directions (how do you play a piece "sheepishly"?) and as Hayes remarks, his poems are as strange as Satie and his surrealistic music. So... we read the series of quatrains with a rather arbitrary pattern of rhyme, the recurring details of a painting , a boy in the well, time and an insistent repetition of "people".
For some, it did not seem worth spending time on trying to "figure it out" and for others, the question of whether the poem had
something to say seemed to eclipse desire to find coherence. Judith was reminded of E.E. Cummings ’ “next to of course god america i", Marna pointed out the clear references to oppression, and indeed, would you rather be "blessed or lucky",
although since the question is quickly denigrated to the taste of soda/beer in can or bottle, with the alliterative b's
pointing to the next non-sequitur: "It's better, plus less stressful to think the best of people.
On Wednesday, we discussed our human need for stories, and inclination not to have our patience tried.
On Monday, we discussed the increased need to google and research and work to be able to "access" poems.
In my email with references, I summarized how unique and marvelous it is to gather around poems, share insights, observations, associations they prompt.
Indeed, we are keen as readers, to find mirrors for ourselves, build on our own stories and engage when we can identify. But the beautiful benefit is in the gathering
of a group and the amazing variety of stories we see and share.
I thank each of you, whether you are able to attend in person, or remotely, for taking the time to cultivate the patience required of understanding.
allusions and references (shared by email)
On grief:
Judith brought up The rocking horse winner — DH Lawrence… although in reference to Wondrous, and what makes us cry… today’s discussion saw it fitting the Terrance Hayes reference to the choice between “blessed” or “Lucky”. https://www.shortstoryproject.com/story/rocking-horse-winner/ She also brought up Act 2, sc 2 of Hamlet:
Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect,/A broken voice, and his whole function suiting/With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing—/ For Hecuba!/ What’s Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba/That he should weep for her? What would he do/Had he the motive and the cue for passion/That I have? He would drown the stage in tears/And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,/Make mad the guilty and appall the free
3. Maura was reminded of Elizabeth Bishop: One Art; https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
5. Lori brought up her poignant poem: Learning Quantum Physics from a 13th Century Sufi Poet: The opening line, "I can't make it add up"... and the fact that clearly we are not in charge of life's calculus... (see email sent out 6/9). To (loosely) quote Valerie, "This stunning poem will take your breath away in the way she speaks of life, love, loss so subtly and poignantly. The weaving in of math and quantum physics is masterful."
**Michael Collier: new version: https://goodwordnews.com/poem-len-bias-a-bouquet-of-flowers-and-mrs-brooks/ article about Michael Collier’s new book: My Bishop and other poems. https://dbknews.com/2019/10/10/umd-professor-poetry-michael-collier-my-bishop-and-other-poems-event/
** Golden Shovel technique: (Gwendolyn Brooks and Terrance Hayes: Her poem, We Real Cool, His poem Golden Shovel https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55678/the-golden-shovel which gave rise to the form of aligning each word of a phrase, sentence, poem, vertically as last word of each line. (background: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/92023/introduction-586e948ad9af8
*** Terrance Hayes: a) the painting within a painting: https://www.nrm.org/MT/text/TripleSelf.html
b) overtones with use of “people”…and who anybody is in the “we”, how some people… and other people can be (mis)understood; role of oppression, etc.
Addendem: see Terrance Hayes' poem George Floyd, published June 22, 2020 in the New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/george-floyd
He plays with clichés like "bell/of the ball and chain around the neck... puff the magic bullet1999 bottles/... and Emmett Till with till as small letter last name and passing of time.
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