Poem of the Day: "Apprehensions" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 30, 2014 is "Apprehensions" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.internal.org/Sylvia_Plath/Apprehensions.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Apprehensions" consists of twenty lines of irregular free verse divided into four stanzas of five lines each.  The word "apprehensions" has three dictionary definitions:  1 anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen; 2 understanding; grasp; and 3 the action of arresting someone.  The poem may be interpreted through one or more of these definitions.

Anxiety and fear pervade the poem.  The sun is described as "bleeding" in the first stanza.  In the second stanza, the wall is described as "clawed and bloody;" a metaphor compares the speaker's mood as that of a "spiral into a well;" "sourness" is used to describe the speaker's world.  In the third, the words "wince" and "fist" and "terror" are used.  The final stanza tells of ominous birds and blackness.

Despite the fear and anxiety, the speaker demonstrates a remarkable insight into the inner workings of the nightmarish world.  The speaker is aware of the wall, which changes color from white to grey to red to black.  In the first stanza, the speaker describes the ethereal realm in some detail and obviously feels a certain sense of belonging in it as evidenced by the line "they are my medium."

Finally, although perhaps a bit of a stretch, the poem may be seen as "arresting" or "stopping" the reader.  The reader must suspend his perception of the world in order to attempt to enter the mind and world of the poet.

Poem of the Day: "Among the Narcissi" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 28, 2014 is "Among the Narcissi" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.internal.org/Sylvia_Plath/Among_the_Narcissi.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

William Carlos Williams was an acquaintance of Plath's and his influence on her poetry perhaps may be seen in "Among the Narcissi."  It could pass for a poem of the Imagist movement with its non-traditional choice of subject matter, precisely chosen words, and clear image.  The employment of narcissi (pictured), thought steeped in mythology, is not used for its mythological allusion, and offers a refreshing change in floral metaphor versus the outmoded rose.

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Special Feature: "The First Thanksgiving" by Steven Wittenberg Gordon

The First Thanksgiving

Steven Wittenberg Gordon

They were the Flower of May

Those brave souls who

Left all they knew behind to sail unto

The Great Unknown.

Many did not survive the passage.

Many more perished within months

Of their arrival in the new world.

Disease took many.

Starvation many more.

Misguided they put most

Of their meager resources

Into building a temple to their god,

A god that drove them

Out of one land

Only to suffer greater still in another.

The natives of that land

Worshiped a different god.

They took pity on them.

Showed them how to net fish,

Sow corn and hunt for deer.

Legend has it that the aliens

Feasted their true saviors

One bright autumn day

By way of giving thanks

To them for their lives.

Poem of the Day: "All Appearance" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 26, 2014 is "All Appearance" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.internal.org/Sylvia_Plath/All_Appearance.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"All Appearance" consists of six free verse stanzas of three lines each.  No rhymes or other poetic devices bind them, so the stanzas are not traditional tercets; however, the second is enjambed to the third as is the fourth to the fifth.  Many of Plath's poems that have been examined this month have a similar form.  The first and final stanzas could stand alone as haiku-like poems.

"All Appearance" is an enigmatic poem.  Given Plath's history, it may be safe to conclude that the poem is about Plath's ambivalence toward being a mother.  The first line may be metaphor for her infant child--a smiling thing into which food is put.

The second stanza may mean that while every day is like a new day for the infant, "Monday in her mind," the daily care of the infant has become repetitive and boring for the mother, all "ampersands and percent signs."  The speaker muses upon these ironic "contradictions" in the third stanza.

The fourth stanza may literally be about making a dress with the aid of a sewing machine.  There are also undertones of self mutilation or suicide--items that are never far from the surface in many Plath poems.

In the fifth stanza, the speaker marvels at what a perfect creature her infant child is, comparing it to a "Swiss watch."  In the final stanza, it is apparent that the speaker's heart is torn between the beauty and miracle of her infant and her duty to cater to its every need.  The stars may be metaphor for the years of the mother's life that she must devote to the child--including the years she will spend teaching the child her ABCs.

Poem of the Day: "Aftermath" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 25, 2014 is "Aftermath" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.internal.org/Sylvia_Plath/Aftermath.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Aftermath" is comprised of fourteen lines divided into two stanzas, the first of eight lines, the second of six, a nod to the Petrarchan sonnet form.  Although written in free verse, most lines contain four poetic feet, and the second stanza contains an end-line rhyme and a strong end-line consonance.

The poem mocks the rubberneckers and lookie-loos who delight in observing the calamities of others.  The owner of the burned down house is compared to Medea (pictured), which may imply that the tragedy is of the owner's making http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/372086/Medea.

Poem of the Day: "Morning Song" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 24, 2014 is "Morning Song" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/morning-song.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Morning Song" is comprised of six three-line stanzas that are not formal tercets.  The final two stanzas are enjambed.  The rhythm is irregular.

The poem begins with the birth of a baby.  The speaker, the mother of the baby, is presumably Plath, as she was known for her ambivalence toward motherhood and toward being a mother.  The speaker feels no maternal attachment to her child as is evident in the third stanza.  In the fifth stanza, the mother compares herself to something bovine and her baby to something parasitic and feline.  The poem ends with the approach of dawn and the baby howling--its "morning song."

Poem of the Day: "Elm" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 22, 2014 is "Elm" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178964.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Elm" is dedicated to the poet Ruth Fainlight (b. 1931) (pictured), who was a friend of Sylvia Plath's.  Although born in New York, she has lived in England almost all of her life.  In 2008, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.  Reference to this and additional biographical information, as well as an audio recording of one of her poems, may be found here:  http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/ruth-fainlight.

"Elm" is comprised of fourteen stanzas of three lines each.  They are not formal tercets; rather, each three-line stanza ends with a period and does not seem to relate to the stanza that follows, almost as though each is a stand-alone, haiku-like poem.  "Elm" is an enigmatic, difficult poem that appears to be about an elm but is probably metaphor for something, perhaps love, death, or homicidal tendencies.

The use of pronouns is particularly vague and confusing.  For example, in the first stanza, I, she, it, and you are used.  Who is I?  The tree?  The speaker?  Who is she? The tree again?  What is it?  The bottom?  A buttocks?  The tap root?  A penis?  Hell?  Who is you?  The reader?  The speaker?  Ruth Fainlight?  Some other third person?

Poem of the Day: "Blackberrying" by Sylvia Plath

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 21, 2014 is "Blackberrying" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178965.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Blackberrying" contains three free verse stanzas of nine lines each.  The rhythm is irregular.  There are occasional rhymes, and there is frequent use of enjambment.

"Blackberrying" could well be a perfectly innocent, uplifting, pastoral poem about a day spent picking blackberries along a meandering sheep path near the sea.  Sadly, the poem was composed by Sylvia Plath, so it is a safe bet that blackberrying is a metaphor for something sinister, such as death, suicide, and/or the oppression of women.  Hints that it is the latter may be found in the last stanza.

The wind slaps "phantom laundry" in the speaker's face, an intrusive reminder that the chore of doing her family's laundry hangs like a pall over her leisurely stroll.  The speaker follows a "sheep path," and who but sheep follow such a path?  Sheep serve as metaphor for women who blindly assume the role that society expects of them.

Poem of the Day: "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 20, 2014 is "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178962.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Ariel" is comprised of 31 lines arranged in ten stanzas of three lines each followed by a final one line stanza.  Many of the stanzas could be said to be formal tercets as some pairs are connected through rhyme, strong assonance, or strong consonance.  Many stanzas contain internal rhymes, consonances, and/or assonances.

The title means "lion of God" in Hebrew http://www.behindthename.com/name/ariel and is the name of an angel (pictured).  This is alluded to in the first line of the second stanza.

The first three stanzas appear to refer to the act of giving birth.  "Stasis" in the womb is followed by growing, pivoting to be ready for delivery, and finally the "furrow" or vagina "splits" to allow delivery.

The rest of the poem is enigmatic.  There is imagery of nakedness supported by reference to Lady Godiva (who rode through her town naked on horseback).  There is another allusion to childbirth, "the child's cry," in the eighth stanza.  And, of course, a reference to suicide.

Poem of the Day: "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 19, 2014 is "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178961.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Lady Lazarus" consists of twenty-eight stanzas of three lines each.  Many, but not all, of the stanzas could be classified as formal tercets, as there are rhymes and/or strong assonances and/or consonances that connect them.  The rhythm is irregular.

Sylvia Plath committed suicide when she was thirty.  In the seventh stanza, the speaker reveals that she is also thirty.  The first stanza refers to previous suicide attempts, one every ten years.  Plath attempted suicide at nineteen, and her father died suddenly when Plath was eight, a trauma which triggered a profound depression.  So, it is reasonable to conclude that Plath is the speaker.  Chillingly, it is perhaps also reasonable to conclude that "Lady Lazarus" is a kind of suicide note.

Poem of the Day: "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 18, 2014 is "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178960.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Daddy" is comprised of sixteen stanzas of five lines each.  Most lines contain three metrical feet forming a sinister, nursery rhyme rhythm with relentless rhymes on the sound "oo."

The narrative of the poem is autobiographical.  Sylvia's father, Otto Plath (pictured), was a German immigrant and college professor.  He was austere and authoritarian and died suddenly when Sylvia was eight.  This affected Sylvia deeply, filling her with conflicted feeling of love, hate, loss, and betrayal--hence all the German/Nazi references in the poem.  At the age of nineteen, Sylvia attempted suicide--an allusion to this is made in the twelfth stanza.  In the thirteenth and fourteenth stanzas, Sylvia alludes to her unhappy marriage, comparing her husband with her father.

Sylvia Plath eventually ended her own life by gassing herself in an oven.  One wonders if she were thinking about "Daddy," her father and the poem, as she died.  The Nazis used gas and ovens to murder the Jews.

Poem of the Day: "Tulips" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 16, 2014 is "Tulips" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178974.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"Tulips" is organized in nine free verse stanzas of seven lines each.  There are four to five feet per line and occasional rhymes, near rhymes, and end-line assonances and consonances.  Complete sentences, some enjambed, are used, lending a narrative quality to the piece.

The speaker of the poem is in a white hospital room, so white that "it is winter here."  The narrative speaks of nurses coming and going, their ministrations compared to seagulls on the wing and to water washing gently over pebbles.  The speaker or patient is isolated but revels in the isolation, finding it purifying and relaxing.  She wants only to "be utterly empty," to escape from the outside world.

The tulips, probably a get-well-soon gift, serve as a jarring reminder of the outside world.  Their redness and allusion to spring sit in sharp contrast to the whiteness and winter of the hospital room.  Worse still, their intrusion reminds the speaker perhaps of people whom she would rather not remember, of people, perhaps close family, whom have caused her pain.  The tulips are compared to "an awful baby" perhaps literally as well as figuratively, further compared to "dangerous animals" that perhaps might literally and figuratively consume her, and even further to parasites that weigh the speaker down and suck the air out of the room.

Poem of the Day: "Nick and the Candlestick" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 15, 2014 is "Nick and the Candlestick" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178967.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

The poem is constructed of several three-line stanzas of free verse.  Some could be said to be formal tercets, as many pairs connect with each other by rhymes, near rhymes, or strong consonances--some, but not all.  Enjambment is used liberally between lines and stanzas.  The word choices are sometimes those of earth science or biology, sometimes gothic, and occasionally jarringly colloquial.

"Nick and the Candlestick" is a challenging poem to understand.  It reads like speculative (horror) fiction in places, like a love poem (love lost) in others, like a poem about pregnancy in others, and literally like a poem about spelunking in others.  The title is reminiscent of a nursery rhyme, except that "Nick," one of the names of the Devil, is substituted for "Jack."  And for a poem that promises to be about light (at least the light of a candle), the mood and imagery are dark.

Poem of the Day: "The Applicant" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month

Editor's Note:  Sylvia Plath was the Songs of Eretz Poet of the Month for September 2014.  However, only three of her poems were reviewed before my time was overwhelmed by the MOOC ModPo course and presentations.  Now that ModPo is in its final days, it is time to give Ms. Path proper treatment by picking up this month where I left off in September.

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 14, 2014 is "The Applicant" by Sylvia Plath, Poet of the Month.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248652.  A biography of Ms. Path and references may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-songs-of-eretz-poet-of-month-for.html.

"The Applicant" is comprised of eight stanzas of free verse.  Each stanza contains five lines.  There are many end-line rhymes, near-rhymes, consonances, and exact rhymes (for example, rhyming "it" with "it").  The rhythm, while irregular, has the flow of conversational speech.

The title mocks the institution of marriage, comparing getting married to applying for a job.  The speaker is literally a human resources worker, figuratively a priest or some other person with the authority to perform a marriage ceremony.

The first seven lines drip with sarcasm.  The seventh line asks, "How can we give you a thing?"  The "we" is the marriage authority.  Given the first six lines, the seventh could be rephrased as, "I see you are perfectly sound of mind and body and should be fine on your own, so why would you want to get married?"

Once the conceit of the poem, as established in the first six lines, is understood the meaning of the rest of the poem becomes clear.  In the tenth line, it is important to see that "hand" also means "hand in marriage."

Lines eleven through seventeen depict the wife as a servant for the husband until death--until she closes his dead eyes with her thumbs.

Lines eighteen through twenty-eight tell of what a woman will get out of marriage, alluding to sex as something "black and stiff, but not a bad fit."  The woman who marries is mocked as "empty headed."

Lines twenty-nine through thirty-five mock wedding anniversaries, beginning with paper and leading to silver after twenty-five and gold after fifty years of marriage.  Addressing the man, the speaker again emphasizes how the wife will serve him by sewing and cooking--and perhaps annoy him by incessant and presumably empty headed chatter.

Line thirty-six mocks marriage as something that "works."  The best that can be said is that "there is nothing wrong with it."

Line thirty-seven provides an obvious allusion to sex again.

Line thirty-eight may be mocking those who marry simply to enhance their societal "image."

Line thirty-nine mocks marriage as a "last resort" from the point of view of the man.

The final line is phrased as a question but does not end in a question mark.  This makes the line a statement.  The words "it" and "marry" are repeated three times with perhaps different meanings each time.  "It" could mean:  the institution of marriage.  "It" could also refer to the bride or bridegroom--making them objects (as opposed to using "him" or "her").  "Marry" could literally mean "to get married."  Alternatively, "marry" could mean "to accept" or "to buy into" the institution.

Special Feature: "Is Modern Art So Bad?" by Jason A. Gordon

Editor's Note:  In order to understand the context of "Is Modern Art So Bad?" it is necessary to first view the following video, "Why Is Modern Art So Bad?" by Robert Florczak, an artist and illustrator affiliated with Prager University https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNI07egoefc.

Jason A. Gordon is a second year fine arts student at the Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio.  More information about Mr. Gordon and his art may be found here:  http://art-of-rofljay.tumblr.com/ and here:  http://rofljay.deviantart.com/.

Is Modern Art So Bad?

Jason A. Gordon

FOUNTAIN BY MARCEL DUCHAMP

Robert Florczak makes a good case for the rejection of modern art.  I've been conflicted about this subject. I think many modern art pieces are nice, regardless of the effort put into them. And that's the main mentality at the moment--that the effort required to make a piece doesn't affect its worth anymore, or at least not as much as it did. This was especially started by Duchamp's Fountain (pictured), which was a urinal that he signed with his name. It took him forever to find a gallery to accept the piece, and in the end this started the "Dada" movement. 

For what it's worth, I could actually tell that Mr. Florczak's apron was not a Pollock piece. The reason is that most of Pollock's pieces actually have thought put into them. I love Pollock's pieces. Sure, they seem like they were easy to do--and generally they were--but the bottom line is they are pleasing to the eye, and I'd say that is what makes the pieces successful. Funny enough, the question of whether his pieces are "art" or not was something about which he was also conflicted.

Then we have Andy Warhol, who revolutionized art in many ways. One of the biggest things he's credited for by many is "ending art." Warhol's series of Brillo Boxes http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/89204.html are considered to be the perfect realism, completely indistinguishable from the real life object.  They look like photos but aren't.  This brings up another point--if photo's can capture real life in the click of a button, what point is there in painstakingly doing it manually? After Warhol, many people considered the centuries long endeavor of replicating real life to be over. 

Where do we go from here? The only place to go really is into the realm of the conceptual. There are artists today such as this crazy person http://jw-jeong.deviantart.com/gallery/ who have taken it a step further and delved into hyper-realism, but for the most part art now deals with the conceptual.  We are also currently in the middle of a minimalist movement. This is especially apparent from company logos--they keep getting more and more simplified.

LANDSCAPE ONE BY JASON A. GORDON

The way I see it, if an artist takes a piece of paper and draws a line on it in such a way that he does something profound or pleasing to the eye, I say his piece definitely deserves some kind of recognition. However, I believe it should also be known that he did choose the easy way out, and therefore shouldn't be given an incredible amount of credit.  

I believe Monet had the best balance of the conceptual and real. His pieces depict real life but are also made in an interesting, pleasing "dream-like" fashion. Something I'm trying to experiment with right now is combining the conceptual and the real. I tried doing that in a painting (pictured) that combined a mountainous landscape and a Jackson Pollock-like splatter background.  While I am not displeased with the result, this is still a work in progress for me.

The fact of the matter though is that nobody can tell anybody what "art" is. No matter how many people may say, "This isn't art!" if enough people enjoy or appreciate the irony in a piece, there is nothing that can be done to tell those people it isn't art. But also keep this in mind: Just because something is art, it doesn't make it good art.

Poetry Review Special Feature: "Spring Hopes Eternal" by John Reinhart

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present "Spring Hopes Eternal" by John Reinhart.  Another of Mr. Reinhart's poems was featured in the Review yesterday, where a brief biography may be found http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2014/11/poetry-review-special-feature-works-by.html.

Spring Hopes Eternal

John Reinhart

The snow silences the melody so that if we listen

we can hear harmony in sleeping trees and icicles,

hibernating dreams and remembered promises…

Out of these depths, cracking the ice,

a seed introduces itself to sunlight,

shatters the surface of waiting, green with purpose,

and in this moment the fragile spiderweb of frost

melts, feeding the fledgling intention, infusing life

into tomorrow, into dreams, into hopes, into spring,

where blossoms blossom for immortal instants

and die into full, rich fruit of untainted light

shown through earth’s prism, the promise of a promise.

Poet's Notes:  I play with words. As spring crept through the last sloppy wet snow into blossoms, I pondered the phrase "hope springs eternal." I realized that the statement can be rearranged and remain true: "spring hopes eternal." Spring is the season where the coming year's hopes bud in naive green, reaching innocently toward the sun. All creation breathes a sigh of relief from winter's passing and looks outward to spring.

Some poems write themselves. I find that when I start with a fixed concept like "spring hopes eternal," I have a harder time finding the poem from that seed. I ground this poem out of several earlier versions. I worked hard to find the audible harmonies between the words, trying to call forth the first chirrups of spring.

Editor's Note:  The first stanza is a powerful poem by itself, reminiscent of the best of the short Japanese forms.  The description of the sounds in the silence is breathtaking.  While the subject of the poem is perhaps a bit tired, I find this treatment of it uplifting.  "Spring Hopes Eternal" was first published in 94 Creations Literary Journal issue #6.

Poetry Review Special Feature: "The Works" by John Reinhart

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present "The Works" by John Reinhart.  Mr. Reinhart is a former state fiddle champion, state rhythm guitar champion, and one time northeast regional yo-yo champion.  He is a native of Denver.  His poetry has recently been published in:  94 Creations, Apeiron Review, Black Heart Magazine, Dirty Chai Magazine, FishFood & LavaJuice, Interfictions, Liquid Imagination, Poetry Nook Magazine, Songs of Eretz Poetry E-zine, Star*Line, and The Vocabula Review, and is forthcoming in Silver Blade, Grievous Angel, ZO Magazine, and Scifaikuest.

The Works

John Reinhart

Last night I wrote a symphony –

“Corrugated Recycles” I call it –

on the back of a pizza box.

It starts with strings playing pizzicato,

lumbers deep into horns covered in grease,

then cymbals, like giant pepperoni, crash.

The second movement creeps up the side

onto the top: “Cosmic Pizza” is all percussion,

rise and expansion, sustain, rest.

Movement three goes inward,

the most obscure and difficult part,

cluttered with crust and crumbs, real cheese,

stains too dark, too somber for any but celli,

summoning aged wood

like twelve year barreled bourbon.

Finally, up the inside lid, closure,

a simple melody to light the tunnel –

done in thirty minutes or it’s free.

Poet's Notes:  Perhaps it was the fact that one of my students was in the process of writing a symphony; perhaps it was my penchant for digging through garbage and reusing anything of perceived value; or perhaps it was some late night inspiration asleep on a momentarily satisfying $5 pizza binge. The impetus for this poem aside, the basic framework floated in my head for a couple of weeks. I have always appreciated what I read in Word of Mouth about Lucille Clifton, that when her first book of poems was published her children were 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1, and she learned how to compose a poem and keep it in her head until she could write it down. My situation is not quite so populated, but twenty chickens, two goats, a dog, a cat, a duck, and three children, not to mention an active and plentiful garden, plus a full-time job regularly challenge my composition time. So, I pondered. Eventually, I sat down, and those weeks of work spilled onto the paper.

I love villanelles but I find that tercets do not come easily to me. There is an ease about tercets, a clarity, a well worn phraseology embedded in the form. The symphony here flowed from three line stanzas to three whole movements, building toward that thirty minute deadline, empowered by trios, like legions of musketeers or Pythagoreans.

Editor's Note:  I enjoy the humor in this pizza piece (pun intended) as well as its clever elevation of the quotidian.  Good poetry such as this evokes an emotional response--this one made me hungry as well.  "The Works" was first published in 94 Creations #6.

Poem of the Day: "Oatmeal" by Galway Kinnell

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review Poem of the Day for November 7, 2014 is "Oatmeal" by Galway Kinnell.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/oatmeal/, and a video of Galway reading the poem to a live audience may be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xv8EY2vWJg.

Galway Kinnell was born in 1927 and died October 28, 2014.  He was a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner.  He was a professor and director of creative writing at New York University and divided his time between his teaching duties there and his home in Vermont.  He was a contemporary of the Beats but chose to write in a different, more easily understood style about common, everyday things.  For this reason, he is compared favorably with Walt Whitman.  Reference to this and additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/books/galway-kinnell-poet-who-went-his-own-way-dies-at-87.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0.

"Oatmeal" is easy enough to understand as a straightforward ode to the cereal sprinkled not only with skim milk but with plenty of humor.  However, underneath the humor, there may be an undercurrent concerning the tragedy of mental illness.  Read in this way, the humor is simultaneously funny and sad.

MOOC ModPo Poem of the Day: "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun -- " by Emily Dickinson

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review MOOC ModPo Poem of the Day for November 5, 2014 is "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun --" by Emily Dickinson.  The poem is in the public domain and therefore legally reprinted here.  Dickinson's poetry has been examined several times in the Poetry Review, including a post made December 31, 2013, which includes a brief biography http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2013/12/review-of-its-all-i-have-to-bring-today.html.

MOUNT VESUVIUS

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a Day

The Owner passed - identified -

And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -

And now We hunt the Doe -

And every time I speak for Him

The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light

Opon the Valley glow -

It is as a Vesuvian face

Had let it’s pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -

I guard My Master’s Head -

’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s

Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I’m deadly foe -

None stir the second time -

On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -

Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live

He longer must - than I -

For I have but the power to kill,

Without - the power to die -

Emily Dickinson

The poem is in the familiar form of a Dickinsonian proto-modernist ballad.  The use of quatrains is preserved, after a fashion--the second and fourth lines of each four-line stanza either rhyme, nearly rhyme, are consonant, or recover the rhyme in the stanza following (as is the case with the rhyme on "oh" in the second and third stanzas).  The rhythm of a traditional ballad is preserved--iambic tetrameter with the deliberate omission of a foot every even line.  

Twenty-five of the thirty lines of the poem contain Dickinsonian dashes, and some lines contain two.  While Dickinson's use of dashes is often enigmatic, here they appear to function as commas, with the exception of the final dash which appears to function as an ellipsis.

In the first stanza, the speaker, presumably Dickinson, compares her life to a loaded gun--full of explosive power, the power to kill, the power to wound.  She did not release her potential, her barrage of words, her poetry, until the Owner of her life, God, gave her license.

In the second stanza, Dickinson alludes to her love of nature.  Her poetry is a God-given talent--she speaks for God through her poetry, and incorporates pastoral and natural imagery into it.

In the third stanza, the smile is metaphor for Dickinson's poetry.  It brings light, but is explosive--like a gun or as Mount Vesuvius, whose eruption destroyed a civilization.  Her poetry is powerful enough to reshape the world--for good or ill.

In the fourth stanza, Dickinson presents her poetry as a guardian of God's wisdom.  In the fifth, she states that her poetry is powerful enough to destroy God's detractors.

The last stanza is enigmatic.  Though it is possible that Dickinson's words may be remembered better than those of the bible and for longer, she emphasizes that God's words must outlast hers--even though her words can never be forgotten.

MOOC ModPo Poem of the Day: "In a Restless World Like This Is" by Charles Bernstein

The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review MOOC ModPo Poem of the Day for November 3, 2014 is "In a Restless World Like This Is" by Charles Bernstein.  The text of the poem may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/242798.

Charles Bernstein (b. 1950) is a founding member of the LANGUAGE poetry movement.  He is the Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania where, along with ModPo lead instructor Professor Al Filreis, he helped found PENNsound.  Reference to this and additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/charles-bernstein.

"In a Restless World Like This Is" contains fourteen lines, but that is the only nod to the construction of a sonnet that is apparent.  There is no rhyme scheme and, due to the frequent use of enjambment, the poem does not divide itself easily into the Petrarchan 8 - 6 or the Shakespearean 4 - 4 - 4 - 2 pattern.

LANGUAGE poets are known for their blending of "poetry and critical writing about poetry" (op cit). This may be what is going on in "In a Restless World."  The entire poem seems to be trying to tell the reader something important, but the speaker gets distracted by constantly trying to remember how and when and where he learned that important something.  The poem seems to say in its conclusion that it is not the thing itself but the process of arriving at the thing that is important.

It is possible, given the title, that the entire poem is metaphor for the befuddlement, confusion, illogic, and amazement experienced when falling in love.  Listen to Nat King Cole (pictured) here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1Gu4Bad1xU and see if you agree.  If true, the theme, love, is another nod to the sonnet form.

New Issue of Poetry E-zine Available for Viewing

Dear Friends of Eretz,

I am pleased to announce that the Songs of Eretz Poetry E-zine November 2014 issue (Volume 2, Issue 2, Number 9) is available for viewing free of charge http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/e-zine_3.html.  This issue features:  the ubiquitous Ross Balcom & Lauren McBride, first-time contributors John Reinhart & Marie Vibbert, my maternal grandfather James J. Tuffy, another beautiful father-daughter special feature of the poetry of Delbert R. & Adele Gardner, a scifaiku of mine, and a mind-blowing "found" poem by first-time contributor Gerard Sarnat.

Just a reminder:  Donations in support of the e-zine are not required but are strongly encouraged.  Twelve dollars a year (one dollar a month) from readers and one dollar per poem submitted from poets are the suggested amounts http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/donate.html.

Another reminder:  The Songs of Eretz Poetry Award Contest deadline in December 31 http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/songs-of-eretz.html.

Yet another reminder:  For a limited time, classified ads are being offered for FREE http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/e-zine.html.

I hope you enjoy the November issue as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

All the best,

Steve
Steven Wittenberg Gordon
Editor