June 1

 

 

Advice from a Raindrop by Kim Stafford 

The World Is in Pencil by Todd Boss

The Pencil by Mary Hood

At the Graveyard with Anne by Carl Dennis

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I meant to include life is just a bowl of cherries lyrics

My apologies... apparently not all the poems appeared... 

We started with a share from Paul who had penned this 5 years ago!

June 1, 2017

Lucifer you foolish man thing

you are a bluff of drifting smoke

master of nothing.

I have faith and hope and charity

and the means to embrace them.

you had your chance!

-- Paul Brennan

The first day of June... and on we go... and the world indeed feels like it needs a screw of some sort (Thank you Maura for her giant clay sculpture) to keep us from losing it... Note that Maura added the picture of a stone on which a friend inscribed "Laugh"... and this is what we do in O Pen.  

We read, we discuss, we share and everyone is so glad for the friendships, the reassurances that indeed, like the advice from a raindrop (first poem), we have a wild card, however you define it... it might be the shining the rain makes on faces (crying from joy or sorrow), or just a piece in a great storm... As Paul reminds us, a raindrop also casts reflections on everything... which in turn reminds us to give a 360 degree look at this marvelous world.  Advice from a Raindrop: so lovingly offered... empathetically! 

 

Todd Boss: we loved his way of looking at the world and had a fabulous discussion about pencils... how it might be harder to write in pencil, but there's a possibility of modifying-- and that opportunity to start over thanks to an eraser.  Some remembered art classes where you weren't allowed to erase... some remembered the days where anything proper in school had to be in pen... and best of all, we could all relate to days being "rough drafts" and "labors of love"...  Martin reminded us of the carpenter's pencil.. and we were all set for Mary Hood's poem... 

Mary Hood:  What clever use of "mantral" to turn a mantra into an adjectival description of the pencil sharpener... and "detrital" to describe the rubber remains left by eraser... and just the word "hexagonal" gives the feel of the six sides of the wooden pencil.   As for the joy of being #2 -- we were also reminded of all the different kinds of sizes and grades of lead with which to "make  graphite trails".

The deconstruction of this common, every day object ( well, since 1795 when it was first invented) brought forth a wealth of nostalgia! 

Carl Dennis: Delightful stroll in a cemetery with "Anne" who imagines psychological twists of those buried.  The speaker of the poem is the pragmatist,  seeing in the m.d. on the tombstone, "at least we can take our titles", whereas Anne empathetically attaches to this doctor a man's admission that his job more important than his other roles.  How do you want to be remembered?  How do we project ourselves onto the character of others?   Judith brought up Christopher Wren whose inscription says, "if you would see my monument, look around".

Millay: Indeed, time does not bring relief to those who grieve the loss of a loved one.  We spoke briefly of the difficulty of being reminded -- as if everywhere, we can see their faces, whether a beloved pet or lover. 

We did read aloud the Audré Lorde who says about poetry that it provides the words to explain whatever she was feeling.  She would memorize poems and in answer to "what happened to you yesterday", she would recite a poem with a line that expressed it.  Her poem from her book Coal  and the Kaminsky start next week's selection: they provide a sort of testimony to the power words take on in poetry.