Poems for Sept. 2+4

 Trees by W.S. Merwin; Telescope by Louise Glück; MMXXVI  by Rowan Ricardo Phillips; Refrain by Jameson Fitzpatrick; The blessed Angels  by Toi Derricotte; What You Missed That Day You Were absent from Fourth Grade  by Brad Aaron Modlin; Then Again  by Rae Armantrout

Trees immediately triggered anecdotes about trees, associations, experiences, as well as the work Merwin did in Maui, preserving trees.  Two more poems were read, that are so compelling, I'll use them for next week!  Merwin tucks in between the lines what we intuit, as Graeme puts it, "crystalizes what should be obvious".  Slipping in an adverb like "tenderly" but speaking of trees, gives a human aspect to these great breathing beings with their communicative roots, although he says nothing of that.  We name, and think to draw closer to someone by doing  -- but trees are beyond such  artifice, and "carry us"  with their presence without needing record.  

Neilie brought up the delightful book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.  https://allpoetry.com/poem/8538991-The-Giving-Tree-by-Shel-Silverstein  Such selflessness in a tree!

Elaine R. read "Rain, Light" from the website of the merwinconservancy.org -- yet another dimension inspired by his poem "Trees."

 All day the stars watch from long ago

my mother said I am going now
when you are alone you will be all right
whether or not you know you will know
look at the old house in the dawn rain
all the flowers are forms of water
the sun reminds them through a white cloud
touches the patchwork spread on the hill
the washed colors of the afterlife
that lived there long before you were born
see how they wake without a question
even though the whole world is burning

Telescope provided a lens to re-examine our connection to the web of life.  Many poets have mentioned how we are but "stardust" -- but to imagine stars light years away breaks away from any conventional thoughts of time and space.  Mention of Sci-Fi, observation of the use of the second pronoun "you" to mean both readers and the poet, the shift in perception, putting down the instrument, and re-considering relationship-- a tangible sense of separation, as she separates from her viewing tool.  For sure, we reveled in how the poem made us ponder about "what's out there" as we were transported to travel with her.

MMXXVI:  Do people still use Roman numerals?  Why did this poet opt for them to say "2026"? 

From the opening line, he plays with contradiction -- how can we understand peace, if there is no war-- and vice versa?  Relationship here, is not about here vs. there, but specifics of our earth: sea/shore..our myths like the phoenix rising from ashes; a slant political reference to ICE, but not capitalized, only a different version of man's doings, where dumb means silent, but also the idiocy of war, our monuments.

The line breaks between the tercet stanzas  indeed chip an interruption into the flow... and then the opening quatrain with the first word, War, has echo in the final quatrain with the first word, Again.

Begun... never done... 

We marveled at how things really are not separate and how opposites really are necessary!

The "Poem of experience" echoes Blake's 1794 "Songs of Experience".  Judith picked up on the repetition in the second stanza, "The Night" -- 5 times thinking of Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra when she cries "O Anthony,  O Anthony, O Anthony".  

In the poet note, Rowan refers to feeling that the events of a single year cannot be separated but follow a recursive structure of repetition, interruption, return.  His poem "is less a commentary on its moment, than an attempt to inhabit it."

When poets consciously or subconsciously tap into the wealth of all that has been written, it is to me a joy. 

We were well-served by Jameson Fitzpatrick in her poem Refrain  where she mentions in her note  T.S. Eliot, Anne Sexton, François Villon J.M. Barrie and Louise Glück.

Identifying sources of mermaids,  (Eliot) snows of yesteryear, (Villon)  Peter Pan and lost boys in Neverland (Barrie) enriched the reading but more than these references, several people researched the poet who is trans which allowed a better understanding of the poem.  Given the repeat of  the layered meaning in the  word "still", we noted the following pattern:  the opening tercet, Sometimes still...  followed by two couplets and a single line and the modified refrain, starting with the tercet Somehow still, followed by a single line, a couplet, ... a divided couplet  I changed my face// but my face was still there: and two more couplets. 

Still, as in persistently, shifts to the meaning that expresses surprising in that divided couplet.  I was once this, but now I am this once called that!  It seemed to be her personal journey, and the transformation from mythical mermaids singing, to actual sisters supporting her change underlined her actual physical change.   

A beautiful lyrical piece regardless of any of these comments.

What you missed....  coupled with the voice of Pádraig Ó Tuama, this poem is pure enchantment .  Do such teachers exist?  Apparently, some do, given the sharing of memories -- but oh would it not be a wonderful thing for every child who attends school to have an authority figure doubling as a wise and compassionate grandmother?  The humor is delightful,  (ex. how to chant the Psalms during cigarette breaks!) just subtle enough, yet, also touching on very real circumstances such as believing "the house you wake in is your home", coming hard on the heels on the reassurance that you didn't feel you had forgotten to do something important.  Imminently humane in the understanding of all our doubts and misgivings, summed up in the complete sentence, I am.  The ending with the metaphor of the math equation is simply brilliant.  Yes, when you add it all up, you see everything is going to be OK.

Then Again: You can read the title as two separate words, when "then" will repeat, again, or as the expression on the other hand.  The poem picked up the feel of recursive we saw especially in the second poem.

That the poem is in two parts, both starting with "Then again" provides a mirror effect.  The luscious sounds, echoes of rhymes in half  and chaff work to weave an understanding of meaning, looking at it both inside  (where is seems contained, completed) and out (loose, far flung, dubious like rumor or cottonwood chaff).  Oh the labels we put on things.   Had you ever thought of meaning as promiscuous? Perfect choice in this setting.