Loveliest of trees, the cherry now by A. E. Housman
Connecting by Barbara Murphy
No-Hitter, Fifth Inning by Sarah Freligh
Night Game by Thom Ward
Weather Report by Abby Murray
A Friend’s Umbrella by Lawrence Raab
Housman: Although I played this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kE1X1okhI not all appreciated it. What I liked about the recording for the Housman was the way the dynamics mirrored the shift in tone in the second stanza— and the long drawn out “fifty” one would never say in reading as a poem.
Jan re-read and mentioned the tenor Bryn Terfel singing it beautifully. I found the music embedded in this site:http://preferreading.blogspot.com/2014/09/sunday-poetry-e-housman_21.html The music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEKLIcui89w
David mentioned how many poems lose when set to music, although he called to mind how he had transcribed the music of the Trout Quintet for guitar and sang the original lied Schubert set to piano. His take: Good verse finds “music in the sound of sense.” Sometimes music overrides the verse, appropriating it to express its own emotion.
We quickly reviewed the "biblical" life time of 70, how when only 20 (a score of years) one (hopefully) can enjoy 50 more years! A strange tenderness is woven in this poem ending on the final word "snow" looking at the passage of time and that curious falling white of the spring mix of cherry blossom and snow. Quietly brilliant, one person suggested, where the rhyme does not interfere and indeed "looking at things in bloom" no matter impermanence or accidental interruption we all know what is implied with the final word, snow...
Perhaps a larger question to be discussed for any favorite poem: Why or why not does it deserve the fame? What universal transcends the particular?
Lagerkvist: Both poems seem to recreate Pascal's "wager" about the existence of God. The point is not to prove God's existence or not, but the following simplified version of the wager: since "evidence" cannot settle God's existence, should you wager on God, you have much to gain and not much to lose should indeed, He exist, as opposed to losing all should he not. As Paul put it, "positive or negative, there is, nevertheless, such mental energy... sometimes released, sometimes kept in orbit, locked in the brain. But, it is energy, the particle physics of the mind! "The poem provides a perfect metaphor for melancholy atheism… and longing for a caring God with the terrible ground between…
Judith was reminded of Carmen de Lavallade and the Creation: https://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/carmen-de-lavallade/the-creation/
Marna was reminded of Indigenous native American believe that God is in everything.
For the first poem, that repeat of "disquiet", confirms the mystery of the beginnings... the aloneness before loneliness... The question of how God could remember -- like the sea remembering the seashell it once surged through-- and the plea, please do not forget me... We give to this idea of God our own character tics. "What is deeper than absences? unreturned love?" This cry -- even should no one hear it, exists...
Connecting by Barbara Murphy: I showed the book Left Behind where she and her nephew Joe collaborated with Poems and Photos.
This opened quite a conversation about baseball! Here is the picture.
Everyone loved the poem -- how baseball culture blended with ideas. idioms… the epigram quote from Babe Ruth is perfect…"Never let the fear of striking out prevent you from playing the game." Even if some do not like baseball..they loved the poem~
The next two poems are on Poets' Walk. The first by Sarah Freligh comes from her book, Sort of Gone. These poems, tough, funny, real, trace out the life of a baseball player, a pitcher. The details of playing ball ring true, down to the smell of the grass and the unquiet mind chattering away at you while you just want to concentrate on what that next damn pitch should be.
One of the blurbs has it right: great if you like poetry or baseball. If you like them both, well, this is a must read.Valerie read it for herself with a pause before the last word so it sounds like this
Too early to hope
hell, he’s been here before
jinxed himself by thinking too much
hung a curve to some jive rook
who gave it a ride
high-fived his way around the bases
whole thing centers around title… No-Hitter, Fifth Inning-- the pitcher has a big job delivering the ball... playing the edges of the "safe" zone. David informed us that now there is a mechanical check to help that difficult role of umpire calling strikes.
Ward: The title sets the scene... Marna suggested the 2-3 line that maybe the moonlight is like foul territory… out of bounds. Or it could be reference to MoonLight Graham in the movie
field of dreams
Louis Jenkins. We all roared at this wonderful poem which shows a typical problem of "now what was I about to do... or say..." -- especially with the chaos of zoom and in-person and not getting the mic to people right away... and twice, not remembering what they wanted to share...
It could also be a perfect metaphor for a long-term marriage. We all could hear a Billy Collins tone for reading it. Joyce (Rundel) calls the basement in her home filled with the previous owner's belongings,
"the magic cellar" -- if you need anything, you'll find it there!
Murray: We were running out of time to discuss this poem but all agreed on its power.
The grief of disbelief is quite a subject! Martin, with his psychologist's eye, understood "umbrella" as protection and saw many sexual innuendos throughout the poem.
Raab: umbrellas... and memory and Ralph Waldo Emerson... a perfect description of alzheimers and sailing on private seas.
Rundel only: Mary kindly provided the page with three pictures by Barb's nephew, Joe and my attempt to give a flavor of her words which respond to them on one page.
This gave rise to many stories of what you can see in the Mt. Hope cemetery -- the tons of daffodils planted, the "He and His Husband" which you might not have seen last century, or "Bill now knows something you don't". It also allowed Mike to share the many similar instances-- his mother's loss of
her father to suicide, the loss of his 18 year old son to cancer, how his other son loves to take photos.
It is touching to share how poems provide a sense of partnership with our own private lives and that we are never alone.
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