The Arrival of the Past by Scott Owens
My Dearest Black-Billed Streamertail by Michelle Whittaker
Moon Friend by Jim Jordan
Our Future Tense by Margaret Randall
The Sum of One and One by Margaret Randall
8/15: Well... Paul has it all figured out a day in advance sending me this!
"Oh, my heavens.......there are so many references to quantum mechanics throughout the upcoming selections for Wednesday, not just the one but in many, if not all of your choices. The 1920s,the 1930s, Werner Heisenberg and The Uncertainty Principle, Erwin Schrodinger's Cat in the Box mental excercise....moon and stars.......Well, I'm up late having fun with Brennan's proof that Physics and Philosophy are as intertwined as groups of particles and that thoughts that seek to unravel a poet's intent fit in comfortably with those two concepts. Well, give me an hour on Wednesday and I will ramble, mentally, through these great, eternal puzzles. Einstein did not like Heisenberg's construct of uncertainty. Will we argue with Al? At nearing the speed of light , I release you from uncertainty"
to be continued
8/17: Another wonderful discussion -- and indeed, Paul did share his careful notes on all of the above... but best of all, is the repeated weekly receptivity to discussing -- not with the goal of
"now I get it", but to examine the immense complexity of life brought to us by carefully crafted poems. We do not need to reach "consensus" and each offering allows us to polish and expand our lens outward. We manage in our weekly discussions to find the perfect antidote to the moral emptiness referred to in this excellent article by David Brooks: https://cdn.theatlantic.com/media/magazine/pdfs/202309.pdf
Nutshell:
The Arrival of the Past: Think of the title for a moment. How many different ways can you understand it? Personal memories? Repeated history? The strange twists that time takes where "arrival" allows a new beginning of sorts of what is in fact never finished?
The poem reminded Bernie of Jane Hirshfield, citing Nabakov, about the precision of poetry and imagination of science: Indeed, the interrelationship of precision and imagination one could argue is at work in both for good results.
We remarked on the sounds, the use of all the senses in the poem, the synaesthesia of "hearing" the light break-- how it "ignites sparks of dust". Onomatopoeia of water washing "uncovering the lost and forgotten" (not, not "recovering", but a more active revealing of what might be hidden). What a set up for an epiphany -- where "the charge of the world" is electrified with morning. None of us needed convincing -- we all joined in conjuring up, and able to "smell", able to swing in the last stanza.
This is a place that smells
like childhood and old age.
It is a limb you swung from,
a field you go back to.
It is a part of whatever you do.
Elaine brought up the idea of 3 ages... childhood, middle age, old age... how the concerns of middle age give way as the end of life joins the beginning, which brings us back to the title.
The link will take you to a few pictures of this bird with a impressively long tail, and indeed, emerald feathers. Although I normally do not stress the biography of the poets, one can sense a remarkable person behind the poem. Indeed, Michelle Whittaker is a West Indian-American poet, pianist, and university instructor whose interests include expository and creative writing pedagogy, music composition, 20th century American poetry, and eco-poetics.
What changes in a poem when adopting a epistolary style? Not just, "Dear Bird", but My Dearest followed by a 5-syllable name of an exotic-sounding bird. It starts with an apologetic, confessional tone, and I felt like a "peeping tom" learning how the Awarak called it, what the poet's Auntie said about... and then this desire to pluck, like her ancestors the feathers...
There is a personal slant in a letter which prepares us for the big question: Don’t we crave conversation /as much as we desire attraction? However, first, she refers to her compulsion held tight to her chest, like a fist holding a crumpled, unsent love-letter... followed by opening her hands in gratitude. We were surprised at the end to find out a bigger "secret" held to her chest, struck by the verb choice "nestle" referring to "malignant masses" and how to learn "the illusion of stillness".
There is something magical in this writing, spaced into couplets which softens the leap from the malabar vine, to stars, like the flight of the bird, accentuating her desire for it to help her overcome her fear...
We were reminded of Kunitz "what makes the engine go? Desire, desire, desire". What is it that we desire? And what is it that allows us to trust that everything will be OK, that we are not needed for it to be so?
Moon Friend: forgive two typos: gaze and learning in case you didn't figure it out.
Here, the absurdity of the mental exercise offered by Schrodinger's Cat kept rising to the surface... and indeed, we had quite the animated discussion covering uncertainty, indeterminancy... but also this phenomenon of people exiting a concert, play or party, gravitating towards each other, having shared something. Imagine Science Festival Week... and everyone exiting, excited, and still curious about what they had just heard.
There's a hint of love story... extended metaphor. We spoke about elliptical orbits... how it takes time to go "full circle"... And as for cats... Polly suggested to put Schrodinger in the box!
In the middle, Martin made the point, that whether or not you liked the poem, what was important was the engagement in the discussion.
He announced that he had had eye surgery the day before, but that the conversations in the group are so important to him he didn't want to miss it!
I love that people shared stories... like witnessing a car falling down a sinkhole, the connection between bystanders until first responders came... the offer by a stranger to join for a cup of coffee...
As Bernie summed up: "We like to tell stories... about ourselves...and are much more interested in our own bumping. The poem? Well... lots of thick dense weeds to run through. But worth it."
Polly sums it up: We need one another to understand anything!
I think you can gather that we were having a rollicking good time and spirits were high.
Our Future Tense: Back to time... We enjoyed the personnification of Industrious, Lazy, Brilliant -- not easy words, and perhaps back to Elaine's idea of the "middle of our lives" don't really apply to childhood or old age. Quiet observation about words, poetry... the power we may not always recognize.
The Sum of One and One
We enjoyed this meditative poem... the idea of "should" as in (1+1 should equal 2) reminded Bernie of this funny 9 minute video of a 1st grade teacher, and a student insisting that 2+2= 22.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3Yz3PiXZw
Bernie commented on the spare, barren structure and that it reminded him of Genesis...
These lines sum up a feel that our love for technology has impacted our ability to love each other.
A field of words reaches for
meaning among the weeds.
A small reference to artificial intelligence and how imagination is our saving grace to retain our ability to practice humane behavior, striving to be better than we might be otherwise.
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