The Three Goals by David Budbill; Duties of the Spirit by Patricia Fargnoli; Dootł’izh by Esther G. Belin; Just Delicate Needles by Rolf Jacobsen (1907-1994); After Reading that Merriam-Webster’s 2023 Word of the Year is Authenticity by Dante Di Stefano; Looking at the Stars by Robert Bly
About this O Pen... ... I bet those passing by the room saw a little golden glow." -- Kathy
"This group is worth coming to see" -- Martin. (quoted by Bernie)"
About Poetry Oasis: small... but take a look at the November issue of Rundelania: Check out Rundelania: https://rundelania.com/verse/ You will see a short story and two poems by Mike Yaworski, poems by familiar names, Gail Hosking and yours truly --
Nutshell:
The 3 Goals: Bernie filled us in on David Budbill's Buddhist background. You might have guessed that Budbill was having fun with Buddhist pronouncements and those who are seeking answers! Note for instance how he does not follow the expected lineup of one stanza for the first goal, one stanza for the second. It's as if we are invited to overhear a discussion in the Sangha in the white space between the first and second stanzas. No symbolism please! AND, then to suggest a little wine helps a lot, which produced quite a bit of laughter! We see the game by the time we see the 3rd goal is to grasp the 1st and 2nd... His humor at the impossibility underlines something refreshing about "goals". This is not to say no serious comments came up such as appreciation of particulars which help us to get to the larger view of things and Bishop Butler's, "A thing is what it is and not another" and a few puns from Heinlein, including to "unscrew" the inscrutable and kick the F out of ineffable.
Some of us read the 3 goats. Others, the 3 goads, which fit beautifully in its own way.
Duties of the spirit: more things in 3's: An interesting meditation on spirit which for many of us is not association with "duty". Joy, serenity, grief, seem to mirror stages of life, with the longer expansion of lines about grief. Note the typo of salthingyer which gave rise to more jokes about a thing being what it is. We wouldn't have guessed "salt water" without Kathy who provided the poem. The poem came across as quite rational, but also emotional, intensified by the repetition. The 3-note whistle in the first stanza could be a bird... We brought up the difference between the self-help attitudes and "Science of Happiness" unlike the happenstance of surprise, connection. Grief and joy are not mutually exclusive. The third mention of the duties has joy leaping, and serenity slowly strolling, followed by two weighted couplets about personified grief. We feel how it bows us down, weighted, and that rawhide necklace hung with a stone around the neck. But the first duty? Slippery joy.
Dootl'izh: This Navajo word is not exactly turquoise, blue or green but the quality of things that contain this color. Beautiful poem which blends natural elements with emotions and like the ocean repeating, the chantlike repeat of the Dootl'izh, now this, now that, combined yet separate has the final word. The note was helpful to point out how an ocean's waves can be both mirror to and erase emotions such as anger and sadness.
Just Delicate Needles: the needles could be truth, light, pine, or delicate things overlooked. Nothing much is needed... except light, and to cherish it (like Joy, Serenity). We thought the final "We hope" an odd ending, unless said softly and not connected with hoping for light to return in the morning. Kathy saw it as a pagan prayer, before organized religion. She highly recommended the bilingual book of Jacobsen's poems: The Road has come to an end: 839.821
After Reading: The title mentioning the word of the year as Authenticity never develops in the poem. Rather we have quite the tedious reminder of what AI does with too much information and recognizable, yet scrambled parts of poetic canon drop into the stanzas. Perhaps this cleverness could be put into a movie. We didn't think anything was meant by it... and felt too much tedious mish-mash to feel it had any charisma "cut, rizzed up" to deal with the scurvy dark.
Looking at the Stars. Well... I feel like Budbill, call me if you get it. I got the first 3 lines. Understand references to constellations and we had quite the discussion about what happened 6,000 years BC.
1. It was the end of global deglaciation 2. Hunter gatherers were becoming farmers 3.Winemaking began 4.It was the end of the Holocene sea rise 5. Gregory of Tours declared that God created the World then.
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