Stone wall reflections (audio)

On my walk through the Franklin Town Forest, I came upon an Eagle Scout project doing some trail work. That and the stone walls I find in these woods prompt the reflections as I think out loud and share my thoughts today.

Enjoy!

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to knowWhat I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence."

The full text of Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" can be found here

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173530

two parallel walls at one point in the Franklin Forest

orange numbers

listen to ‘orange numbers’ on audioBoom

The text for "Orange Numbers" can be found here

http://www.quietpoet.com/2007/08/orange-numbers.html

Galway Kinnell to Read Rilke's Duino Elegies

I will miss the Dodge Poetry Festival this year. It seems like it will be another good one. If you are around Newark, NJ, see if you can participate.

Galway Kinnell to Read Rilke's Duino Elegies at the Dodge Poetry Festival   Rainer Maria Rilke's masterpiece, the Duino Elegies, opens with "Who, if I screamed out, would hear among the hierarchies/of angels?" This haunting and disturbing question begins one of the most influential poetic sequences from the first half of the twentieth century. At times soaring through spiritual heights, at others quietly observant of the earthiest facts, the ten Duino Elegies draw the reader or the listener into an intimate encounter with one of the most curious, questioning and original minds to ever write poetry. New translations of Rilke's work into English have appeared with increasing frequency over the last eighty years. Festival Poet Galway Kinnell is one of many poets of his generation whose sense of what a poem or poetic sequence could do was deeply affected by his reading of the Duino Elegies. His The Book of Nightmares, also a sequence of ten poems, is, at least in part, a response to Rilke's earlier collection. Like Rilke, Kinnell is capable of an interior soaring, a delving into the self that goes deeper than notions of self and other. Also like Rilke, he is willing to project himself out into the physical world, into animals, plants, even minerals, and sense our kinship with the nonhuman. For Kinnell, these explorations are not leading in opposite directions: Attention to the things of the earth is attention to the sacred, and we are sacred because we are part of the earth. Wallace Stevens, commenting on the ancient epics, once wrote that the great poems of heaven and hell had been written, but what was missing was the great poem of the earth. It could be argued that both Rilke and Kinnell have tried to write it. It is no wonder that Kinnell would be drawn to translating Rilke, or that his translation of the The Essential Rilke (with Hannah Liebmann) has been widely praised for its capacity to capture both the earthiness of Rilke's language and the power of his spiritual yearning.

So we are very excited that on Saturday, October 9, at the Dodge Poetry Festival, Galway Kinnell will read his translation of Rilke's Duino Elegies in its entirety. It will mark the first time he has read the entire sequence in performance, and offers the rare opportunity to hear one of the great poetic sequences read by one of our most influential poets. This is only one of many special events at this year's Festival. Take a few minutes to look over our Festival Program and read the Descriptions of Festival Events to learn more about the variety of Conversations and Festival Poet Readings we have planned for you. If you haven't purchased your Festival tickets yet, keep in mind that all events this year are taking place in performance venues that, unlike open-sided tents, have fixed seating capacities. If you want to guarantee a seat for the evening events, you should purchase your tickets in advance. -Martin Farawell, Program Director, Poetry

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Remembering Lucille Clifton

Lucille has passed on from this world. I had the pleasure of hearing her during the last several Dodge Poetry Festivals that I attended. She was special.

From 2008:



From 2006:




"Who can distinguish one human voice amidst such chorus of desire?"

What teachers make

Taylor Mali does a good job delivering his poem "What teachers make". This is a bit old coming from 2005 but still valid. There are other versions on YouTube that are not as edited for language.

This is using language judiciously and effectively. I approve of the content within this context.



Of note, Billy Collins (former poet laureate of the US) is also on the stage with Taylor when this was recorded.

Hat tip to RIFuture.org

April is poetry month

If you haven't visited quiet poet recently to read any of my poetry, click on over to read one of the following sherku:

• MBTA View
• MBTA Announcement
• Change Congress - earmarks
• Change Congress - public funding
• Confident writer
• Change Congress
• commuter
• sacred space
• timing
• hot Tang
• no elevator

Enjoy!

Poem in Your Pocket Day - April 17th

Celebrate the first national Poem In Your Pocket Day!

The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 17.

Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. Create your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or let us know how you will celebrate Poem In Your Pocket Day by emailing npm@poets.org.

In this age of mechanical and digital reproduction, it's easy to carry a poem, share a poem, or start your own PIYP day event. Here are some ideas of how you might get involved:

Start a "poems for pockets" give-a-way in your school or workplace Urge local businesses to offer discounts for those carrying poems Post pocket-sized verses in public places Handwrite some lines on the back of your business cards Start a street team to pass out poems in your community Distribute bookmarks with your favorite immortal lines Add a poem to your email footer Post a poem on your blog or social networking page Project a poem on a wall, inside or out Text a poem to friends

A Third Body - Robert Bly

This April, I have determined to read as many of my poetry book collection as I can. I am starting with two a day for the train ride. To skip along like a stone on the surface. To become more familiar with the author and to dive deeper when the spirit moves.

In the book, Loving a Woman in Two Worlds by Robert Bly I found this and need to share it.

---------------

A Third Body

A man and a woman sit near each other, and they do not long
at this moment to be older, or younger, nor born
in any other nation, or time, or place.
They are content to be where they are, talking or not-talking.
Their breaths together feed someone whom we do not know.
The man sees the way his fingers move;
he sees her hands close around a book she hands to him.
They obey a third body that they have in common.
They have made a promise to love that body.
Age may come, parting may come, death will come.
A man and a woman sit near each other;
as they breathe they feed someone we do not know,
someone we know of, whom we have never seen.


copyright 1985 - Robert Bly

April is National Poetry Month

Give poetry a chance, read a poem.

Visit quiet poet and cruise amongst my sherku and other poems I have written there.

Or check out the poetry archives at poets.org

April is National Poetry Month

Click on the image to find out the various programs being organized by the Academy of American Poets for the month of April.

Galuppi Baldassare - Kris Delmhorst

Kris Delmhorst sang this Friday night. I picked up the album and am listening to the wonderful lyrics, marveling at how she did what she did. "Some of the poems are set verbatim to music, some dismantled and reassembled in significantly new renditions, others merely used as the jumping-off point for Delmhorst's own literate lyrical take."

For more background check out here and here (the original poem by Robert Browning)

Galuppi Baldassare

Oh Galuppi Baldassare, though I never knew your name,
it’s thanks to Mr. Browning you are with us just the same.
Thanks to Mr. Browning, blowing on the flame…

Well here you come with your old music, and here’s all the good it brings-
you say they lived like this in Venice when the merchants were the kings,
and though I never left old Boston, still you showed me everything

Did the young folks take their pleasure? Was the ocean warm in May?
Did the parties start at midnight, did they roll until midday?
And did the ladies bloom like bellflowers, every time you’d start to play?

Well I bet that they all loved you, I bet they stood around and cheered,
saying “that’s what I call music, good for joy and good for tears,
now let’s stop all this talking, and let it fill our ears.”

And the minor third so bitter, the six chord like a sigh,
suspension, solution, asking must we die, must we die must we die?
And the seventh says well fellas, life might not last, but we can try…

So were you happy? I was happy. You still happy? Yes, and you?
Then more kisses! Why’d we stop them, when a million seemed so few?
There’s something in that music, lord it must be answered to.

Then they left you for their fortune, in due time one by one.
Some had lives that came to nothing, some did things they’d better not have done,
and then death stepped up and took em where they’ll never see the sun…

Oh but you you ghostly cricket, singing where the house has burned,
‘dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned,’
but what’s left behind I wonder, when the kissing has adjourned?

‘Dust and ashes,’ so you tell me, and I cannot say you’re wrong,
still those dear dead dancing ladies with their hair so soft and long
stir a little in their slumber, every time we play your song.

‘Cause the minor third’s still bitter, the six chord makes us sigh,
suspension, solution, asking must we die, must we also die?
And the seventh still says well, life might not last, but we can try…