Poems for March 22-23

Notes from a Nonexistent Himalayan Expedition by Wislawa Szymborska

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind by Carl Sandburg

Cricket Song by George Kalogeris

How  by Heid E. Erdrich

Summer Day by Mary Oliver

I love the idea of Poetry as  an attempt to understand fully what is present... what is feeling real, but might not be. The preamble of conversation as we gathered on Wednesday started with Judith reciting her mother's dramatic rendering of this "joke":  I acted all the Russian tragedies, and they all died; then I acted all the Russian comedies, and they all died, but at least they were happy.   I didn't know about the "Little Audrey" and "Little Willie" stories with such strange twists for endings but those also came up.

How to understand them in the light of their times?

I shared the difficulty of much of modern poetry and in particular, the poem "Torture" by Sarah Katz in her book Country of Glass.  There, the words are suspended so one need feel them hanging, falling.

Sharing such a poem outloud and talking about it underlines the power of a group dealing respectfully with words. She will talk about her book, deafness, on Monday by zoom.  https://calendar.libraryweb.org/event/10291823 

This set the scene well for an "non-existent expedition" as announced in the title of the first poem.

Only "notes" and what implications of these mountains associated with sacred heights?  At first sounding like a travel-logue, Bernie confirmed from his travels that indeed these young mountains indeed thrust up

"punch holes" in a desert of clouds... a ripped canvas of sky... Intriguing start as if she is speaking to the reader, only to shift to speaking to Yeti directly.  What is there relationship?  She seems to be introducing this "imaginary" snowman in this imaginary expedition to ordinary school-like things a child might learn in kindergarten.  The next stanza, she addresses Yeti as someone old enough to understand the sadness of crimes, death.  Midway, it could be the Yeti or the reader with a general statement about hope and how we cope with the yin and yang of life.  The next stanza, a little tongue in cheek.  A different dark/light response. In the penultimate stanza has she reached the heights of the Himalayas?  Is she warning the yeti?

Asking it to think about its past?  How to understand the final stanza?  

The poem was written in 1957 and although Szymborska would refute that the Yeti symbolizes God or Stalin, she plays with the forms of address so that the reader is challenged to think of looking at his/her own life, or how to address something unknown. 

Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind: This has been set to music, but also it is a treat to hear Sandburg read it himself

Each prélude could be self-contained, but the thread of repetitions and increased force of them as the story grows demand that all of them be read together.  What are playthings of the wind?  Things man creates?  Everything? If the past is a bucket of ashes... does this mean not just the bucket, but all the ashes of the past?

If Grandmother "yesterday" is gone, where is mother?  Who is the woman named tomorrow over whom we have no say?  The sharp tone of her "what of it" sends a shiver of fear.  

Prelude 2: cedar and gold are symbols of incorruptibility-- and yet the second stanza of this prelude, the cedar doors are twisted on broken hinges... There is mockery in the repeat of "we are the greatest city" .

It will be repeated twice in prelude 3 by "golden girls" reduced to the caw of crows and the  only listeners rats and lizards.  Prelude 4, those words only  hieroglyphs seen in the footprints of the rats  and this sense of wind dispensing everything, now reduced to dust... How to understand "Nothing like us ever was".  Perhaps these words  had been bragging before,  and now they give a sense that we are a mistake that shouldn't have been and a  critique of modern urban life in the 1920's. 

Set to music by composer Michael Tilson Thomas who feels it describes a party atmosphere in spite of the sobering  text.

At Rundel, I loved that Trisha shared that these preludes were telling her very own story.   

Over and over, participants in these discussions confirm the power of good poems to engage us, invite us to embroider the possibilities of meanings with examples of our lives, experiences, thoughts. 

Cricket Song:  This is a marvelous intro to this poem by Major Jackson -- a poem in itself

https://www.slowdownshow.org/episode/2023/02/27/822-cricket-song

First and last word...  Discussion included many marvelous associations with dictionaries, their importance, and role to help us understand etymologies, meanings.  What is in a word is no simple question in response to the complexity of language and thought!  From one word to the the unfolding of an unexpected song at a simple, ordinary sink to a line and stanza break -- "a song about what the crickets...// //could be Sing.  And the dripping faucet joins in, its gleam like the river source and back to days when poets sang their words... and indeed, the gods worked transformations so their song, no matter how tiny,

was part of the fabric of life. 

How:  One word and a stream of consciousness engages a headlong flow, where no matter if incomplete, disconnected, the questions about "how" mirror in myriad ways the "how" of being human.  How special for me to hear Trisha share how she reassures her daughter that thinking like this, having a mind so full and busy with thoughts is a perfectly appropriate use of the mind.  (Reassures me, remembering my father saying to me, "You do like to think" (as if I were in danger of thinking too much)

or my mother reprimanding me that I think too much.)  Indeed, if you recorded the hour and a half of discussion each week, you would hear this amazing river of thought unleashed.   And how!  we said.  Maura suggested we try the poem replacing "how" with "why".  Marna suggested the poem was like a theatre exercise, inviting completions, substitutions.  Kathy picked up on "absurd", "inane"... "ridiculous" how "bleak" our need... We all were moved by the emotional impact of this rush of how "how loves" and how we come to a "this".  Martin added his Jungian training with thoughts on the difference between the "how" of psychology vs. physics where understanding of the total person is enhanced by the putting together of all the experiences how they combine in each person, as opposed to a scientific analysis used to predict behavior.  

Summer Day: This poem is a beautiful reminder of possibilities when we allow mindful attention space to appreciate all about us.  As Mary D.  put it,  Mary Oliver does know how to get our attention!!

"I don't know exactly what prayer is."  So she says, but offers an example of how to kneel, how blessed we are with our one wild and precious life.  

Both the Sandburg mention of "Tomorrow" and this poem, stress the Zen wisdom of being present in the moment.  Resting is not wasting time, but is also necessary for the fullness of life.  This brought up small jokes about "yawn-demics" and how contagious a yawn can be... and Judith recited tedium-tedium-tedium, tee, di di um where the rhythm of "di-di" makes the word anything but.