Sic Terminus by Robert Pence
I Forgive by Carolyne Wright
Mercy by Stephen Dunn
The Cry by Ai Qing
The Mirror by Ai Qing
Sea and Tears by Ai Qing
two extras for the in person group:
Paul’s Puzzle (all palindromes, like racecar)
All will be revealed when smoke and mirrors disappear. The racecar driver will go backwards on the track from front to rear.
Yo, Banana boy !
Don't nod...
Dennis and Edna sinned.
Won't lovers revolt now ?
He lived as a devil, eh, Mom ?
( Wow!)
and I love This Land by Ai Qing http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2014/08/3-poems-by-ai-qing.html
Sic Terminus: Why the title in Latin? Thus it ends... but the 3 stanza poem discusses beauty, illusion, subjects which allow us through art, through the power of our thinking, to imagine a "thus" to be a multiple array of conclusions. What would you list after the colon, "This is beauty:" ?
The poet carries out the metaphor of "illusion" of a river seeming to reverse, the rewinding and retelling of our stories, and the "end" lying in the sea.
The power of words to draw forth old associations works well in the opening stanza, setting an intimate mood-- the breeze "tousles" the river... a friendly, intimate gesture. Some might read "Ohio River" and think of Pittsburgh, others might think of the north-south divide and slaves struggling to be free as they follow the "north star". 58 degrees and a tease of Spring in the notoriously fickle month of March (in the North). Of course, as readers, we know the first stanza is a perfect example of only one possible set-up that can be associated with beauty!
At first glance, the "reverse" is rather like looking into the mirror of time, the "tape" flowing backward like a rewind of a cassette... perhaps a measurement. The poem does not provide any sound of the garbling of a tape played backwards, only the idea of retelling -- and the powerful tool of our story-telling which can provide a slant sense of truth (although this is absent from the poem) to how we see our lives.
Bernie went into a lovely reflection about illusion and beauty that "easy on eyes and heart" is a way of preserving a trust in beauty, a hope for the future. Judith brought up “close but no cigar” for the metaphor of "the tide returns"...
(and I learned the expression "close only counts in horseshoes (and hand grenades)” ) The poem shows nature at work, explores the art of story telling, and the gift of art to allow us to recreate. Marna liked the idea of water providing the bread of a sandwich in 1st and 3rd stanzas, the one a particular detail, the other a larger universal, containing possibilities our illusions provide.
I forgive: For the Carolyne Wright, the zoom group thought this was an amazingly poignant way to tell a story and got into the discussion of abuse— how one doesn’t know until the policeman asks what to do with the “abuser” (Whadda we do with him, lady?) that the speaker is a woman. Is Roy Otis a stranger? Or does she live with this man, a “wanted man” — is she making excuses for him, yet another time?
Judith's first response: "Frosting on the politically correct cupcake."
The discussion embraced the ambivalence… If there is mention of a “white cop” does that mean Roy is a “black man”…
Does she want to protect him because of this? Does she feel guilty if she doesn't for any reason? Do both sides want revenge? Bernie saw the line, “I forgive my heart for being glad” as an indication of self-acceptance… Jan noted how she has used all her body… left hand, right arm (and our associations with right and wrong and arms of justice perhaps, although that didn’t come up); ears, eyes, heart…ending with the tongue.
How important our words are, pronouncing the final decision… Both groups admired how the poems provided different shades of complexity.
Mercy: How do you say this word? How many different contexts do you associate with it? How many does the poem provide?
Delightful romp, " chock full of tidbits", a treasure trove of feelings, reflections and a recognizable situation of "I really wish I were elsewhere". Welcome to the execution! The humor of the pun, followed by the enjambed "of a theory" doubles the pleasure.
Execution, both of the notes of music, and the “atonal hell” of cerebral exercise called “music”. What about feelings? is it just "the old-fashioned, I don’t want to feel anything"… and is this a problem?”
The memory of a meaningful moment of a full octave is a fine escape for whatever sounds of the concert (another sort of pun--
how can the music be better than it sounds if they are creating atonal hell?). And he returned in time to applaud appropriately.
What unresolved thoughts do we have? How do we judge others fairly, without knowing what unresolved, possibly conflicting thoughts another has? (I brought up Bryan Stevenson's work with justice in Alabama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfZPl4CFEUc. Towards the end, he discusses choices, where circumstances are such that they force an action that would not happen should the circumstances be otherwise. Is it "just a bad choice and he should know better" if a young teen take drugs, joins a gang, because s/he can escape the intolerable anxiety for a few hours from feeling constantly threatened, with no hope?
For the Ai Qing…
The Cry: the quality of “piercing” — not how we think of a cry of life — but in the opening stanza, almost a hurtful sound…
The translation renders a triple repetition of "piercing", and anaphor of "where" with moving, spinning, flying to describe the universe. It comes as a surprise to find the contrast, twice of “from a place of darkness”… towards that glittering clarity leads us to the "cry of life". Marna spoke of all the liquid sounds that lead to that word “life”. This is spring: rather like "this is beauty:"
David mentioned the tree frogs near the pond where he lives.
The mirror: The larger mirror of life, reflecting everything -- as Paul puts it, the mirror reverses... so we are looking at "anti-matter". Perhaps you can read it and think, nothing new here... But the very word draws us in with associations,
what we see, how hard it is to see for instance when shaving... Flat, unfathomable, and up to you to deal with the truth it shows.
The translator's note says this: "The mirror in this prophetic and minatory work, is a metaphor for art, or, perhaps, the artist: within art one search to find oneself, although what is found may not be what was wanted. If one is a true artist, it is hard to avoid the censure of those who wish to destroy the truth revealed."
Sea and tears: Why the question? What is it we need to understand about sea becoming tears and vice-versa?
The need for hope as hardship follows peace, as it does repeatedly in the history of Chinese dynasties, is underlined.
It is not "A day MIGHT come" -- but a day WILL come... there is a quiet reassurance in the wheel of life to continue to repeat and return.
Antonia's Education: There are many disparate tidbits in this point.... Jan called on the roll of language — first reading Ukranian, the speaking Russian, the difference of the Aunt and the boyfriend who spoke “buttery words” as opposed to the German drilled by the Aunt which later, allowed her to speak in German to the guard. Bernie’s comment on her surprise — perhaps like the poem, “I forgive” — the amazement was that she could care about her jail guard’s suffering… but then again — and this we did not discuss— is the “shhhh” to herself… don’t say that? or the unsolvable complexity of being prisoner, given only a bite of food, yet human being knowing the grief of losing a son?
As always, we all appreciated the sharing of our explorations seeking insights. Thank you all who attended.
No comments:
Post a Comment