Happy April!

The first section of Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times is called "In Troubling Times: Anxiety and Terror." The previous two poems I blogged about, "Nocturne" and "From the Frontier of Writing" were a part of this section also. Another poem from this section that I found particularly interesting, "Out in the Open (Part II) by Tomas Tranströmer," seems to speak of the evils of the modern world. The narrator is clearly from a foreign country and he is speaking of America as a distant land filled large, evil corporations. The narrator is praying for America and speaks of how the evil in America is different from that in his own country. "Over there evil and good actually have faces./ With us for the most part it's a fight between roots, numbers, shades of light." The narrator goes on to talk about an American office building and calls it"a mirror-like lake with no waves, turned on edge in the summer night. The narrator is pointing out the unnaturalness of America. We live in concrete cities and large corporations run the country. Here is a very brief biography of the poet: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/1112

The next poem is the most interesting in the book so far, in my opinion. It is "The Terrorist, He Watches" by Wisława Szymborska whose biography can be found here: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/szymborska-bio.html. Szymborska is known for using irony, paradox, contradiction, and understatement, a few of these found in this poem. The poem tells the story of a terrorist bombing in a bar. It details all the people who are coming and going from the bar, keeping track of them to see who will live and who will die. The whole poem seems very relaxed considering its nature, which is part of Szymborska's style of using understatement. This poem caught my attention immediately because I have always been slightly obsessed with wondering how differently events would turn out if people had made different decisions, in this poem, it's whether or not they come to or leave the bar. In my opinion, Szymborska has done a very good job with this poem. It stirs the mind, but refrains from being overdone like many poems. I think that in poetry, simpler is often better.

A Poem

I wrote this poem a few days ago, although I still can't think of a good title that's not too cheesy. It's really the only poem I've ever written, so try not to be too judgmental.

My soul is here
gone astray.
My heart holds fear,
lost the way.

Home is a memory,
a time with friends-
long gone.
The past.

Memories
can take us back.
They are real,
and not.

Can it be found again?
Will we forget
what it once was?
Its old meaning?

It has been said
to live now-
but why?
Home is gone.

Introduction of Poetry Book #1

Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times is a sort of sequel to a book written as a response to the September 11th attacks. Its main focus is on figuring out a way to deal with the troubling times we are going through, learning that there are others out there who are also struggling, calling to us.

I think it's good, if not necessary to mention the first poem in the book, since it was more than likely chose to be the first poem for a reason. The poem is "Nocturne" by Li-Young Lee. Lee is a highly established poet of Chinese descent. A brief biography can be found here http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/291. A nocturne is a piece of art or music that deals with the night, often a work for the piano, so it seems fitting that the poem has to do with noises heard at night, when everything else is silent. In the poem, the noise doesn't seem to be calming in any way, but instead seems to be troublesome for the speaker, even reminding him of death and rust. I think this poem could possibly be a metaphor for how in the silence and calm of the night, all the troubles in our lives seem to intensify.

The second poem, "A Suitcase Strapped with a Rope" by Charles Simic, also seems to be worth mentioning. It tells the story of children who are being smuggled across some border, into the United States I assume. The children just want to go out and play, but the parents have made them squeeze into this suitcase to get them across the border. This seems particularly appropriate to the current time when there is always the question of how we should deal with immigration, both legal and otherwise.

I will have more up soon and I may even post a poem or two that I've written!

A New Beginning

As the first post of this blog, I would like to welcome all readers (hopefully there will be at least a few) and explain what I intend for this blog to be about. First and foremost, it will be a blog about poetry. I am starting it for a poetry class project, after all. And, at least in the beginning, the majority of the blogs will be about poetry, although I'm sure other posts will sneak in, including posts about music, writing, art, etc.

I would now like to introduce the two poetry books I will be blogging about for the next month. First, is Holocaust Poetry, including works by W.H. Auden, Anne Sexton, Czeslaw Milosz, Sylvia Plath, Elie Wiesel and many others. This book was compiled by Hilda Schiff and is a tribute to all the victims of the Holocaust and their families. Next, is Poems to Live By: In Troubling Times including the work of E.E. Cummings, D.H. Lawrence, Mary Oliver, Robert Bly, Jane Kenyon and others. This book was edited by Joan Murray and is a collection of poems that speak to the soul in troubling times, such as the ones we are currently living in.

I hope to be discussing at least a few poems each day, along with providing any helpful background information I can find.