At the Entrance of a Love Poem, I Hesitate by Maya C. Popa; Keep My Poems by Yahya Ashour;
Nutshell:
At the Entrance: This poem intrigued everyone, and we easily could have spent an afternoon appreciating the multiple directions and possibilities of it offers for our understanding.
The title is unusual: A love poem entrance? How might you explain entering a love poem?
Why does the poet hesitate? Is she unsure of the poem, of love, or perhaps offput by the vast
treasury of love poems already written?
Each couplet begs multiple questions, and invites multiple responses, but most everyone agreed,
it did not feel like an exercise in frustration.
again", with regret? What is the implication of leaving through the window?
2nd Couplet: It's a fragment but implies the state of being in love, and then the "after", which
underscores the power of love, even if over, it is a primal shaping force. The word remainder,
could also be "what's left" as in math which echoes in the penultimate couplet as well
(multiplying gravities).
3rd couplet: a welcome image (whale turning slowly mistake for a continent) to explain "the
change" that love sets in motion, and yet as clueless as the gulls.
4th couplet. puzzling. What is the exquisite inquiry? If you don't know, but feel a response, is
that enough? Does it dissolve any question?
The next 5 couplets address the nature of a love poem, it would seem from a writer's point of
view. What are the conventions? Do they do the trick or is she mocking them? One person
wondered if Shakespeare were not doing the same thing in "Shall I compare thee to a summer's
day." How can form, convention "keep up" (note the enjambment/stanza break to emphasize
lagging behind) the heart's multiplying gravities?
The image of a gallery of mirrors, the final mention of "likeness" as a life gives a sense of
process and shaping, where the "we" of the poem could be the poet's lover or special person.
Although using the past tense, one senses it will be on-going and the poem ends on a positive
note.
One could spend a long time discussing how one knows who someone is-- starting with one's
own self. What lies behind a desire to write love poems. There is a lovely authenticity about
Maya Popa. Click the hyperlink to find out more about her, her PhD on wonder in poetry.
Keep My Poems: This title at first blush does not seem to have anything to do with the didactic
implications of form in poetry in the proverb the poet's father used (according to the note, for all
but poetry). How does the poet mean "Keep My Poems"? To whom is he speaking? He speaks
of parts of poems exposed, or tucked in, and uses the verb "lies", which could imply the sense of
poetry not telling truth, but given the context of the stanza, most probably is showing "how
poetry lies in a poet's satisfaction with their blanket". He uses for himself, the verb "pursuit"
which could harken to the historic etymology of going towards (pro) and sequi (to follow). For
those after lines which don't "fit their blankets" he uses the verb "hunt". Is he contrasting his
pursuit of "tender lines, for the sake of beauty"
, with those seeking outside their blankets? The
harsh verb, "amputate" and noun "butcher" evoke jarring images and we wondered if influenced
by his background as exile from Gaza. Yahya Ashour indeed visibly "chops" with two lines of
1only two syllables: exposed in 2nd stanza and for lines in the 3rd stanza, enjambed to that don't
fit their blankets. There are hundreds of different forms poetry can take, which determine the
nature of the message. Free verse has no rules, no set meter, no rhyme scheme, and no structural
requirements. but relies entirely on the natural rhythm of speech, natural pauses, and the poet's
choice of line breaks.
Pairing of poems on Poets Walk with sculptures in the MAG (Memorial Art Museum)
Sculpture Garden
If you wish a complete list of the 114 poems on Poets Walk, with the "poem tile prompts" kindly
let me know. I had done a lot of work with such pairing when Poet and Story walk were initiated
in 2008 as docent, to help appreciate such sculptures as Wailana, Unicorn Family, Creation
Myth, Vertical Ventaglio, 2 lines up-excentric, soliloquy. The poetry chosen for the walk is from
19th and 20th century poets who have a connection with Rochester, whether a visiting lecturer,
connected to BOA publications, DIAL magazine, Rochester Poets, founded in 1920 as the
Rochester, New York, chapter of the Poetry Society of America, or Just Poets (founded in 2004).
The pairings are merely suggestions, and are not intended to establish a formal connection to
either the poems and the sculptures. The poem tiles themselves were the "pithiest" language of
each poem chosen by the designer of the walk to suggest an array of themes
Playtime by William Bronk (1918-1999)
We wondered if "resumes" was the noun, resumé not the verb. The poem indeed hints at the
game of life and applies to the nature of art as a conversation, or theatre.
The Tally Stick by Jarold Ramsey (link to 1985 Rochester Review in which it is printed.)
[paired with Nathan Mabry: Process Art: (An Eye for an Eye)
We thought of a totem pole as the collection of our stories carved in Mountain mahogany (a
Northern Mexican wood, also found in the American SW). Arrowheads, crosses, events, history,
evidence of "the Year the World Went Wrong", wars. The metaphor of lengthening runes of our
lives suggests ancient secrets and mysteries. And yet, mention of regrets is followed by the
positive note, of the last 5 lines holding this tally stick, encouraging us to re-examine the signs.
Paired with the Nathan Mabry, an incongruous pairing of an oversized old man's head on a
young body, the outstretched arms are reminiscent of Plato (pointing up) and Aristotle (pointing
down), famously depicted at the center of Raphael's 1509 Renaissance fresco, The School of
Athens. Plato (pointing to the heavens) represents his theory of "Forms," suggesting that true
reality and universal truths exist in an ideal, spiritual realm beyond our physical world. Aristotle
(pointing to the earth): Symbolizes his focus on empiricism, observation, and the material world,
indicating that truth is found by studying the physical nature around us.
Brahma: written in 1856, and published in the November 1857 issue of The Atlantic.
[paired with Jun Kaneko, Untitled, “Dango}
It is named for Brahman, the universal principle of the Vedas. The sacred seven symbolizes
powerful deities who aspire for a higher state of being but are hindered by their desires. This
highlights the contrasts between spiritual aspirations and the limitations of earthly cravings.
Paired with the Dango (dumpling in Japanese) by Japanese-American Jun Kaneko.
I hyperlink for those interested in a little more depth.
Versus by Tony Cragg: + Li-Young Lee, One Heart. I showed the importance of walking around a
sculpture, as depending on the angle, one will have a very different view... just as in poetry. We
didn't have time to discuss the poem.
Lines from Octavio Paz + Pia Camil, Lover's Rainbow.
Lover’s Rainbow at the MAG is a 42-foot-wide, 16 1/2-ft tall arc of painted stainless steel rebar. compare with the
one on US-Mexico Border https://desertx.org/dx/archive/lovers-rainbow
https://zonaoctaviopaz.com/detalle_conversacion/151/nocturno-de-san-ildefonso/
Equus by Mary Hood, paired with Wailana which in Hawaiian means tranquil waters.
The poem is in 4 stanzas, and written after the selection of poets/poems for poets walk.
I want to stress that Poets Walk is not a definitive compendium of poems! It so happens that this ekphrastic is one of the best I have seen for this powerful sculpture by Deborah Butterfield.
Below is the entire poem.
Equus by Mary Hood
to Jody.
Head bowed a scaffolded horse
mummers the ghostly song of wind
moving through skeletal bronze-
is she hurt, exhausted. starved?
something seems not quite right.
Like a found poem with the familiar
refashioned, she was first constructed
of the commonplace, wood, scrap
metal, branches, junkyard stuff, plastic
a collage of the ordinary
then forged in bronze.
In winter snow gathers on her back.
In summer her patina blazes with sunlight.
In spring she gleams with rain droplets-
a horse for all seasons.
She has survived many years
but there comes a time.
She stands alone, riderless, tackless.
She has always been riderless
never owned by anyone but the wind
And if she were to loosen her hoofs
walk off into the distance she would
lift off, smoothly, flowingly
with the fluidity of winged
Pegasus.
Mary, a local poet, is a professor emerita of University of West Florida and has published several collections of
poetry and general articles on conservation and the environment and numerous scientific technical articles in the
field of microbial ecology. You will see it is dedicated to Jody, one of Mary's graduate students who went on to get a
PhD in microbiology and a successful career as a professor at University South Fl and then Dean, a mother,
grandmother, writer. also a championship equestrian rider…. such a beautiful soul..
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