There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town

Monday, April 19, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 19, Tim Gels on the Empty School

I have had this poem by Tim Gels open on my desktop since last December, when he posted this perfect meditation on his empty school. I think we all feared that at the end of the pandemic we wouldn't know people, places, and things as we once did. And in many cases that fear has been realized, hasn't it? Thanks for expressing it so beautifully, Tim.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 18, Interview with Thanhha Lai

One day last week, we had a day off school because local religious leaders had called for a day of prayer for the lawlessness that is engulfing Haiti. Since I had some extra time, I went through some tabs open on my desktop and did some spring cleaning. I often save longer videos for when I will have time to watch them, and this has been open since last May. In fact, you can tell from the interview that it was recorded last April, during National Poetry Month.

Laura Shovan posted this interview with Thanhha Lai, the author of several books, including the verse novel Inside Out and Back Again, which I've been reading with my seventh graders for years. What a great conversation between two writers of verse novels! Some highlights for me: the question about whether writing verse novels is just a matter of writing prose and then breaking it up into shorter lines, why Thanhha Lai chose to write Inside Out and Back Again as a verse novel, and differences between first generation immigrants (especially refugees) and their children. Highly recommended viewing and listening!

One of the things my students can always relate to in this book (set during the Vietnam War) is the way Hà's teacher in Alabama, with very good motives, shows the class photos from Vietnam and makes Hà upset because she doesn't want her classmates to know Vietnam just for the war that's going on there. My students all have stories to tell of the way people only know negative things about Haiti, a country that they know is beautiful, is wonderful, is home. (I wrote more about that here.) As you read my words about problems here, know that there is much, much more to this country than its problems.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 17, Floodplain

Recently I was feeling mournful, and berating myself inwardly for feeling mournful, and then this song came on. I was comforted. Some people just feel things a lot, I reminded myself, and you, self, are one of those people. I looked up the lyrics and kept them open on my desktop so I wouldn't forget, and now that I'm posting the song, I can close those tabs: the lyrics, the video, and Sara's words about the whole thing.

Here's something Sara Groves wrote about the inspiration for this song.

Floodplain

by Sara Groves

Some hearts are built on a floodplain
Keeping one eye on the sky for rain
You work for the ground that gets washed away
When you live closer

Closer to the life and the ebb and flow
Closer to the edge of I don't know
Closer to that's the way it goes
Some hearts are built on a floodplain

And it's easy to sigh on a high bluff
Look down and ask when you've had enough
Will you have the sense to come on up
Or will you stay closer

Closer to the danger and the rolling deep

Closer to the run and the losing streak
And what brings us to our knees
Some hearts live here

Oh the river it rushes to madness
And the water it spreads like sadness
And there's no high ground
And there's no high ground

Closer to the danger and the rolling deep
Closer to the run and the losing streak
And what brings us to our knees

Closer to the life and the ebb and flow
Closer to the edge of I don't know
Closer to Lord please send a boat
Some hearts are built here

For some reason, when I try to post the information about the Progressive Poem on today's post, the formatting gets weird. But you can find that on any of my other posts so far for National Poetry Month.

Friday, April 16, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 16, More Spring Photos

This week I don't have any open tabs I'm cleaning up; instead, I'm sharing some photos that my friends continue to send after my appeal for daffodils, along with what I wrote about them. It doesn't fit my NPM theme, exactly, but it does fit my love for spring flowers and friends who send me photos of them.

My daughter came through with daffodil photos, when the daffodils finally bloomed in her northern home.

Photo Credit: Daughter

Daffodils bow down
Honoring the passing wind
Worshipping the sun

Kay McGriff sent me this photo:

Demure yellow bloom
Looks shyly down at the ground
Hides her blushing face

Carol Trachsel sent me this photo, explaining that this house has been falling apart ever since she moved in nearby, twenty years ago. Every year the daffodils bloom.

The house’s skeleton,
open to the sky,
has let any ghosts that remained
dissipate
into the atmosphere

There are no echoes of arguments,
no smells from burned dinners,
no laughter
or tears

but in the garden
the roots still live
and every year
the daffodils reappear,
brief bright visitors
that honor
the sweat
and the sore back
of the gardener who planted them
more than twenty years ago.

I took this photo of my Easter flowers, sadly discarded. I wrote a golden shovel for this photo, taking a Shakespeare quote as my starting point.

For Easter this year I had lilies
standing tall and proud with that
Easter Sunday glory, but sadly they fester
quickly, and when they start to smell
it’s a betrayal that something so pure could sink so far,
the way when someone you love leaves you it’s worse
than an insult from a random stranger. Look, a stinky pile, worse than
a wedding bouquet made entirely of poison ivy and weeds.

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

My friend Jill filled my Facebook wall with spring flowers again this week, and though I didn't write about them this time, they made me so happy. She said I could share some with you.

Today's last photo is completely different from the others, since it comes from a completely different place. My friend Azeem sent it one morning (my time), saying that he'd been listening to Paul Simon while getting ready for a party for his employees, and Paul Simon made him think of me. The photo took me right there to Kenya.

Photo Credit A.P.

View of Mount Eburu and Lake Naivasha, March 2021

Brown:
Dry grass
Dust

Green:
Thorn tree
Cactus
Scrubby plants

Blue:
Lake
Mountains
Sky sky sky sky sky sky sky

Here are my other NPM posts from this week:

On Saturday I shared a podcast about Lizzie Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and a mysterious poem.

On Sunday I dreamed a world.

On Monday I had some Auden, and some me.

On Tuesday there were Haitian bird sounds.

On Wednesday I shared some Paul Simon (he really is one of my favorite poets).

On Thursday, I posted a poem about moving.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Jama has today's roundup!

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Reading Update

Book #28 of the year was Barbara Kingsolver's book of poetry How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons). I loved it, and shared a poem from it in this post.

Book #29 was The Silence of the Girls, by Pat Barker. This retelling of the Iliad shows us that the story is, and always was, a tale of the exploitation and silencing of women. Told from the point of view of Achilles' captive Briseis, this story is a violent one, full of rape and pillage, just like the original. While Natalie Haynes' A Thousand Ships, another retelling I read recently (the link is to my review) focuses more on some of the humor and ridiculousness of the characters' behavior (an approach I share when I'm teaching this story), Barker's vision is altogether darker - and perfectly true to her source material. The Trojan War is a story that can be told in countless versions and still be one of the best stories ever.

Book #30 was Sea Wife, by Amity Gaige. This novel is the story of a couple with children and their attempt to live on a sailboat. There are already problems in this family (as in all families), and the intense setting and circumstances make things both worse and better. I found this a fascinating read.

Book #31 was The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron. I read this over three months with a group that met weekly on Zoom to discuss it. I really recommend doing it that way. This book is quite woo-woo in the style of Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. (Gilbert is a big Cameron fan.) Nevertheless it also includes a lot of very practical advice on creativity. I'm still writing my Morning Pages, even though the course is finished!

Book #32 was Just Getting Started, by Fiona West. This romance, which is coming out in May, was a sweet, believable story, with likeable characters who grew on me as I read.

Book #33 was a reread, Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. I reviewed it here in 2010.

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 15, Thom Gunn on Unpacking

Last month Carol Varsalona, in the middle of moving, shared this post. I was filled with sympathy for her, because I hate moving, and then I was completely blown away by the Thom Gunn poem, especially the last line.

Here's how the poem ends:

I need your help with these. They rest unseen
In furniture we know, and plot a changing
To grey confusion of the space between.
Now, as I sweep it clean,
I realize that love is an arranging.

Oh, how true this is, both literally and figuratively! You can read the rest of this spectacular poem here.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 14, René and Georgette Magritte

Don't ask me why I had this song open on my desktop, or for how long, but I do quite often have Paul Simon lyrics open. I just love his music, and a big reason is that his lyrics are so memorable. For some reason, this one came to mind a while ago and I looked it up. So after I post it here, I will close the tab.

René And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War

René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Returned to their hotel suite
And they unlocked the door

Easily losing their evening clothes
They dance by the light of the moon
To the Penguins
The Moonglows
The Orioles
And The Five Satins
The deep, forbidden music
They’d been longing for
René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war

René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Were strolling down Christopher Street
When they stopped in a men’s store
With all the mannequins
Dressed in style
That brought tears to their
Immigrant eyes

Just like The Penguins
The Moonglows
The Orioles
And The Five Satins
The easy stream of laughter
Flowing through the air
René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog après la guerre

Side by side
They fell asleep
Decades gliding by like Indians
Time is cheap
When they wake up they will find
All their personal belongings
Have intertwined

René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog after the war
Were dining with the power elite
And they looked in their bedroom drawer
And what do you think
They have hidden away
In the cabinet cold of their hearts?

The Penguins
The Moonglows
The Orioles
and The Five Satins
For now and ever after
As it was before
René and Georgette Magritte
With their dog
After the war

(Source: paulsimon.com)

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Slice of Life Tuesday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 13, Bird Mnemonics

This year for National Poetry Month, I am doing Spring Cleaning - writing about poetic tabs open on my desktop so that I can then close them and reduce my digital clutter. I have had this tab open on my desktop for almost a year! If you scroll down from the "Bird Mnemonics" part at the top, you'll see that last year's Progressive Poem was in process, and Christie Wyman was adding her line that day!

The reason I kept this was that I was going to return to it. That's the reason I keep all these tabs open. In this case, I was going to go back and write about the bird sounds I hear here in Haiti, doing my own "Bird Mnemonics" poem like Christie's. A year ago, I could hardly recognize any bird sounds. I can now identify more than I could then, but I still have so far to go. And I'm glad for eBird and Merlin, where I can listen to bird sounds, because if I had to rely on these mnemonics I am sure I would never have learned any of the sounds.

I went to my bird book, Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and wrote down the way it describes the calls of some of the birds I see and hear the most, and then I wrote this, starting with two lines borrowed from Christie:

Bird Mnemonics in Haiti

I hear you.

But who are you?

Coo-oo, coo, coo, coo (sweet simple Mourning Doves)

Tzi-tzi-tzi-tzi, tziit-tzi (energetic Bananaquits whizzing about)

Tchip, tsip, tsweet, tseetsee tsee tsee tseeo, tseets tseeta tseeta tseet (theatrical American Redstarts)

Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kau-kau-ko-ko-tuc w-h-h-h (red-eyed Hispaniolan Lizard-cuckoo)

Wup ta-a, b-d-d-d-t (Hispaniolan Woodpecker)

Pi-au, chep (Black-crowned Palm Tanager)

"Strange, slurring, whistled call notes" (fierce gang of Palmchats)

"High-pitched, metallic squeaks, throaty buzz" (tiny Vervain Hummingbird, the size of a bumble bee)

And, from a distance,

Culic calao calao (giant, aggressive White-necked Crow)

I hear your wonderful sounds

And I see you too!

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Monday, April 12, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 12, Talking Yourself into a Better Frame of Mind

I've had this poem open on my desktop for a while, and it occurred to me recently that Auden might be trying to talk himself into an ability to cope with a situation where he felt rejected. I often use writing this way, trying to convince my heart and brain of something I'm not quite ready to accept. See what you think, and especially in the last stanza:

The More Loving One

W.H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well

That, for all they care, I can go to hell,

But on earth indifference is the least

We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn

With a passion for us we could not return?

If equal affection cannot be,

Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am

Of stars that do not give a damn,

I cannot, now I see them, say

I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die

I should learn to look at an empty sky

And feel its total dark sublime

Though this might take me a little time.

I tried to think of some other examples of poems where you get the feeling the poet is trying to convince him/herself of something, and I thought of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," one of my favorite poems. And then I thought of this one I wrote recently. I went through The Artist's Way with a group in the first three months of this year, and when in our last meeting we were supposed to share something, I tried to write about an idea that had struck me in the book. Julia Cameron says that we need to cultivate approval of ourselves, rather than waiting for approval from others. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think I'm making some progress even, but when I tried to write about it, here's what came out:

Approval

I approve of myself
Gold star for me
A whole stack of presents
Under the tree
Prizes and accolades
Piled in piles
Backpats unlimited
High fives and smiles.

I don’t need your approval.
I’ve got my own.
I like my own company.
When I’m alone,
I’m perfectly happy.
All hail to me!
I look in the mirror
And like what I see.

I can write this stuff
Indefinitely.
All about how much
I like being me.
It would be even better
If it were true.
Sadly it isn’t.
I wish I were you.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 11, I Dream a World

In March, Kay McGriff shared this post in which she responded to two poems entitled "I Dream a World." One was by Margaret Noodin and you can read it here. The other was by Langston Hughes, and you can read that one here. You can also watch the wonderful Google Doodle video made in honor of Hughes' 113th birthday below.

Kay wrote her own "I Dream a World" poem, and I kept the tab open because I wanted to try one, too. I soon realized that the challenge was to keep from sounding like a UN manifesto. All of my mentor poems had avoided this fate, but I doubted I would. My first draft certainly had that document-made-by-a-committee feel to it. See what you think of this version:

I Dream a World

by Ruth Hersey

I dream a world of kindness,
where the Golden Rule is guide,
where everyone has value
and knows it deep inside.

I dream a world of safety;
no kidnapping or crime,
a world where every family
sleeps in peaceful time.

I dream a world of justice,
where every shade of skin
is honored and is cherished
and everyone can win.

I dream a world of knowledge,
a world of books, not fears,
a world of free ideas,
a world of listening ears.

I dream a world of plenty,
not just for some, but all;
a world where none is hungry
and health’s for big and small.

I dream a world of beauty,
of green grass for each child,
a world of music and of art
where there is still some wild.

There are so many things I dream:
clean water, air, and sea,
love for each human being,
and birds in every tree.

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 10, Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Mystery, Memory, etc.

Last Thursday, I shared a podcast from the Ashmolean Museum's Objects Out Loud series. Today I'm sharing another one. In August 2013 I shared this poem by Christina Rossetti that I've been reading with my eighth graders for years. It starts like this:

In An Artist's Studio

by Christina Rossetti

One face looks out from all his canvases,

One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:

We found her hidden just behind these screens,

That mirror gave back all her loveliness.

The poem goes on to describe all the different paintings that this same face looks out of. I described how my students and I tried to guess what was going on in this mysterious scene. (You can read the whole thing here or at the post I linked above.)

When I listened to the podcast, I learned all about the background of this poem. I was sure I'd never heard it before, and was fascinated. But then when I was writing this post, and I went back to link up with the original time I'd posted the poem, I saw that I had shared a link to what I called "this wonderful analysis" of the poem. When I followed the link I had shared, I got to a site which clearly talks about "Christina's observation of her brother's relationship with Elizabeth Siddal." Huh? Does that mean I had or had not read about Siddal before, and/or known that Christina's brother, the pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, had a long and fraught relationship with her? Well, we shall never know, because when one tries to follow those long-ago links, one receives a notice that this is "an adult community" with an age restriction. I assure you that I am well over 18, and also over 21, and likely over whatever age the site has set, but I also assure you that I have no intention of checking it out and I highly doubt there is any analysis of Rossetti's poem to be had there.

So the mystery is: what did I know and when did I know it? I have no idea. But I still enjoyed the podcast about the poem, and Lizzie Siddal, and to the best of my recollection, I never knew any of this stuff before. And when I read the poem next with my eighth graders, I will not tell them about any of it until we have had a discussion about what they imagine is going on, because that is always a great discussion.

Here's the podcast: Not Just a Pretty Face. And now I can close the tab where it appears on my desktop. Spring Cleaning win!

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.

Friday, April 09, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 9, Birds in Conversation

Have you noticed how many people are writing about birds in their Poetry Friday posts? Last week there were so many! Part of it is the time of year, when the migratory birds are coming back to northern countries from their trips down south (and we down south are sad to see them go). But part of it is that birds are just excellent topics for poetry. I have several anthologies of bird poems, and I like to write bird poems myself. There's something transcendent about birds - I guess it's the whole flying thing.

This link to Little Willow's blog, Bildungsroman, has been open on my desktop since January, when I read it and was captivated by the idea that words are birds. Francisco X. Alarcón's poem starts like this:

words

are birds

that arrive

with books

and spring

You can follow the link above to read the whole poem (or you could find it here). I think my favorite stanza is:

some words

are familiar

like canaries

others are exotic

like the quetzal bird

Here's a photo I took recently of birds on wires; I was trying to take a picture of that kite off to the top right, but as you can see, that didn't quite work. I thought about the words being birds, and then about the birds being words, and then the birds having a conversation, and I wondered what they were saying to each other up there.

Bird Conversation

All we birds up on this wire
Watch the kite go by,
Scoff at how the kite’s desire
Is thwarted in the sky.

Since it’s guided by a string,
It can’t go where it chooses.
In a contest with us birds
The poor kite always loses.

Oh, we see the kite is free,
It’s escaped its owner.
Borne along now by the wind,
It’s a joyful loner.

But we can foresee its fate:
When the wind stops blowing,
That poor kite will fall to earth
While we birds keep going.

Yes, it’s good to be a bird
Up here so complacent.
That kite flies for now, it’s true,
But it’s just bird-adjacent.

Who would want to be a kite,
Subject to whims and weathers?
We are glad that we are birds
With iridescent feathers.

Ruth Hersey

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

Here are my NPM posts from the past week. On Saturday I shared found poems made from the first line index of an anthology of poetry. On Sunday I featured Violet Nesdoly. On Monday I posted Sting's song "Englishman in New York" and Shirazee's new version, "African in New York." With videos and an interview. On Tuesday I combined my Slice of Life with a Naomi Shihab Nye poem. On Wednesday the poems were all about forsythia, except the one that wasn't. And yesterday I shared a podcast and a poem about giving poetry as presents.

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM.

The wonderful Tabatha has today's Poetry Friday roundup at The Opposite of Indifference!

Monday, April 19, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 19, Tim Gels on the Empty School

Sunday, April 18, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 18, Interview with Thanhha Lai

Saturday, April 17, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 17, Floodplain

Friday, April 16, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 16, More Spring Photos

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Reading Update

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 15, Thom Gunn on Unpacking

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 14, René and Georgette Magritte

René And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Slice of Life Tuesday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 13, Bird Mnemonics

Monday, April 12, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 12, Talking Yourself into a Better Frame of Mind

Sunday, April 11, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 11, I Dream a World

Saturday, April 10, 2021

NPM Spring Cleaning Day 10, Elizabeth Siddal, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Mystery, Memory, etc.

Friday, April 09, 2021

Poetry Friday: NPM Spring Cleaning Day 9, Birds in Conversation

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