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Friday, December 14, 2012
My sixteenth
egret from
the window
of this train,
white against
the marshes'
shocking green
cushioning
Long Island
Sound from
Kingston down
to Mystic against
the shoreline's
erratic discipline:
the egret so
completely
still, the colors
so extreme,
the window
of my train
might be rolling
out a scroll
of meticulous
ancient Chinese
painting: my heart-
beat down its side
in liquid characters:
no tenses, no
conjunctions, just
emphatic strokes
on paper from
the inner bark
of sandalwood:
egret, marshes,
the number
sixteen: white
and that essential
shocking green-
perhaps even
the character
for kingfisher
green balanced
with jade white
in ancient poems-
every other element
implicit in the
brush strokes'
elliptic fusion
of calm and motion,
assuring as my
train moves on
and marsh gives way
to warehouses
and idle factories
that my sixteen
egrets still remain:
each a crescent
moon against
an emerald sky,
alabaster on
kingfisher green,
its body motionless
on one lithe leg,
cradling its
surreptitious
wings
the window
of this train,
white against
the marshes'
shocking green
cushioning
Long Island
Sound from
Kingston down
to Mystic against
the shoreline's
erratic discipline:
the egret so
completely
still, the colors
so extreme,
the window
of my train
might be rolling
out a scroll
of meticulous
ancient Chinese
painting: my heart-
beat down its side
in liquid characters:
no tenses, no
conjunctions, just
emphatic strokes
on paper from
the inner bark
of sandalwood:
egret, marshes,
the number
sixteen: white
and that essential
shocking green-
perhaps even
the character
for kingfisher
green balanced
with jade white
in ancient poems-
every other element
implicit in the
brush strokes'
elliptic fusion
of calm and motion,
assuring as my
train moves on
and marsh gives way
to warehouses
and idle factories
that my sixteen
egrets still remain:
each a crescent
moon against
an emerald sky,
alabaster on
kingfisher green,
its body motionless
on one lithe leg,
cradling its
surreptitious
wings
Dear Poets,
Here's a bit of holiday cheer -- our poetry news and plans for the new year:
To begin, as always our groups (both at the Albany campus and at the Benton Center) will continue to meet in the new year: Albany campus every Tuesday @ 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot Cafe; Benton Center every Wednesday @ 5:30 in the BC conference room.
And to add to these ways we celebrate poetry weekly, we have two major projects for Winter and Spring. Please read on, consider yourself a participant, and put these dates on your calendar:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
As always, our poetry club will be a major part of the festivities. The planning team (Gary Westford, Dana Emerson, Javier Cervantes, and Robin) have sketched out the main events which include a Unity Celebration on Wednesday, February 27th @ 5:00. Several of us poets have talked about performing a "spoken word in harmony" reading with Elisabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" for this Unity Celebration on Feb 27th. Several people have also volunteered to "perform" poems in the tradition at an open mic for that event. Of course, anything is possible (music, dance, art, etc). If you would like to be a part of the planning for this event, or if you would like to suggest other events throughout the month of February in honor of the Black Tradition, please join us for our first Albany campus meeting of the new term: Tuesday, January 8, 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot.
APRIL POETRY MONTH EXHIBIT: POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
We continue our five year tradition of celebrating April Poetry Month in collaboration with the Art Department. This year, we'll join with the Photography Guild and, in the Ekphrasis tradition, write poetry in response to photos of our choosing. You may remember the April 2011 exhibit entitled "Words and Pictures" which was an extraordinary experience for poets and photographers and resulted in a book of the same name. Look at the book on the Blurb site: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2175721
Want to join us this year? Then come to our first poetry club meeting on January 8 at the Hot Shot. We'll be meeting that Tuesday and the following Tuesday to choose our photograph from the Photography Guild selection. (If you are not able to make that first meeting, but you'd like to be participate in this exhibit, then write me of your intentions please.) Here's our timeline:
1) We'll choose our photos at our first two Poetry Club meetings in January (Jan 8 & 16).
2) The deadline for identifying our choices to the Photography Guild is January 29th.
3) The deadline for submitting our poems for the exhibit is February 15th (this gives us one month to write a poem in response to the photo).
Yea!
Happy Holidays,
Robin
Here's a bit of holiday cheer -- our poetry news and plans for the new year:
To begin, as always our groups (both at the Albany campus and at the Benton Center) will continue to meet in the new year: Albany campus every Tuesday @ 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot Cafe; Benton Center every Wednesday @ 5:30 in the BC conference room.
And to add to these ways we celebrate poetry weekly, we have two major projects for Winter and Spring. Please read on, consider yourself a participant, and put these dates on your calendar:
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
As always, our poetry club will be a major part of the festivities. The planning team (Gary Westford, Dana Emerson, Javier Cervantes, and Robin) have sketched out the main events which include a Unity Celebration on Wednesday, February 27th @ 5:00. Several of us poets have talked about performing a "spoken word in harmony" reading with Elisabeth Alexander's "Praise Song for the Day" for this Unity Celebration on Feb 27th. Several people have also volunteered to "perform" poems in the tradition at an open mic for that event. Of course, anything is possible (music, dance, art, etc). If you would like to be a part of the planning for this event, or if you would like to suggest other events throughout the month of February in honor of the Black Tradition, please join us for our first Albany campus meeting of the new term: Tuesday, January 8, 3:00 - 4:00 in the Hot Shot.
APRIL POETRY MONTH EXHIBIT: POETRY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
We continue our five year tradition of celebrating April Poetry Month in collaboration with the Art Department. This year, we'll join with the Photography Guild and, in the Ekphrasis tradition, write poetry in response to photos of our choosing. You may remember the April 2011 exhibit entitled "Words and Pictures" which was an extraordinary experience for poets and photographers and resulted in a book of the same name. Look at the book on the Blurb site: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2175721
Want to join us this year? Then come to our first poetry club meeting on January 8 at the Hot Shot. We'll be meeting that Tuesday and the following Tuesday to choose our photograph from the Photography Guild selection. (If you are not able to make that first meeting, but you'd like to be participate in this exhibit, then write me of your intentions please.) Here's our timeline:
1) We'll choose our photos at our first two Poetry Club meetings in January (Jan 8 & 16).
2) The deadline for identifying our choices to the Photography Guild is January 29th.
3) The deadline for submitting our poems for the exhibit is February 15th (this gives us one month to write a poem in response to the photo).
Yea!
Happy Holidays,
Robin
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Hello fellow poets!
I hope everyone's finals went well as our term is officially over! Poetry club will start back up on January 8th at 3:00 pm in the Hot Shot Cafe on the Albany campus. On January 9th the Benton Center's poetry club starts back up at 5:30 pm in the conference room. Until then, we're having a little poetry get-together today at 3:00 pm at the 2nd street Beanery in downtown Corvallis. I' sure I'll see some of you there!
In light of the wintery season, I thought some Robert Frost would be appropriate:
Reluctance
Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.
The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.
And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
I hope everyone's finals went well as our term is officially over! Poetry club will start back up on January 8th at 3:00 pm in the Hot Shot Cafe on the Albany campus. On January 9th the Benton Center's poetry club starts back up at 5:30 pm in the conference room. Until then, we're having a little poetry get-together today at 3:00 pm at the 2nd street Beanery in downtown Corvallis. I' sure I'll see some of you there!
In light of the wintery season, I thought some Robert Frost would be appropriate:
Reluctance
Out through the fields and the woods
And over the walls I have wended;
I have climbed the hills of view
And looked at the world, and descended;
I have come by the highway home,
And lo, it is ended.
The leaves are all dead on the ground,
Save those that the oak is keeping
To ravel them one by one
And let them go scraping and creeping
Out over the crusted snow,
When others are sleeping.
And the dead leaves lie huddled and still,
No longer blown hither and thither;
The last lone aster is gone;
The flowers of the witch hazel wither;
The heart is still aching to seek,
But the feet question 'Whither?'
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
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