For this last week of February, I am grateful to many sources for poems that have gone into this patchwork of tones and colors. A thank you to Eddie suggested Gary de Soto.** We have read many poets de Soto admires, like Philip Levine, Pablo Neruda. ** And heartfelt thanks to David Delaney who used the Jarrell poem as example of a 5-line poem laden with hidden messages that enhance the impact and meaning in his presentation to Just Poets on Saturday 2/15/25. I stumbled on this site : Nutshell https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/68931/when-yellow-ribbons-and-flag-waving-arent-enough which also includes it.
Poetry paints the colors of us in ways that call us to pay careful attention to what we might miss otherwise. To repeat the quote by Christian Wiman (thank you Barb!): Let us remember...that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both."
Nutshell
Billy Collins: Some Days: Borderline mockery perhaps is not a fair term for the wry tone of a Billy Collins poem. Nor do "cynical" or "sardonic" quite fit, as he is not writing a satire, but rather, in the case of this poem, allowing the reader to join in the challenges of being human, and to invite us to laugh at our own version of it. Poetry, a poet might think, is one place to exert control, and indeed, in the first 2 quatrains, each tidily ending with a period, we can enjoy his fun "playing". The tease on the first line "Some days I put people in their places" which is quickly (but only partially) completed with "at the table", light-heartedly interrupts the initial idea to take a turn away from some psychological battle into a more fanciful implication of playing with dolls, with an extra chuckle for the third line about no guarantee that either people or dolls might have certain features. We gladly follow along with the "other days" relating to feelings of otherways we are "being played with". He includes us, with his aside, "very funny" and we get to see his point as a writer. But, does he ever allow the poem to take over? Is there more to this poem than just a chuckle, and if not, is that enough? Many participants had memories triggered of dolls, others felt it was a glimpse at a typical day in a life.
There's sometimes a sense of relief, to feel there is no worry whether there is a "point" (or not). It allows the reader to take the poem in whatever stride one is inclined to take at that moment.
Jack Gilbert plays a different kind of game with "Half the Truth". Indeed, many of the details could be parts of a story, and we are reminded how complex "truth" really is in these 16 lines. Pleasant rhythms, alternating short lines such as the nugget "Going south" which could be about the actual Geese, or where a state of "discontent" could take you. We enjoyed the words "bedraggled" and "panoply", which stood out from the vernacular tone of the poem. Panoply at first, seemed to be implying an "invisible" layer of God's omnipotence, or as Kathy suggested, perhaps easier to understand, as a reference to God as seasonal colors. The theme of resting, (and the importance for plants of lying dormant), waiting, seemed accentuated from the alternating florid / matter of fact tones, like seasons. People liked the reassuring note on which the poem ended.
Billy Collins: Death of Allegory is a witty treatment of Allegory itself, and some noted the Spencerian references to Fairie Queen, with which Billy of course would be well-versed. Back in 1589, Spencer would be the first to admit that this was was "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devices"... Collins skillfully inserts the contemporary world (and much we regret in it that seems to shun those Allegorical figures so ready to guide us). In spite of the humor, the poem points to a very real lament of the loss of what poetry provides, if not a subtle caveat to try to safeguard it.
Oranges: We could see this vivid poem as a silent film. Once person remarked the tiny cinquain-like poem on lines 5-7: Frost cracking/beneath my steps/my breath before me/
then gone. (syllable count 3-4-5-2 variation of the Cinquain form 2-4-6-8-2) We noted the anticipatory gestures, such as the verb choice of breathing before the drugstore, enjoyed the wonderful images (tiered like bleachers), details of orange, fire, porchlight which burned yellow night and day in any weather. There could be an implication of the girl "lifting" a chocolate, with perhaps the lady behind the counter and the boy were complicit in covering up for her theft. Most thought the lady was rooting for the young man and for the success of his "date" as a "rite of passage." It's an advantage to have so many ways to see the story! It's reinforced in the way he lines up "the lady's eyes met mine,/and held them, knowing/Very well what it was all/About. We, as readers can only make conjecture as to what the "about" is about!
Many thought the poem should accompany a Rockwell painting!
**Gary de Soto, known for a body of work that deals with the realities of growing up in Mexican- American communities. This commentary delightful! (do click on hyperlinks!) from Poetry, June 1983 is suggested by Eddie who provided some links about the poet,
Gary de Soto: "As a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican Americans. I’m not a cheerleader. I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life.”
“Soto establishes his acute sense of ethnicity and, simultaneously, his belief that certain emotions, values, and experiences transcend ethnic boundaries and allegiances. “Soto's remembrances are as sharply defined and appealing as bright new coins,” wrote Alicia Fields in the Bloomsbury Review. “His language is spare and simple yet vivid.” But it is his joyful outlook, strong enough to transcend the poverty of the barrio, that makes his work so popular. As he told Hector Avalos Torres in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, writing “is my one talent. There are a lot of people who never discover what their talent is … I am very lucky to have found mine.” Reminiscent of Philip Levine, Pablo Neruda.
Give and Take Ghazal: I enjoyed imagining these two poets choosing two words, wondering how they decided who went first, and how many "takes" they took! The 10 couplets can read as series of odd non-sequiturs, and a fun game where sense is not the goal. The phrase "blaming myself when I mistake tolerance for interest" piqued some interest; Come on, Democracy, a clever invitation for a variation on Patrick Henry's "Give me..."
Borgès : The "Just" or a translation of the Italian (see original below) could be "the Righteous". This site has the Italian version and illustration of Norman Rockwell Christmas (I copy the Italian text below) I highly recomment this fascinating article about Borgès and how he dealt with his hereditary blindness. On the Thursday, we ended on the Borgès. In bringing up the reference to "Stevenson", we thought perhaps it might be a slant a reference to R.L. Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses and George mentioned visiting his home in Lake Placid where he was treated for his pulmonary illness.
Back to the poem: oh to have a world filled with such people. Make sure to notice them and thank them. The link that provided this poem also mentioned Randall Jarrell.
Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner: As I mentioned, the 5-line poem was used in a workshop on delving deeper into a poem's meaning. It provides a highly effective "sound track" with alternating drum beats of iambs and trochees, definitive spondées. The end rhyme in lines 2 and 5 (froze/hose)-- perhaps subconsciously sends a message that what is chilling about war is hosed away. Similarly slant rhyme. the ee sound of sleep/dream; the I rhyming in
night/fighters/died, the surprising use of the past tense by the speaker of the poem announcing his own death is powerful.
On Wednesday, we followed it with a more light-hearted read of Gary de Soto, Ambition https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=144&issue=4&page=10
and Judith offered this poem by Gwendolyn Brooks: https://endarkenment.com/hair/poetry/brooks.htm
I also sent out a side by side of John Donne, The Canonization and Paul's tweak on it, The Intercession.
I guisti by Jorge Luis Borgès (1981)
Un uomo che coltiva il suo giardino, come voleva Voltaire.
Chi è contento che sulla terra esista la musica.
Chi scopre con piacere una etimologia.
Due impiegati che in un caffè del sud giocano in silenzio agli scacchi.
Il ceramista che premedita un colore e una forma.
Il tipografo che compone bene questa pagina che forse non gli piace.
Una donna e un uomo che leggono le terzine finali di un certo canto.
Chi accarezza un animale addormentato.
Chi giustifica o vuole giustificare un male che gli hanno fatto.
Chi è contento che sulla terra ci sia Stevenson.
Chi preferisce che abbiano ragione gli altri.
Tali persone, che si ignorano, stanno salvando il mondo.
