June 3 + 5

“Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.-- Carl Sandburg

Revolt or Rot, Lover! by Brian Potts; A Witnessing by Ted Kooser; Migration by Jenny George; For/Against Summer, A Spell by Valzhyna Mort; On Growing Old  by John Masefield; An Emeritus Addresses the School by John Ciardi ;  Some Rules by Wendy Cope 

      

Revolt or Rot, Lover! -- To read or not to read an author's bio, is perhaps an optional question,

but brings up the debate about whether a "work of art should speak for itself". (see Death of the

Artist) We have seen in our discussions so many times that knowing more about the poet or the

circumstances of the poem helps round out the understanding of what is on the page. The poet

who penned this writes a mockery of a bio, in the spirit of revolt. Using abab rhyme in sonnet

form, the poet cleverly turns the tables in the last couplet to have the last laugh and confirm a

subtle chuckle in the exclamation point after the palindromic title. We enjoyed imagining the

scene of a demonstration, the placard, the quick sketch of the girl holding it, with the outward

signs of sympathetic rebellion (Che Guevara t-shirt) and perhaps implied elite standing ruffled

with righteousness. The third quatrain is less clear. The 3 lines after the question, "What's

wrong now" could be part of the question or her answer. Death of legalese, unmasked love,

endless global peace are all good. What exactly has gone backward? The poet opens up a bigger

question about protest, rebellion, as fixing the palindrome by reversing will not change a thing.

A Witnessing: The first and last word of this six couplet poem is alone. Interesting that for some

readers, the ending couplet has a positive spin, a mindful moment with no distractions, which

brings us closer to nature. The enjoyment of the personification and images of the 4 + couplets

describing the tussling of trees, for some outweighs the effect of the reader feeling as exhausted

as the trees. For others, the poem feels overwritten, and as the Arab poet last week suggests,

goes beyond the blanket. If the poem had ended with the blustery wind stumbling away/and it

was all over, one wouldn't connect to the title. Is there a religious connotation intended? or a

counter-meaning ? Witnessing is often associated with Christian religion, as proof and testimony

of God's work in the world. If the poem started without "Alone at my window" would the final

alone change?

I think of Carl Sandburg saying: “Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting

to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the

unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.--

How might you apply this to Kooser's snapshot of a moment witnessed?

Migration. I do recommend listening to Jenny George reading the poem. She stresses 3rd line

the "in" on back IN life. This emphasizes the repeated, italized back in, back in -- the return of

the crows and spring, alive again after a long winter. Crows carry diverse implications across

cultures and contexts, serving as symbols of wisdom, transformation, spiritual messages, and

death, however only some actually migrate and not as far as songbirds.

The indented words are examples of parts of aliveness with mention of water, and a jarring

juxtaposition of blood on snow as an example of beauty. The wooden rattles we thought of being

the bare branches.

"Crows like restless souls wanting back in life" is a provocative image, but

puzzling like the juxtaposition of beauty with drops of bright/blood. It might be helpful to

examine the two sets of lines, the left-justified broken into groups of 3 and 5 . The indented 8

lines, are broken into a 5 line question and 3 fragments on 3 lines starting with an em-dash as if

taking a large gulp of air. The second em-dash interrupts "to be startled by beauty" interrupted in

turn with a seeming contradiction and a period. A small 3-word fragment of an afterthought

elaborates perhaps what we want in life: to be radiant.Although I didn't bring it up, I am reminded 

of the story of Snow White and the opening the lines, "three drops of blood fell on the snow-white linen"... 

and Snow White's mother imagines her daughter's beauty would be "lips as red as blood, skin as white as snow". 

She escapes her evil step-mother, temporarily, living with those 7 dwarves, but put into a sleep by a poisoned

apple broken only by the kiss of a prince and returns to life.

For/Against Summer, A Spell: Do listen audio and read about the poet Valzhyna Mort .

As a bilingual poet, writing first in her native Belarus, she picks up the theme of death, whether

it be a plague or war. The anaphor and accumulating repeat of the word despite relentlessly

hammers. We noted her subtle change of voice repeated in the line despite the planted crosses

and flowers cut. She creates a steady rhythm, original compounds such as sorrowship dues,

speech-made wind; sore-throat roosters and swallows infuses the 14 lines with alliterations,

rhyming. We noted the bite into paradox: bile in the buttercup; the repeat of chill, chill extended

to children; the repeat of winter first of hearts, then winter of children.

In the title, For/against Summer interlaces both what should make you be in favor, or opposed.

Summer should be indifferently independent to a war, to sorrow. Indeed, despite the continual

back and forth of seasons, life/death in a spell of time, there is a mournful stress on the losses as

summer returns. Summer, season that normally casts a spell of growth of what will be a good

harvest, and yet, nothing can break the destructive spell.

We agreed that this sonnet was incredibly moving and a powerful example of a form beautifully

crafted.

On Growing Old: Masefield( 1878-1967) wrote this when he was 41 years old, in 1919. He did

live another 48 years, but one senses in this poem, the measured wisdom of an older man who

has made peace with the inevitable. Perhaps the poignant sadness is memory of all those taken

down in World War I. It would seem that the 28 lines are a double sonnet. It opens and closes

addressing Beauty (both capitalized). If broken into 2 parts, the first seems an autumnal

reflection on Beauty, memory of "the fire of it before the embers". The second part implores

Beauty not to forsake us, recognizing that it be the source of wisdom and passion that allow us to

make peace with all else.

An Emeritus Addresses the School: John Ciardi (1916-1986) is well known for his book

published in 1957, How Does a Poem Mean. Notice, if asking "What does a poem mean?", there

is a danger of summarizing with the aim of arriving at an answer. Instead, Ciardi explores the

mechanics and effects such as emotional resonance which encourages greater participation of the

reader.

In this poem, the irony of an Emeritus giving a speech, not intended for delivery to a graduating

class, pokes fun at the times and role of school. Written in 1974, the mockery of the "altitude of

Intro Psych" or indulgence in Indian mysticism (perhaps implying the use psychedelics) where

nouveau-glib means outdated avant-garde ends with a cryptic description of what happens to

"elite" graduates decades latter. The poem ends by returning to the death-wish-- and what it is

we really are wishing whether a sophomore or facing a terminal illness or old age on the brink of

death or simply caught up in wishing for something different. It is quite a contrast to themessage 

and delivery of the Masefield advice on how to face aging. The mindfulness

mentioned at the end corresponds to the title of the collection from which this poem comes. The

Little That Is All.

Some Rules: A villanelle is a highly structured form with specific rules. The form allows the

"two rules", stated in the first stanza on lines 1 and 3, to end the poem side by side. There is also

the advice first line of the 4th and 5th tercets. As one person commented, the poem is more than

"gimmicky" and is creative with the "unk" sounds, which are far from the flowery latinate

vocabulary in English! One person was reminded of Polonius and his advice in Hamlet. The

advantage here, is that it's far less long-winded, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek.