Poems for June 19

 Poems referred to in Jane Hirschfield's lecture: Invisible Present: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ER2jmxt7E

Things That Might Have Been by Jorge Luis Borges (tr. A. S. Kline); The Other Tiger by Jorge Luis Borges; I take into my arms more than I can bear to hold by Janet Frame; Postscript by Seamus Heaney; One Train May Hide Another by Kenneth Koch; 

We did not go into detail about Jane's lecture, however, I introduced the Julia Hartwig poem she used at the end of it which summarizes the theme of the ungraspable, invisible, which gives us the promise of the possible and enables us to trust the world, even in a time of darkness.  

Feeling the Way by Julia Hartwig

The most beautiful is what is still unfinished

a sky filled with stars uncharted by the astronomers

a sketch by Leonardo a song broken off from emotion

a pencil a brush suspended in the air. 

(there is no punctuation, however, this does not mean you can't read it adding your own pauses!) 

Nutshell:

All the poems were used by Jane in her lecture.  Reading them outside the lecture, yet, imagining how they could support her thesis is a marvelous exercise!  I reminded everyone that as readers, indeed, we are participating in the creation of the meanings of a poem, allowing multiple possibilities and directions.

Things that Might Have Been:  We thoroughly enjoyed the possibility of turning tables on history.

It reminded Neil of a marvelous story in 1953, Bring the Jubilee  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bring_the_Jubilee

But there is more than naming of fabled Irish birds (you might enjoy reading about the Morrigan and others here: 

https://mythologyworldwide.com/the-mythical-birds-of-celtic-legends/#:~:text=The%20Morrigan%2C%20often%20depicted%20as%20a%20trio%20of,protection%20and%20the%20cycle%20of%20life%20and%20death

Borges makes no judgment about what is good or bad but rather entertains possibilities of directions.  That he adds a personal note to what might have been, makes the heart skip a beat:  "The child he never had".

There is no way to know how this child might have been, but it unlocks every wish and desire of wanting a child, loving this child, hoping and praying for the health and goodness of this child, and in turn, from this one particular, the same for the world.

The Other Tiger: Oh!  Poems about Tigers!  Blake, or Adrienne Rich and Aunt Jennifer's, or Amit Amit Dahiyabadshah:  "Tiger Poet" Founder of the movement Delhi Poetree 

 

Picture of Amit with Tiger paint on his face and for the book launch from November: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD6R0HfUFSM  : go to minute 9:19 to hear him sing his own tongue. 

I thought also of TS Eliot and the Wasteland, "Who is the third who always walks beside you".  Judith was reminded of The Makers by Nemerov https://allpoetry.com/The-Makers.

Three stanzas, and three different tigers and themes.  Bernie noted the use of darkness.  Rose Marie reminded us of Borgès' appointment (1955) as Director of the National Public Library in Buenos Aires

(Library on line two could be this, but also a larger, abstract library).  The first stanza uses all the senses to create a tiger with no need for naming streams, remembering past, "only the vivid now".  Instead of saying nothing separates us from this Tiger, it is a richer nuance: "Curving oceans and the planet's wastes* keep us// apart in vain: (*wastelands : i.e. deserts) Such a clever enjambment on the part of the translator, landing on "apart" followed by contradicting the apartness!

Stanza 2, now evening fills my soul and we see the poet trying to transform it into a poem.  The very effort made to "fix the limits of its world" makes it fiction, not a living beast.  Many joined in remarks about language, our tool we have to try to express something, and yet fail; how as writer we feel the irresistible pull to write it down, knowing it is insufficient.  How it feels that living our experiences is the same way-- what are they if we cannot record them.. or worse, forget?

 

Stanza 3: we enter dream, subconscious.  Hunting the tiger... not just a third tiger, another and another, as Marna put it, an archetype of a tiger.  What beast is this that cannot be found in verse?

Janet Frame:  You can look up this New Zealand poet 1924-2004 and her troubled life.    Overall, we felt she shared her personal feeling of being unable to separate herself from "a devouring world" or master her life.  The "Yet, still", the in spite of it all, whatever the it, the strange incongruities of it, the final line repeats the opening line and one feels her circular trap repeating.

Postscript:  We appreciated Paul's gentle Irish inflection reading this.  The language is music and made some think of Yeats, the Wild Swans at Coole.  Jan remarked how the poem creates a scene that passes through us.  "You are neither here not there, a hurry though" is a beautifully apt definition of a human being.  Bernie filled us in on "buffetings", used by Zen practitioners to mean age, illness-- but given the softness of the f's "buffetings" are friends, messengers to help us deal with rigidities, let go of how we think we "ought" to be.

One Train May Hide Another:  Stream of consciousness, some might find annoying.  I thank Graeme for his honesty: it was laborious!  And yet, some found humor, pinches of wisdom. What stands in front of objects, feelings ideas... hides them... what's involved?  reputations, love, and ideas hiding each other which is terribly complex.  This as opposed to "Life is simple". I liked Mary's summary:  Think before you speak!   Somehow making things more complicated brought up Tristam Shandy and  Judith referred to James Joyce's ego, larger in conceit than God, which further brought up 16 June "Bloomsday".