I'm not faking My Astonishment, Honest by Paige Lewis
It Must Be the Supermarket In Me by Major Jackson
A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay
Incendiary Art by Patricia Smith
The Sun, Mad, Envious, Just Wants the Moon by Patricia Smith
Such is the story made of stubbornness and a little air— by Ilya Kaminsky
I started the session by sharing a poem I had written inspired by the play of light on stained-glass windows echoing on stone...
In the Silence of the Cathedral at Tréguier
Chance
light, shadow
magic colors ground in glass—
Here, a chance
moment in the cathedral
of Saint Tugdal, as if
the Welsh monk himself
decreed that the stones
must carry on the stories
broken in the stained glass
and I say, a chance
for chance angels to dance
with echoes cast by the sun—
ruby, cobalt, trace
of antimony.
and Elmer shared a newspaper clipping announcing the passing of the poet Linda Pastan Jan. 30 (aged 90)
As she puts it, "Reading poetry should be an emotional experience".
Elmer had also shared on Jan. 22 the NY Times obituary of Rehman Rahi, a celebrated Kashmiri poet who restored the Kashmiri language, as he put it in his 1966 poem "Hymn to a Language" : you are my awareness, my vision, radiant ray of my perception, the whirling violin of my conscience.
He refused to take sides in the vicious cycles of insurgency and counter-insurgency in Kashmir. In 1995 these words seemingly justify his detachment saying, Looking at that state, I only desired madness and silence. / I was told your fate, dear, is madness and silence". And yet, looking back on his career, he expressed regret: We stood with pen and paper on banks of a river filled with blood... and chose not to see the pristine water had turned red."
To link to the poems discussed, Patricia Smith and Ilya Kaminsky, the newest elected chancellors of the American Academy of Poetry indeed choose to use pen and paper... As do Ross Gay and Major Jackson.
Indeed, all the poems this week provided an intense emotional experience, and hopefully for many, an inspiration to join in writing and sharing words that address the difficulties that beset our current time.
Nutshell:
I'm not faking: The first thing we noticed in this 14 line poem was a sense of doubleness in this collection of disparate sentences, many of which hung on lines as if inviting the reader to finish them. For instance: we're overwhelmed and 4th line, we don't care... or line 8 I just have more space... or line 9 I don't want to give...
Are readers surprised by overwhelmed/by a sky that seems to heap danger on us ? Or surprised that this detail is not given any particulars? What is it that astonishes the poet? Astonishment usually elicits our emotion. Why does she add "Honest" in the title, as if she needs to defend it as real?
She admits "I don't want to give/particulars." But then jumps to the crazy comments of the hiker who "found it for only $9 (although not her size"). Perhaps as reader, we join the poet in wanting to see (or at least know) what it is, and like her, will never know. How fitting to have "the future refuse/ to happen",
which of course, once it does is no longer the future. She seems to be playing with the reader… dropping heavier stuff into the fluff, but with no explanation, and each sentence starting another distraction in what feels to be an endless jumping, rather like reading an article on the web filled with hypertext links.
Whatever is astonishing refuses to be pinned down, exposed.
It is puzzling, but not convoluted. The paradox of some danger next to mention of white fluff... or the huff of the hiker and sudden unscrewing at home of patio furniture which apparently triggered the poem is compounded by the mention of her sadness, (probably not connected to the continual loss of screws on the furniture) or is that just the perfect metaphor for an ineffable and unscrutable randomness that surrounds us?
It Must Be the Supermarket In Me: What a fun metaphor for self-examination, although the expression, "It must be the devil in me" is usually pronounced as defense. I love the adjectives for the bright, modern supermarket: thoughtful (shelf-stocking) and cheerful (baggers). We noted the contrast with the "old-world butcher shop/fish market" also part of the "inner supermarket" which evoked an idea of slaughter, and as one person remarked,, with "yiddish sounds".
We all come to a "supermarket" with hunger... and what a cool way to parallel how we seek freshness, vitality, value in others, not just in stores. The whole poem allows the poet to present his feelings to the world, and to reveal his personality. And then the turn, the sudden mention of no longer being connected to community, family. How perhaps he once was not so accommodating, and no "supermarket" to help loss of faith, mother and anger. But even supermarkets have no guarantees of protecting what is so carefully constructed, or keeping the shelves stocked to meet this hungry world.
A Small Needful Fact: interesting the echo of feed in needful, and what is so essential to our survival. Plants are not just sources of food, but house and feed "small necessary creatures". The final word in the poem refers to the final words of Eric Garner, "I can't breathe". The illegal choke hold which killed him
and the whole story https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Eric_Garner was part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
We noted the acceleration from "perhaps" to probable with the play of "in all likelihood", most likely and contrast of repetitions of similes using like. This poem appears in Ross Gay's Book of Delights.
It reminded Rose Marie of Kenny's poem "Wise Old Corn" which we saw last week.
Incendiary Art: This poem is a tour de force both with form, interlinked rhyme, sound and mesmerizing management of metaphor. When din leads to thinner, hearts whittled by the chomp of heat,
indeed, who can dare dismiss life on the streets, men outlined in chalk, blacken, curl apart...
Indeed, the entire poem writhes in fumes, up to its necks in fuel.
I was reminded of the street dancers in the first episode of Move, a TV documentary on dance. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=move+(tv+series)+episodes&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 (Jon Boogz and Lil' Buck) speaking about their world.
The Sun... Just how does the sun want the moon? Does it want the moon, or want it out of the way?
Is the I a homeless person? Is the moon, its lunatic luster where every angle is exquisite, not the peace to the glare of reality? Things will not look better in the morning. Strong and vibrant language filled with uneasy and enigmatic images. A very unusual way to describe the sun, who sounds like the dominant power: bursting with bluster; backslaps... gilded clutch... besieges with bright. spits light.
Such is the story... you can imagine a person near madness shouting (Mike)... The poem prickles with contradiction (Bernie). We discussed the biblical referencee to "borrowing light from the blind" and how to understand light... evidence. Like the first poem, there is no explanation of circumstance.
Do you need to know the entire book to understand this poem? For some, it might be helpful, for
others there is plenty within the poem itself.
The Ants' Road
Rather metaphorical idea of moving through time, place... and that mysterious mirror. There are three possible endings: The ants, on their mission disappear. Do they escape; What is real? Did they ever exist?
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