January 21, 2016

1. Welcome
2. News and jabber
1. I am putting my notes online via a blog at http://bigelowpoets.blogspot.com/
2. National Poetry Month, April
1. What about a reading here?

Andrews, Margaret <MAndrews@fairfieldct.org>

9:47 AM (21 minutes ago)

to me

Dear Mr. Gilmore:

That’s wonderful news!   We’ll be sure to get it into our April newsletter when you have more information about what you’d like to do.

It would make a nice Thursday evening program, say about 6:30 or 7 pm   We will start to be open Saturday mornings in March - June as well – say 10 a.m or 10:30 am?

Daytime room scheduling gets a bit difficult in spring since we have so many other things pre-booked.  However, you could substitute one of your already planned class times for a reading time if that would work.

I need 4 weeks lead time for the CT Post Calendar.

I need 3 weeks for public relations out to print and electronic media.

The deadline for the April newsletter for material and any photos to me will be Monday, March 7th.

We will also create a flyer that gets posted in various places around the building and goes to area libraries & Chamber of Commerce for their member businesses to help promote.

Please stay in touch and we’ll make plans when you’re ready.

Sincerely,

Margaret Andrews

3. Francisco X. Alarcon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_X._Alarc%C3%B3n

Alarcon died January 15, 2016

L.A. Prayer

BY FRANCISCO X. ALARCÓN

April 1992

something

was wrong                  

when buses                

didn't come                

streets                          

were                              

no longer                    

streets                          

how easy                      

hands                          

became                        

weapons                      

blows                            

gunfire                        

rupturing                    

the night                    

the more

we run

the more

we burn

o god

show us

the way

lead us

spare us

from ever

turning into

walking

matches

amidst

so much

gasoline

Francisco X. Alarcon, "L.A. Prayer" from From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by Francisco X. Alarcon.  Reprinted by permission of University of Arizona Press.

Source: From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems. (University of Arizona Press, 2002)

I bring him up in part to introduce you to Martin Espada, another Latino poet and one I am happy to have met on several occasions. He comes to Connecticut a lot and is worth the reading and the effort to attend his readings. He is a splendid reader.

March 22: Reading, 1 PM

E.O. Smith High School

Storrs, CT

Contact: Denise Abercrombie, dabercrombie@EOSmith.org

March 23: Reading, 6:30 PM

Quinnipiac University

Hamden, CT

Contact: Jason Koo, koo@brooklynpoets.org

3. The current assignment
1. Who did it?
2. Did you bring the source poem?
3. Part of the reason for this assignment is to get you to read poems. Molly Peacock says to read  fourteen poems for each one you write. Go to Barnes and Noble, have a coffee and read from their racks. You don’t have to buy the book. Skim through a handful. Find something you like. Enjoy it. Look for things you want to put into your own poems.
4. For those who used lines I provided, here are the sources
1. “Being a dog and being treated like one” John Berryman
2. “When we were walking in the day’s light, seeing/the flight of bones to the stars,” Conrad Aiken
3. “She knows what you need, I know what you want.” Bob Dylan

[Verse 8]

When Ruthie says come see her

In her honky-tonk lagoon

Where I can watch her waltz for free

’Neath her Panamanian moon

And I say, “Aw come on now

You must know about my debutante”

And she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need

But I know what you want”

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end

To be stuck inside of Mobile

With the Memphis blues again

4. “It’s too long that I have been alone” Allen Ginsberg “Message”

It’s too long that I have been alone

it’s too long that I’ve sat up in bed

without anyone to touch on the knee, man

or woman I don’t care what anymore, I

want love I was born for I want you with me now

4. The next assignment
1. Write a poem of exactly 13 lines
2. This will force you out of couplets, quatrains, cinquains, etc
3. Some will be forced to expand, others to contract
5. Next Meeting
1. February 4, 2016
6. Other notes
1. Regarding line breaks and manipulating the reader
1. You must give the reader reason to put up with your shenanigans.
2. Write up to the validity of the impulse to write, the validity of the moment you are trying to consecrate.

• Poets’ Roundtable January 7, 2016

• Did you all sign in?
• We want to be sure Bigelow gets credit for the roundtable and all the participants
• IRS phone scam warning
• My wife had two calls on her cell phone
• Was criticism too harsh?
• We disagree joyfully
• “When the choice is between intelligence and compassion, choose compassion. The result willl be a higher intelligence.”
• The next meeting will be from 1-2:30 on Thursday, January 21, 2016
• Last meeting we discussed sonnets. I happened across a sonnet by a largely unknown British poet who ought to be better known if this poem, a sonnet, is any indication.

• Charlotte Smith

• BIOGRAPHY

• Charlotte Smith wrote Elegiac Sonnets in 1783 while she was in debtor’s prison with her husband and children. William Wordsworth identified her as an important influence on the Romantic movement. She published several longer works that celebrated the individual while deploring social injustice and the British class system.

On the Departure of the Nightingale

BY CHARLOTTE SMITH

Sweet poet of the woods, a long adieu!

  Farewell soft mistrel of the early year!

Ah! ’twill be long ere thou shalt sing anew,

  And pour thy music on the night’s dull ear.

Whether on spring thy wandering flights await,

  Or whether silent in our groves you dwell,

The pensive muse shall own thee for her mate,

  And still protect the song she loves so well.

With cautious step the love-lorn youth shall glide

  Through the lone brake that shades thy mossy nest;

And shepherd girls from eyes profane shall hide

  The gentle bird who sings of pity best:

For still thy voice shall soft affections move,

And still be dear to sorrow and to love!

For more about Charlotte Smith go to:

Charlotte Smith

• Now to the ekphrastic poems

• Ekphrasis

• Browse all terms
• “Description” in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning. A notable example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion:
•            What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
•         What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
•            What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
•         Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
•                  Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
•         Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
•                  Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
•         Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
•                  Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
•              Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
•         Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
•                She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
•                      For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
•         Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
•                    Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
•         And, happy melodist, unwearied,
•                    For ever piping songs for ever new. . . .
• See W. S. DiPiero’s poem guide on Robert Browning for more on ekphrasis. Browse moreekphrastic poems.

The poem excerpted above may be read (and heard) in its entirety at Ode on a Grecian Urn.

• Who did the assignment?
• Any discussion about how you went about the writing?
• NB
• Creating syntactical suspense
• Line breaks
• Punctuation
• Reading directions
• The next assignment is:
• Pick a favorite poem. Pick a  line (not the first and not the last) from the poem and write your own poem beginning with that line.
• This may be seen as an ekphrastic exercise although I didn’t think of it in that way. I have used this as a way to prime the  pump fairly often in the past. I have also written a couple of lengthy poems in response to  other long poems I read over several days or weeks.
• Does anyone need a line assigned?
• “Being a dog and being treated like one” John Berryman
• “When we were walking in the day’s light, seeing/the flight of bones to the stars,” Conrad Aiken
• “She knows what you need, I know what you want.” Bob Dylan
• “It’s too long that I have been alone” Allen Ginsberg “Message”