April 13

4 spring poems by E.E. Cummings

  O sweet spontaneous

  Spring is like a perhaps hand

  Who knows if the moon's a balloon

   sweet spring is your 

Terror of the Ripening Mango by Amit Dahiyabadshah

2 failed haiku

Beware: Do not read this poem by Ishmael Reed

The Thing Is by Ellen Bass

High, Higher, Highest by Samuel Hazo

Nutshell discussion:

Cummings: oh the fun!  The visual play of words and punctuation adds a depth to each poem and an invitation to  explore multiple ways to read.  

-- O sweet spontaneous:  In case you have forgotten the definition of "prurient", (having of encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters) it is hard to escape in Spring, as Paul advised, this is not the season to take young children to the zoo!  The little comma that starts the 10th line as a small poke, or pinch of

"prurient philosophers" adds to the humor of  their fingers being compared to the naughty thumb of science prodding Spring's beauty...  The mock religious genuflection on scraggy knees and formal biblical address of thee, thou, answers contrasts with the primal feel of Spring and the older Gods.  Thou, in this case, is Earth... and the "couch of death" on which to conceive gods, provides a mighty rebirth.

Couch is a many layered noun, including an association with "lair of wild beast." 

So... if we ask for guidance... we receive a season synonymous with the verb "spring". 

We discussed the use of the parentheses: they do ask the reader to pause, think... they add interest; they are not "subsidiary" but could provide a parallel universe of sorts... 

It is interesting that Cummings use of punctuation, spacing and arrangement of text on the white space of a page remains quite original.  I encourage the listening to the two different readings -- there is never one set way to read a Cummings poem!

--III  Spring continues its unpredictable manner here, with "perhaps" falling in different, unexpected places, juxtaposed with "carefully" which also pops up (changing and rearranging while people stare).

-- who knows if the moon's a balloon: fantastic fantasy which reminds me of a Chagall painting (or April Brooks a local artist who has a similar style).  

-- Sweet Spring... https://vimeo.com/155164678 so different a rhythm than Alec Guiness reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx0RH016nPY

The refrains, repeats and lilt of the words seduce us with that receptive "yes" of spring returning.

Amit:  I spoke about the "Terror" in the entry about Amit's poetry.  We enjoyed imagining the quality of the pool of water, the reflection of the mango, where the water acts as magnifying mirror.  

Now what would happen had it been the fish who grew bigger??? 

 "failed haiku". highly successful!!!

Ishmael Reed:  This poem was a big hit!  Reminded some of Johnnie Cash, "24 hours before your going to be hanged"; horror stories... hall of mirrors, and Shel Silverstein, "I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor"! (Yes, Johnnie Cash acts this one and many others on YouTube!)

There is a serious part to this poem as well as parable of process -- the poem is the reader/reader the poem... what surfaces, disappears... the mirror as symbol of solipsism... the poem as mirror...

We thought of selfies-- to leave trace in the lives of friends...  

Ellen Bass: an old favorite... this poem is loaded with real images... we discussed how survival is instinct-triggered... how being in love more with one's grief than the child grieved... the obesity of grief... with an echo of Shakespeare, "A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder."

The tenderness of holding  a face, but  an unadorned face, where nothing will change the hard blows life gives, and yet, something so precious.  

Hazo: We heard the poet read his measured tones.  Ken said it could be a terrific opinion piece in the NYT, about world as property to divvy up, section with boundaries and especially with the note, about what "height" implies in our culture about recognition of  achievement, merit. As poem, with rhythms, rhymes, and unusual spaces it flows well.  Indeed, from outer space we don't see people... however, many questioned the line about "we kept the original names unchanged for everything we saw". 

So is a photograph of the Earth from outer space a selfie?