We Take Tea and Poetry

On Sunday, October 21, we indulged in high tea at Karen’s house and read the following poems:

Wislawa Szymborska (1923- ) Nobel prize winner, 1996 –  bio

The Railroad Station

Anne Sexton (1928-1974) – bio

Just Once

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) – bio

The Last Invocation

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) – bio

A Supermarket in California

Morning

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) – bio

Song the Open Road – a parody of Joyce Kilmer’s Trees

Patricia MacLachlan & Emily MacLachlan Charest – Patricia’s bio, Emily’s bio

Once I Ate a Pie

Wang Ping (1957- ) – bio

Syntax

Edwin Morgan (1920- ) – bio

A View of Things

Strawberries – audio by Hamish White and Liz Cameron

Siesta of a Hungarian Snake

Loch Ness Monster’s Song –audio

Paul Muldoon (1951- ) – bio, profile in The New York Times

A Hummingbird

Tupak Shakur (1971-1996)

Untitled rap “Please wake me when I’m free”

Jane Hirshfield (1953- ) – bio

The Stone of Heaven

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We Spot Poetry in Central Park

You know how once you bring something into your consciousness, you begin to tune in and notice that thing everywhere. Well, back in August, Frances and I went to see Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. And right there, in the middle of Act V, Scene I, under the starry, moonlit skies, in the middle of New York City, was Shakespeare’s own description of a poet. 

The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. 

Funny how I had never noticed it before even though I’ve seen Midsummer Night’s Dream several times. So I searched and found this recitation of Theseus’ speech interpreted by Anthony Herrera. You can read the text yourself here.

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We Receive a Gift from Joy A. Burki-Watson

At our April 15 meeting, Karen read us a parody written by Joy Burki-Watson entitled I Pondered ‘Neath My Faceless Shroud. Well, it seems that Joy has discovered the Poets’ Notebook and in doing so left us a present entitled Trees. Check it out. You can contrast it with Joyce Kilmer’s original Trees

Thank you very much Joy. We truly appreciate it!

You can visit Joy’s Web site Way Down Upon. There you will find a poem entitled The Daffodil Field which kind of brings this whole affair full circle since I Pondered ‘Neath My Faceless Shroud is a parody of Wordsworth’s own daffodil poem entitled I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.

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BJ Ward at Fairleigh Dickinson

BJ Ward, one of the poets we read at our September meeting, will be reading some of his poems along with 11 other New Jersey poets on Saturday, November 3 at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Here’s the text as it appears on the web site of The Literary Review.

As one of the TLR 50th anniversary events, twelve New Jersey poets with work in our Summer 2007 issue wll read on Saturday, November 3 in the Orangerie of the College at Florham campus library from 2 to 5 p.m.  Here are directions to the campus. Participating will be Laura Boss, Constance Quarterman Bridges, Bob Carnavalle, Barbara Daniels, Catherine Doty, Kathy Graber, Timothy Lui, Peter Murphy. Christine Salvatore, Shanxing Wang, BJ Ward, Gretna Wilkinson.  The reading itself will begin at 3, and before and after the poets will sell their books and socialize.   

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We Have a Little Poetry With Our Food

On September 10, we ate at Denise’s house…and read a little poetry. Here’s the list:

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) – bio

Sestina

The Armadillo (audio reading)

BJ Ward (1967 – ) web site – NJ poet and special guest star of bat mitzvahs

Gravedigger’s Birthday

Landing in New Jersey with Soft Hands

Sex with Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) – bio

Wild Nights

Steven Ford Brown (1952-) – bio

Angel of Loneliness

The Miscalculations of Love

Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) – bio

Let Evening Come

Happiness

Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) –bio, NPR’s story on his 100th birthday

The Layers

Cor Van Den Heuval – (1931- ) bio  

Baseball Haiku  haiku and senryu poems of various poets

more baseball haiku (includes a tribute haiku to Phil Rizzuto)

Anne Marie Macari ( ) – info

Glory

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