Chickadee by Stanley Plumly; Small Fragments by Nasser Rabah; Out of These Wounds, the Moon Will Rise by Jay Hopler; Political Plaintive by April Hoffman; The Fear of God by Robert Frost; You know what, about this little match? by June Gervais
Nutshell: April 23-4:
The array of poems allowed us to delve into our expectations of all we want a poem to do.
Perhaps the poem and poet have other ideas about what they think we need to hear, but one
thing is clear, a poem is a playground for content, form and feeling, with an eye out for
the visual set up, an ear out for the rhythms and sounds, and a sixth sense about establishing
tone.
Chickadee:
On the surface, there are lovely sounds, and one senses the cold, the chickadees, but as one person put it, the poem is lacking in artifice, and another described it as "a lump of dull in need of kneading". Another wondered if it might come across any better as a prose paragraph, as there didn't seem to be any particular reason for the line breaks.
Aside from alliteration, slant rhyme, a repetition of "glass", a sweeping statement about wearying of the sublime, the poem hops along with details, but to what end? The ending doesn't bind us with a sense of mattering, and we are given little clue as to who Margaret is, aside from being the opening word, remembering in summer, outside, in contrast with his winter memory. She is mentioned a second time sitting still inside in winter in an unsettling brokenness of sunshine "falling in shadows all about her", now contrasted to the "bright" chickadees. If this is supposed to be a poem about relationship, for most of us, guesswork is necessary.
Small Fragments: These 10 "fragments" in translation give a very real and convincing portrayal of the devastation of Palestine and what it is like to live in Gaza. Touches of poetic imagination give hope, as in verse 6, (cypress dream... cloud as stream's lover, soil's fate) and 8 (The reason for the glass of water by your bedside: so the guardian angel can drink.)
Personification is all throughout: shadows, night, homes, laundry, even a wound . Because it is in fragments, perhaps it is up to the reader to sort out confusion and feel the importance of the writing the poem : #5 (balcony, newspaper, laundry -- will it break down quickly, or resist... until the poem bleeds out) and #9 even nighttime, come to shut the window/had its spirit broken, content with the poem.) . As the translators say, these words are important in ways we have yet to comprehend.
Out of these wounds: The words of Maya Angelou, Still I Rise come to mind from the title. Without knowing anything about Jay Hopler, (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/158256/what-do-i-want-with-eternity) perhaps you might not understand the poem, but capture a meditative mood.
The visual set up, with Capital letters at the beginning of each line, stanza space augmented by the space mid-line, accentuates a sense of fragmentation. Reinforcing the "disconnect, enjambments, juxtapositions like "Wet/scorch" give a sense of unpredictable. One senses urgency, and obstacles in the way to overcome. He moves from porch light, sunset, to celestial transcendence. The penultimate line could be read independently Make a wish, not that we would and also connect to the next line: not that we would /wish for anything but the impossible.
Knowing that Jay Hopler was fighting cancer and determined to finish his last book, puts a different context on wishes and brings the poem to life.
Political Plaintive: Plaintive is an adjective, not a noun like Lament (or Plaintiff) but the double p's and underpinning of sarcasm override any such technicalities perhaps.
One person was reminded of the feeling tone of American Ramble
We all recognize the songs, the myths, what we would like to think America was, used to be, could be. Especially now, the last two stanzas echo with yearning for a return of decency. Judith reminded us of the excesses of hypocrisy in America's "Golden Age", Salmon Chase and the changing of the motto E Pluribus Unum to "In God We Trust". Marna brought up "The New Rasputins" (Atlantic) If anything, we all would profit from our subconscious collections of beliefs, myths, news sources, judgements. The final "Don't I?" is both a looking at oneself in the mirror as well as implying perhaps we think we remember something one way... which maybe never was.
The Fear of God: A very different tone from what we think of with Robert Frost .
A bit of wry humor, but no embellishment, just keen-sighted clarity, economy of language.
Lovely metaphor of "uniform" (society's rules to conform), using "apparel" as the "curtain" of the inmost soul -- protection perhaps. Unlike the usual nature poem, here, he is addressing the ego in the cosmos... using the adjective "arbitrary" next to "god" which could mirror the God in the title. We didn't discuss the "fear" mentioned in the title. Nor does the poem for that matter.
You know what... Fun poem-- which brings an ordinary match to life as something quite different! Reading the prompt and her response helps the poem along. It might be easy to read the opening line as "popular" but hard to fathom what glue (from hooves whether horse or cow) has to do with it. Eugene Levy. The onomatopoeic "nick, tick, wick, stick, flickers" threads sparks throughout. I'd love to see a sequel of an interview with the little match, how it's faring in retirement, having served its purpose. Perhaps it has a secret about breathing and reaching forever?!
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