October 27

 Incantation of the First Order  by Rita Dove

In an Unrelated by Elaine Equi

Saudade by Silvia Bonilla

What the Astronaut Misses About Earth  by Liz Steppe

L.O.S.S. (Lack of Spiritual Significance)  by Brenardo 

NUTSHELL:

Rita Dove:  What does "Incantation" evoke?  "Lullaby"? ... "Sonnet"?   If you hear "First order" -- what do you fill in to follow it?

First Order of Magnitude comes to mind... but then... I need to look up specifics about how "orders of magnitude are used to make approximate comparisons." 

Already, title, form, and last word of the first line (unrhymed, mind you) create a sort of magic... and Rita's note provokes another layer of thinking about how we use incantation... and how both "beauty and beast" are brought out in us in these times of incertitude.  She does not say "Pandemic", but "pestilence" -- not just the physical fact of covid... but a worse infection of fake news, brainwashing, a way of living counter to our well-being and that of our planet... The absolutist beacons of black and white thinking, Never! (last resorts) and Always (fanatics rallying cry) paint a desperate "end-of-the-world feel".  Many smiled after reading this poem-- and we agreed... it felt good to have a clear voice, with a light touch of humor, address the often unspoken consequences of covid and the times... Say bleeped sheep 10 times in a row... and think interrupted sleep, interrupted sentences, censored speech... or as Barb informed us... there are meditation devices called Rosebud, and a twitch channel to help those addicted to video games... Maura joined the fun added an "s" to relative --  peril and risk, indeed have become relative, but also "relatives" to which we are bound... 

 Rita Dove reads her poem, in a calm manner, and she smooths over the enjambments, as the eye registers the break between

stars/will diminish... waking//get up into he same day you dreamed leaving... bells/stuck... might as well//

There is a sense of warning in the opening "Listen..." , an unsettling sense of danger, line 9, "I'll try to couch this in positive terms"

and even a special reserve message for "those inclined toward kindness", which subtly emphasizes the importance of kindness...

and its possibility if practiced, to " come out of your houses drumming!" 

juxtaposed with threatened teeth for those who don't. We discussed "smile"... the usual cover-up... perhaps a hint of our current "masquerade of mask",  the implication of the teeth.  It feels good to have a strong spokeswoman address what Judith calls "the flockata-flockata-flockata of orthodoxies for the soul", what David pinned as our helplessness in face of virulent brainwashing... 

No matter if every day feels like the day before... get up and at it and grab the opportunities! 

Elaine Equi:  As Kwame Dawes says, "the elegant irony of this lament about this contemporary phenomenon of "the news cycle"

provides us a modern "campfire" around which to gather-- a reminder of poetry's role as collective connection and reminder of our humanity.  The title uses the commonplace use of an adjective, minus its intended noun, allowing the reader to fill in all that

"unrelated" could mean in the context of a large world-weariness (Weltmüdigkeit) of our individual, isolated bubbles.

I had read "mini series" as a combination of "miseries" and "ministries". So much is said in these short lines...and the poem demonstrates the power of awareness that writing provides us.  The minimalist approach provides condensed illustration of examples of advertisement, facebook, disinformation.   The final line pegs our subjective human nature, echoing Dove's underlining of absolute "black and white", either/or formulations of thinking.

Yes... we see what we want to see... sometimes not even aware that desire is involved, especially when counter to our

best interests... It is well known psychological fact that if we are interested in something, we start to see it everywhere.

Silvia Bonilla:  Her title, Saudade, illustrates this feeling of longing, melancholy, nostalgia.  We noted the almost surrealistic flavor and chromatic opposites of orange  (oil spill? reflection of sunset?) and blue... (synaesthesia of sound of fish in ocean)

in the setting of the first 5 lines.  Elaine noted that it felt like two poems, with an actual story implied about a young man selling bracelets.  (different from the boy in the first line) 

The dismissive advice "to take a pill" to numb "precise sadness, /a counterfeit gift received early in life",  seems a powerless

and ineffective remedy for the ache of missing someone.  David explained this complex fragment as  the fiction-making we do... and its mood, our projections, and the gift of invention.

Maura pointed out that we have names for children who have lost parents, spouses who have lost partners, but not word for a parent losing a child.  

We discussed the "gladiators on sand" -- many had images of the the blood swept up after the fight, with the macho winner strutting on the new sand.  Maura described sweeping the hot sand on the beach with her children to be able to walk on it.

The smile... hungry? torn? a something... like trying to pinpoint an ache of sadness... that "remote tenderness" conveyed

through the thin wire of a telephone.  Susan shared the thought of how it must have been in the civil war, or other times pre-telephone, waiting for new... and the impact of our tools of technology-- and how we use them... 

Ending the poem with a question accentuates the uncertainty-- the fact we cannot truly know how life is for another far away. 

I love that Ada Limon describes the poem filled with "cantaloupe-colored longing that makes no apologies".

  

Liz Steppe:  We enjoyed how this poem played with our perspective of our planet-- It reminds me of this poster. 

Many shares about astronauts...and now, movie stars and some people are in love with the possibilities of exploring space/the universe, others, afraid of it.    Mary reminded us of William Shattner, coming back from Space "all poetic".  What would you miss, if an astronaut?  Most of us agree, everything!  The poem allows us to imagine detachment... a zen approach of letting go... not only weightless but understanding gravity as metaphorical "gravitas" -- is also a bit of trickery).   Martin mentioned a PBS special on space 10/27...  We tried out all the possible intonations to say the last line.  The poet says it in a matter of fact way... perhaps a hint of tongue-in-check . The ladies at the Open Door Mission shelter  on 10/22 totally enjoyed the fantasy… the perspective… and yet… are happy to have green and gravity here on earth!

L.O.S.S. (Lack of Spiritual Significance)  by Brenardo (from Billy Brown, Fixed and Free anthology 2021)

I wrote this note to him: deotp123@gmail.com

I lead a weekly session of poetry appreciation and discussion in Rochester, NY and chose your fine poem

L.O.S.S. (Lack of Spiritual Significance) as part of the line-up yesterday. I copy Billy to thank him again for providing the connection of the great reading on Oct. 16 and publication of the anthology for us all.

I wanted to let you know how much everyone appreciated the braiding of your words — each one capitalized…

and a sense of great weariness with the repetitions, of how it must feel to “Live Black” — (opening line) ending with 

being “Busy Living Black”.  We admired the way you pegged loss, fear, the unanswerable “why” and role of the spirit.  

One participant saw the poem as an exercise in versatility and loved the fact he could read the first line of each stanza and make a poem… 

then do the same, reading only second lines, then third lines, then read the poem backwards from last line to fit…

Another participant was eager to know more about your feelings… your story… 

and we all respected the struggle  and the underlining of the uniqueness of any human being, by emphasizing

your own precious position, “I Can Only Speak For Me”— which has a truthful power.

I don’t often attend the New Mexico meetings, being on the East Coast, but I am glad I did, and was part of Billy’s “Fixed and Free” and had a chance to see your poem!

Thank you!