Poems for September 22

**As Long as We Are Not Alone by Israel Emiot translated by Leah Zazulyer

Gray Stone by Richard Hugo  

French Leave by Claude McKay

Brigadista in Retirement by Kwame Dawes

Mendacity  by Kwame Dawes

**Rain by Don Paterson

Poem for the Tin-tun-teros  by Brenda Cárdenas

https://poets.org/poem/poem-tin-tun-teros

 ** these are from September 8 which the "zoom" group missed.  "Rain" and the Israel Emiot are well worth the re-read!

In the first group (Paul, Martin, Mary, Joyce, Marna, Maura, Ken, Judith, Carmen, Jim)

Mary shared The Pencil  by Mary Hood and Martin shared my poem Witness.   I appreciated that he saw a parallel between the rising whirlpool of vapor to people... and that people enjoyed the "vapor-y" sounds of w's and s's.  Judith liked the "danceability" and went on an A.A. Milne kick to show what fun poetry could be.  I have included them in the email for next week's poems.

In the second group (Bernie, until 1 pm, David, Valerie, Jan, Emily, Valerie, Susan, Elaine + Barb, Marna, Paul in person).

Nutshell:

As ever, there were so many veins in the rich and thoughtful discussions.  Bernie had to leave early, and mentioned he had many comments to make on each poem.  I am sure this is the case of each person!  Thank you Valerie for commenting on the connecting rods in these poems addressing loneliness, our need for connection. We started with Ken's share of these three lines from Rabindranath Tagore:

Alone I can 'Say' but together we can 'Talk'.

Alone I can 'Enjoy' but together we can 'Celebrate'

Alone I can 'Smile' but together we can 'Laugh'

And this is what we do each week together.   Thank you all.  Connectedness keeps us alive...

Someone brought up the saying of Mother Theresa,  "loneliness and feeling unwanted is the worst poverty...."

Emiot:  Perhaps one can read "we shall rejoice" with a bit of skepticism -- but it is repeated not just twice

but four times, sealing the poem with a capital W for We, with no comma between the final repetition and a sober period after this 3 word sentence.  And why rejoice?  And how do we understand stone, associated with a sense of primal, foundational and eternal?  David shared the idea of a system of responses, a sort of exchanging--the stone dissolves, enters water which then nourishes the plants... The idea of our one planet with its thin atmosphere and beyond-- this vast emptiness nothingness... and if the plants hear, why not imagine the stone can too... and this great connection is indeed a call to rejoice.

Gray Stone:  Mary had associated the above poem with this one we had discussed many years ago. Many threads were shared:  the gray stone as itself, no volition to change, no "magic power" to change anything-- and this stone perhaps can hear, but in the poem, has the power to speak.  It is our turn to listen.

Mary was reminded of the song in the Sounds of Music, "Nothing out of nothing" :             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UetJAFogqE4

Elaine wondered about the adjective "horrifying" (attention) -- as in powerful, as in terrifying which captures an awareness  of the vast emptiness beyond our planet.  David remembered the Wallace Stevens poem "The Snowman" -which shows a person's mind is responsible for investing in a scene... but if clear from illusions, nature will portray the reality as it is.  Emily felt in it the sense of passage of time, projection into the future.

We didn't speak of the craft of the poem... the echoing of wet or dry/bright green sky... the repetition

of gray stone.  Clearly... human beings are not in charge... Many felt this poem is a slap in the face about thinking we are in control... that our belief in luck ... and our ventures and undertakings lends only a myth of real.

French Leave:  we listened to the rather flat voice picked by the Poem-a-day-people of this poem written almost 100 years ago.  It is not the poet's voice and I wonder how Claude McKay might have delivered it.

Judith pointed out the universal human desire to not have to go to work... but the point is even stronger for a slave... 

Rosemary pointed about yet another layer to French leave-- to leave discretely as a matter of politesse, not to disturb anyone.  This brought up the idea of the need for accommodation if a slave ...although certainly,  some sensed an undertone of anger in the determination of the speaker to protect a small moment, free to imagine "life softening to a song of tuneful tunes."  David brought up the Jewish tradition of being able to relax on the seder cushion... that freedom meant also, the right to relax.  Judith reminded us of McKay's importance in the Harlem Renaissance movement and the careful rhyming (and eye-rhyme of love/move, was/grass).

Kwame Dawes:  Elaine brought up his background of moving from Ghana to Jamaica.  For the two pieces, the question about our expectations for a poem (I wrote down "language distilled in a burnt oak barrel") came up as we felt a prose feel with logical listing of ideas dependent on a dramatic oratory delivered. Brigadista:

 Oh the myths that feed a nation... especially the "harnessed fantasy to feed the impulse to die for patria"...  The second group made the connection of the baby as metaphor for problem... and how even in retirement, the thrill of being warrior remains a burning desire.  I forget who brought up Patton, rubbing his hands and saying about fighting, "God I just love it so." and the powerful result of bonding, sense of

purpose (even if a fantasy).  This, from the standpoint of a woman, feels even stronger-- the war is not over, and the desire to fight for the cause extremely powerful.

Mendacity: The title frames a meditation on our hunger to be loved... and how mendacious myths as "necessary presence" inform our sense of belonging.   How to understand "the pathology of storytelling is the intoxication of lies"?  David and Elaine both brought up the importance of story telling  as a way to understand, transform ourselves and others by sharing the mixed bag of emotions coupled with great fiction.   Rosemarie noted two threads: the cultural references in the Bible to creation and Christ's sacrifice which assuage and a more personal hunger.  How to understand the "envelope" sent out each day, filled with sweet (necessary) lies of his alarming truth?  We wished Bernie could have stayed to share a Buddhist slant about the role of stories!

Rain: see Sept. 8 for comparison: Perhaps a poem changes according to the company of poems in which it is surrounded.  Following Kwame Dawes, Paterson's poem felt like a cinematic tribute to great beginnings, and indeed... whatever follows, whether braided with rain or not, like Hugo's gray stone, is

what it is. Perhaps there is a an element of wabi-sari... that balance that does not depend on permanence, and yet feels as though it always has been.  

Cardenas:  We listened to the Spanish, followed by the English of this powerful poem she delivers.

Judith immediately thought of "duende", that supernatural being that spirit of evocation that infuses a piece with passion, inspiration.  Susan remarked how one doesn't need to know Spanish to feel the powerful rhythms, sensual sounds.  Valerie was reminded of  the power of the bells in Poe's poem.

A perfect end for a fine discussion.