Growing Away by Barb Murphy from Left Behind (Barb’s collaboration with her nephew, Joe Ripperger, his photographs of Rochester and her poetic (ekphrastic) responses are on view at the Joy Gallery : 498 W. Main St. Rochester : July 9, 16, 23, 30 : 10-2 pm)
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The next poems come Poems from Here: poems for the planet edited by Elizabeth J. Coleman
from Section I : Poems for our Planet/ Where you’d want to come from
Image of Kindness by Esma'il Kho'i
A Very Common Field by PattiAnn Rogers
Letter to Arturo -- by Lucha Corpi (from Looking Out, Looking in: Anthology of Latino Poetry)
from Section II: Our Endangered world/The Gentle Light that Vanished
The gull inch-perfect over water by Louise Herlin, translated from the French by Martin Sorrell
from Section III: Poems for the animals/As if they'd never been
The Weighing by Jane Hirschfield
from Section IV: Voices of Young people (poems written by those between 6-18 years old)
Dolbear's Law by Noa Gur-Arie. (Evanston, Ill; Polyphony H.S.)
In the Summer by Kira Pelowitz (17 yr old from New Mexico)
To quote the introduction by Elizabeth Coleman, editor of this anthology of 128 poems:
“One gift of poetry, as a form of secular prayer, is to celebrate the earth, even as we grieve what we’ve done to our splendid planet and its creatures, the way we might celebrate and mourn a loved one in hospice care.” She also calls on our responsibility to act, quoting Shelley who called poets “the unacknowledged legislators of the world”, and Pasternak who calls a book, “a burning, smoking piece of conscience.”
"This book contains many beautiful, generous poems and ideas for action. It is my heartfelt
hope that they will inspire readers who ask themselves, 'but what can I do?' to see that there is a way forward—learning to share the earth and its resources, while take care of it together." --from forward by his Holiness the Dalai Lama."
Discussion:
Growing Away: We enjoyed the urban landscape of the photograph, and the poem allows us to see "room for flowers blooming", invites us to consider a "more sustainable life".
Image of Kindness — calling on a tree to provide the image. Judith was reminded of "the Miroku Sosatsu" Buddha of the future. 6th-7th century CE, at Chuguji Temple, Nara. Lacquered camphor wood, with flaming mandorla. There are images of it and other Miroku images on line.
Looking through some of the huge tomes on Japanese art left me by my mother, I see that Japanese Kannon figures often have reverted to the male image of Avolakita-ishvara, but very austere and almost androgynous. The most popular Chinese Kuan Yins are more feminine
A Very Common Field : addressed the paradox of sensing something familiar in a wild meadow, but unable to pin it down… this “more than” which brings great depth to a day.
Letter to Arturo: interesting that it could be a love letter to a husband, or lover, or perhaps a son. The final stanza left us feeling that choking feeling that often comes from not being able to say what cannot be said. Good tie of love with observation.
"art and humor are not linear"... and the book The Acts of Creation by Kessler https://www.amazon.com/Act-Creation-Arthur-Koestler/dp/1939438985
came up.
The next poem, The Gull inch-perfect over water translated from the French — left us feeling we stumbled on some surrealist scene. The translator took great poetic license in rendering it into English. A very disturbing comparison between a crane, as bird and crane as bird is taken down a "louch" (shady, fishy) interpretation that is not in the original. No "noise gags the day" or
"making space a prison; trees its henchman; season its captive.
The favorite of the group was by Jane Hirschfield, The Weighing… the last two stanzas sum up a beautiful understanding of life.
“So few grains of happiness
measured against all the dark
and still the scales balance.
The world asks of us
only the strength we have and we give it.
Then it asks for more, and we give it.”
However one “weighs” the heart’s reasons, however forgiveness happens or not (referred to in the beginning of the poem), however one
might label and measure… we give what it is we can give— no matter how someone else might label and measure it.
She does not go into a discussion of confidence, examination of conscience. In her discrete Buddhist way.
Dolbear's Law: How do we think and how does this change?
Fortunately, several looked up this American physicist and inventor (11/10/1837- 2/23/1910)and the poem
of course, refers to crickets and temperature, which Amos Dolbear figured out were related.
Somehow this inspired to Judith to speak about the Cecchitti school and a caricature of a violinist as cricket --
https://www.cecchetti.org
I was thoroughly impressed that this was by a teen from Polyphony HS, and the poem appeared in Best Teen Writing 2014.
In the Summer
Judith pointed out that the oyster poem, might well contain a pearl!
We ended with Any Journey by William Stafford
from The Legat Saga
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