A Dream of the Future by Joyce Sutphen
Long After I'm Gone by Peter Sears
I First Practiced Picking Up Small Things by Peter Sears
Choosing a Dog by William Stafford*
Nativity Poem by Louise Glück*
You and I by Stanley MossAbou ben Adhem by (James Henry) Leigh Hunt (1834)
The subtitle is “The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden” . There are beautiful b&w sketches of wild plants before the start of each chapter. It’s a well-written history of being black in this country, as well as a foray into what makes a healthy relationship — not just to the earth, but to family, community.
The poems this week got us talking about memory — how a memory will pop up like toast (image in Peter Sears' poem) — and our fear as older people that we are losing memory… and yet, are remembering more about childhood and the childhood of our children. Funny paradox. Hopefully you have a lot of fun memories as a kid!
Nutshell:
Sutphen: perfect capture of a dream... and how we prepare for the end of life. Comments: mysterious. back and forth is enjoyable and keeps us reading. One person shared a German lady's comment about English... it isn't back and forth - you have to go forth before you go back! What scares us; how we face it. fairy tale/mythic feel without any overkill. Judith brought up the Papashvly folk tales ("Yes and No, Georgian Folk Stories" -- in the library!) which do not start "once upon a time", but this way: There was... and there was not and yet there was.
Sears: I see that in 2014, I did share many of Peter Sears' poems. I'm so delighted that everyone enjoyed the two this week in the same way... a certain lightheartedness with depth, a humble self-confidence perhaps, an almost audacity of the speaker of the poem as if not even aware he is the one in charge.
We finished each poem feeling we had spent valuable time with someone who produces good work,
appreciative of the power of imagination, feeling just a little more connected to our human realities.
It turns out Long After I'm Gone was used at St. Catherine’s, here in Mendon, NY ! Mary told us about hearing it in the sermon!
spirituality... getting ready to go... She also said how easy it was to talk to her predeceased sister, Anne, and the poem reminded her of that. We all noted the clever use of language and the strange phenomena of being in the middle of something... and memory pops up... or goes "kerplunk", and perfect sound. The mixed metaphor of "feeding tumbles/of quarters into the dryers' dry mouths", trying to keep the spinning going, add a poignancy to the sense of "getting ready to go."
Such a sweet moment of father/daughter will never return, and whether or not it happened, Peter's daughter will always have it.
Maura mentioned how her daughter couldn't remember her Dad, who passed away when she was little, and how hard not
to have childhood memories. Indeed, we felt fortunate as we shared them!
I first practised: This poem also had us in hoots-- and admiring the multiple directions you could adopt. Description of a dog;
evolution of human kind; .metaphors for trying to fit in; and the surprise ending about the town meeting! Judith thought it would be interesting if teaching dance to children... and shared a memory of picking up marbles w/ toes (something her husband's vertical toes could never accomplish!);
Marne brought up the exercise program radio Taizo --
The Three-Minute Workout the Japanese Do Every Morning InsideHook https://www.insidehook.com › Health & Fitness
Stafford: Seems to be the poem is about choosing, perhaps a way to live, and all that we can't pin down about having a friend/a dog. The discussion of course involved dogs, and wondering what they might say about humans, about noise, climate change...
Perhaps another question to add: Did you feel totally different about the poem when you read it alone
than from after discussing.
Glück: We were speechless after hearing this poem. A poem about birth of sacred. The rawness of the angels "bearing down on the barn", the extraordinary yet simple scene, the sounds, both the assonance of the i and the liquidity of l's. Linen, the course textile, used as shroud, fortells the end... and why does does she tell us that the gesture of touching his cheek mean that Joseph is weeping?
Judith mentioned that angels are usually portrayed as formal creatures in gorgeous fabrics but not for Giotto... angels made small having fits in this scene of the crucifixion. https://www.thehistoryofart.org/giotto/crucifixion/
Moss: This poem couldn't stand up to the power of the Glück. Sure, after an anonymous 13th-century Hebrew poem, and following a long tradition of asking God what he is up to, and asking for an answer.
Reference to Jewish philosophy, mercy, generosity and giving. It could be a healing poem...
We ended by reading the Leigh Hunt. No dry eye if you say this one outloud.
*Two poems my MFA colleague Abby considers successful, because they follow a path of clarity and progressive accessibility. They are not easy poems. They connect, serve as adequate representations of the rest of the writers' work. There's a sense of craft.
When you hear the word, contemporary poetry what comes to mind? What do you find frustrating?
What do you find enjoyable?
Could you picture the poem happening as you read it?
What stands out?
Did you think you learned anything from reading these poems? Did you come away thinking in a new way?
Do you have any questions you would ask the authors if you could?
These questions come from Abby Murray's 2009 thesis she presented at Pacific University, OR.
In re-reading her thesis, I came up with another question: Compared to reading the newspaper and other media, what is your level of trust in reading poems? Is "trusting" important to you when it comes to poetry?
**
We ended with Abou ben Adhem inspired by Maura's life-size clay bust of him.
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