4 haiku
My Invisible Horse and the Speed of Human Decency - Matthew Olzmann
In Summer Twilight-- Joshua Henry Jones, Jr.
The Theatre by Jana Prikryl (from Aug. issue of Atlantic)
Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
The Total Flowering of the Apocalypse by Alicia Hoffman (p. 65, Le Mot Juste)
Session I (11:15): Paul, Judith, Mary, Carmin, Martin, Ken, Jim (8 counting me)
Sesson II (12:30-ish) with zoom: Elaine, Ginny, Jan, Susan, Valerie, David S., Emily, Bernie (9 w/ me)
in person: Barb, Carolyn, Marna, Paul and Martin (5)
**We did not read the Haiku in Session II, as Carolyn, who enjoys haiku, was busy helping get the zoom set up and session I's view of the haiku was rather dim and due to tech set-up, the session's start was delayed.
Haiku:
IV: we did appreciate the larger link of "river's mouth" to a more mythic metaphor... whiskey as the water of life... but the first impression was one of zen humor turned Irish and Judith sang a parody of "the gin was getting low..."
V: the "he" in question might be a lover, a husband... his touch like the first snow-- often unexpected, announcing a change in season.
VI: old age, for sure. How many languages does a tree speak? How do we recognize and what defines for each of us "my language"
VII: borderline could be geography, or Martin suggested the half moon when you see its thin edge, between darkness and light.... This started a discussion about the Perseus meteors in August, how you can visible see the redness of Mars...
My Invisible Horse:
In session 2, I asked everyone to focus (silently) on the title, before reading... which perhaps prompted a focus on "speed" and how decency is a "slow" process... with the adage about the horse and cart clearly applying to the idea of what moves it forward. Of what good decency, if it has no "horsepower" to put it in action? Elaine mentioned Olzmann's reading of it -- which gives no space for any breath.
Certainly the idea of "people tell me" , what the world, the Office of Disappointment and the roundtable of friends say, combined into a common "they" -- where "the cart!" and "the horse!" is left to our imagination, and the "they say, 'Haven't we told you already' " confirms that indeed, we have no clue
what will help move us towards a kinder world.
Judith shared the idea of "copybook heading" in the old-fashioned school notebooks, where an adage reflecting some accepted "truth" would head the page... and Dickens' novel Little Dorritt which satirizes the shortcomings of both government and society including the institution of debtor's prisons, where debts were imprisoned, unable to work until they repaid their debts.
We all enjoyed the oppositions between concrete details like hotdog stands and Nasdaq (stock market index) juxtaposed with abstract hopes associated with "hallelujahs" and the moon (whose face is described as "adumbral" which Judith pointed out, rhymes nicely with "tumbrel", an old fashioned wagon).
As for the footnote about the "Great Filter", fortunately, people were familiar with physicist Ernesto Fermi, his work on the atom bomb... which gave rise to associations about how we want to hear something intelligent as response to how we are destroying ourselves, something of use to address the crisis of global warning.
Ah... an invisible horse... the importance of imagination -- and society's failure of imagination --
and that hypothetical mouth, the missing ear... of the horse... of what seems not to exist to help pull the "little grief wagon" to a better world...
Another poem worth spending time with by him: https://therumpus.net/2021/04/national-poetry-month-day-1-matthew-olzmann/ (Like a Dish Rag Soaked in Bleach)
Interlude: Session II heard Ginny read her poem, I said goodbye today...
a gentle embrace of the last days of autumn-- and although poets are warned to avoid words like "soul" and "heart", here, in the final stanza, the whispering of the heart "to rest" as we wait for the return of spring is perfect.
Her lyric poem perhaps allowed the second group a kinder reading than the first of the poem by Joshua Henry Jones In Summer Twilight, with its careful arrangement of non-intrusive rhymes and pattern.
There is something consoling in recognizing the familiar Victorian flavor, albeit, knowing in 1919 there were strikingly different approaches to poetry that would mock the old style.
The lovely enjambment of nodding/Adieu... the lightness of "twitter" and "flutter"... capture the gentleness Olzmann imagines for the world -- where twilight is not arrival of dark gloom, but a reminder to be quiet,
as Neruda begs us to be, to observe the immensity of the theatre of possible universes in the sky.
The Theatre: Who knows what the original Czech might have conveyed in this rather surreal poem.
Many felt a bit unnerved by the opening 6 lines. What is "that one", and why the repetition of "as usual"--
and yet, how familiar... too much to read... so much not understood... The shift to the plane reminded Mary of one of the Seabreeze rides... How does the speaker of the poem deal with the world?
and with her lover who is confident that the plane won't sink, and not surprised there are no casualties?
Without overtly offering the reader a choice, would you not rather be in the camp of the author, fully endorsing her prize possession, surprise?
We do not know how the play will end -- but since the couple is walking through the gate, untouched by danger... there's a sense of perpetual repeat in store --"as usual", the same scenario "I couldn't understand" .
Is that the prize/price of surviving?
Neruda: A Callarse:
I was pleased that both Paul and Martin found time to work with the Spanish and compare the more traditional and literal translation by Alastair Reid with the quite different response/translation by Julieta Venegas. "If we were not to single-minded/about keeping our lives moving" --
and we discussed this 21st century compulsion of being constantly "on" and "connected" with our various iPhones, screens, electronic toys, a sense of chasing after something... but caught by an "invisible horse" quite different than Olzmann's imaginary one--
Martin mentioned the biblical references in the stanza about the Fisherman, evident to a Spanish catholic,
and perhaps even without this, the details leave as Bernie says, a sense of something both simple and ambiguous.
Judith brought up the value of stillness -- especially in dance... and how choreography has changed,
preferring "writhing and coils"... Indeed...
"If for once we would do nothing... perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves.... never understanding each other... threatening each other with death."
We spoke of global catastrophe regarding climate... of the heartbreak of violence breeding more violence, wars... which provided a perfect segue to Alicia's poem.
Apocalypse: (p. 65 in Le Mot Juste)
Her image of poppies, references to Flanders Field... observation of modern trampling of flowers,
to paradoxically get a picture of them (before their destruction)... the contemporary replacement of this, since the pandemic did not allow a visit to see them, by watching "small apocalypse's blossom into emergency". We discussed the "it" in the final line -- what are we daring?
The double-edge of "bringing us to our knees" -- what brings us to prayer... what humbles us? and
what destroys us. David suggests the entire dance in the seven lines of the last sentence-- between
Scylla and Charybdis -- the world an "entire field of us", how we point our images to the sky, etc.
(She does not specify the way we launch English words on rockets into the universe hoping some "intelligent life" will decode them-- but there's an underpinning there... )
We are but fragile things in the wind indeed.
As antidote, Ken suggested this link to 24 hour streaming of music: https://www.yourclassical.org/
Bernie asked if I had any Ferlinghetti to help change the mood... which prompted me to read his marvelous poem, also in Le Mot Juste: The Current State of Affairs, Egg-wise by Bernie Shore
Indeed! A perfect "an-egg-dote" to help us roll on down together/ all that glorious light/ leaking in and leaking out. If you misplace the hand-out, feel free to contact me to send this marvelous poem,
or go to the Pittsford Library to check out "Le Mot Juste 2021".
***
Available in one hand-out as follow-up:
1. oral rendition of Matthew Olzmann’s poem: “My Invisible Horse and the Speed of Human Decency”
https://soundcloud.com/poets-org/matthew-olzmann-my-invisible-horse-and-the-speed-of-human-decency
2. two poems from Le Mot Juste: Ginny’s (p. 46) and Bernie’s (p. 74)
3. Martin’s translation of the Neruda A Callarse: the original Spanish here: https://www.poesi.as/pn58005.htm
4. Ken’s share of https://www.yourclassical.org/ a free 24 hour classical music streaming service from APM and Minnesota Public Radio.
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