Before the Blight by Ruth Stone 1915—2011; Alexa for Seniors in Easy Steps by Alexis N. Garcia; Happiness by Carl Sandburg - 1878 -1967; On Distinction by A. F. Moritz 1947; A LIST OF SHADOWS by Bruce McRae; CANTABILE by Emma Neale; An Illustration of Two Beauties by Hồ Xuân Hương
Additional comments from Poetry Oasis 6/26 on the above poems:
Additional comments about poems for June 17-19, 2026.
Because Poetry Oasis did not meet 6/19 due to Juneteenth, I add the discussion points brought up 6/26.
Before the Blight: If you did not know about the blight of Dutch Elm Disease which started in 1928 in the US, and did not grow up with Elms, or seeing their demise, you might think this is a lovely poem about summer, replete with roses that pretzel up a trellis in Mrs. Mix's garden and are compared to pink Limoges cabbage blooms, further compared to Rubens' nudes. This last detail accentuated for some the sensual/sexual nature underlying the poem. The 11 lines of the poem describe an idyllic summer world, rocked in maternal arms, but with a surprising twist at the 8th line of a bird, "telling me of the strangeness of myself".
The poem could have been a sonnet, perhaps, with another 3 lines -- and perhaps intentionally is shortened, like Adam and Eve cast out of the garden of Eden, suddenly aware of their nakedness,
their failure to resist the apple.
Returning to the title, the poem serves as a reminder of how good things are before some catastrophe, like war, famine, plagues, floods. Many felt the poem Cantabile (p. 3) created the same feeling of celebration of a beautiful world. In this lyric poem filled with beautiful sounds and rhythms, I have hyperlinked visuals for the bird, shearwater and the cypress macrocarpas.
Alexa for Seniors: We discussed this as a persona poem told in the voice of Alexa. This helped resolve the confusion in the third line (I don't want a smart home) and the reference to a t-gel coded augmented data body. This also might explain the lack of punctuation, the misspelling of rlly and 2 take for to take. Professor Xavier is a real reference. This led to a further discussion of use of chatbots and consequences not just on the younger generation, but on us all and our way of communicating.
Happiness: A good antidote poem to "Alexa" where happiness is not something to be "defined" but rather felt in the simplicity of a moment. Adjectives to describe the tone: peaceful, after the rather dismissive response to academics and "bosses" who most probably have never taken time to observe "happiness at work".
On Distinction: One person brought up the example of ossuaries in monasteries: no matter who is buried, all the skulls look the same. We felt a distinct sarcasm, starting with the title and first stanza with the mention of cockroach, often mentioned as the sole survivor of an apocalypse.
(Some recalled also Kafka and the metamorphosis of Gregor Samsa.)
List of Shadows: We enjoyed this exploration by list, and picked up on the "but there is so much people don't know about me", not matter how long or elaborate a list of what we truly are, but either hide, or about which we do not know. One possible understanding of the final not worth a mention, is to put humans in their place, rather like the poem above. Regardless of our complexity, the difficulty of understanding the shadow, "nobody" provides an unwritten commentary about who any of us are at all.
An Illustration: We discussed the parallel of Jane Austen's portrayal of British views of the role of marriage, such as in Sense and Sensibility written about 20 years after the birth of Hồ Xuân Hương, her Vietnamese counterpart. Marriage as duty, as expedient solution, and the problem both for wives and concubines, or the pleasure of relationship came up with mention also of
Nutshell of discussion 6/17
Before the Blight: The poem brought up many memories of dignified Elms. Dave, who graduated from Trinity College shared that the school song was "'Neath the Elms". Whether Elms on East Avenue or elsewhere, the opening line coupling "joy" with "indolent" sets a scene before Dutch Elm disease, .where for 8 lines, all seems wonderfully filled with beauty but also humor, with the roses "pretzeling" up a trellis; pink Limoges cabbage blooms like Rubens' nudes.
Published in 2002, perhaps readers would appreciate the comparison... and perhaps it was second nature to know the names of all that grows in meadows, orchards, woods. Is it possible for the generations growing up with i-phones, and with i-pads replacing books? For me the poem makes me long for those days. The turn of the poem doesn't lead to what happens after the blight, but rather captures the idea of how strange we humans are. And yet, in spite of that, we CAN feel rocked in the "sinewy arms of summer". We can make ourselves part of nature, not try to manage or destroy it.
The title is the only hint that there will be loss of something grand and beautiful. That is enough for me, to think how much has changed since the turn of the millenium, where classic humanities are in competition with virtual reality and AI slop. It was refreshing to read a well-crafted, uplifting poem to offset the disdainful lack of respect and dignity in the current leadership of Trump and his sycophants.
Alexa: Tongue-in-cheek look at how easily one can go down the rabbit hole of technology. It is a mirror image of the first poem. Vicki shared a fun story of her conversation with AI when she reported an error. It was most polite and thanked her, explaining that mistakes in details can occur as it works with large patterns. Neil brought up Janelle Shane[1]
And yes, worms can have not only 5 hearts but more.
Happiness: One person remarked that this was an unusual poem for Carl Sandburg. Everyone could relate to the sudden inexplicable sense of well-being that defies definition.
One person labeled the feeling of this poem as "unbothered". Whatever others think, let them, and whatever happiness is... see it swell into a moment of sharing food and fellowship.
Kathleen shared her story of preparing a wonderful afternoon in the Saratoga Springs gardens -- and this poem would be a perfect thank you to all who participated in baking biscuits, preparing strawberries and cream to celebrate the gardens.
On Distinction: Hungry has a lot of connotations... "Hungry i" or "Hungry Eyes" , the hungry for distinction indeed has a predatory feel of a "hungry eye" on those who seem to "make it".
The line that stopped us was second stanza, second line: a beer bottle, silicon fused by man,
almost indestructible, like a soul. What? Is that all that will last? It reminds me of On the Beach by Nevil Shute, where the signal picked up by survivors wasn't from a person at all; the wind was whipping a window shade, causing an entangled Coca-Cola bottle to tap repeatedly against a telegraph key.
The associations the poem brought up ranged from responses to 9/11 in NYC, to obsessions we seem to have on how old someone is. One criticism is that the poem seems to focus on extroverts. There are other kinds of ways of being, of "distinguishing" oneself than the contradictory last line. It is a harsh judgement to call our life "a paradise of demons casting each other out". Whoever writes the history I hope will include those who are not demons!
A List of Shadows. Not really a list as much as a meditation on shadows, beginning with the epigram from Shakespeare. The Jungian connection of the shadow of the self came up and how it is
important to know and recognize it in order to avoid the negative effect of it when repressed.
The story of Peter Pan and Wendy illustrates such importance. The Woman with no Shadow by Strauss also came up. An interesting conclusion of the list: the shadow of the Self (with a capital S) as "life's ghost a shade rummaging in the roses." Perhaps no one talks about it. The final "Not worth a mention" jars as if the poet is jaded and leaves the poem on a sarcastic note.
Cantabile: Beautiful use of musical metaphor that sings and flows. The opening stanza closing with "a passing sloop of rain" carries on to wheels, and soft "w" sounds, moving to the shearwater described as sooty, urged to the occlusives of arc /from a kelp-black rock. The green choir of macrocarpas sight-reading is delightful, and the ending perfect with wide bars of silence and a soloist who breaks open the bread of song...
An Illustration of Two Beauties: We focussed more on the visual paintings than the poem. Are the ladies both doing embroidery? Is the lady on the right admiring herself in the mirror instead of working? What stories are unwritten? What is the "willowy" fate? And what pleasures are omitted by the illustrator? Is it a moral lesson about hanging on to beauty?
What if the lady on the right were gazing at a modern day i-phone?
[1] She is not the founder of TED (technology, entertainment, design) but an artificial intelligence researcher, author, and humorist best known for her AI Weirdness blog, where she writes about the funny and often strange ways that AI algorithms behave. While she didn't found the organization, she is a notable figure in the community. She was a featured speaker at the TED2019 conference, where she delivered a popular talk titled "The danger of AI is weirder than you think".
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