Love the idea. I’ve been wanting to get back into reading poetry (note the stacks of books I’ve recently pulled off the shelf, still sitting there…). Bukowski, anyone?
Love your process of thought and discovery, exploration of the mind, the wants and the desires of the world within. Stay open, stay curious and stay the amazing person that you are James.
Unambiguously to the affirmative. And though not yet expired, I have some poems. Time commitments are rough at the moment. What if I was to ask: could you ever do a video on "The Waste Land"? It was my grandpa's favorite. In fact, once upon a time in my early twenties I went to visit him. He had been waiting in a cafe, surrounded by other family, but refusing to eat his flapjacks and rootbear until I arrived. When I did arrive, he was then free to take out his dentures, start gumming down his flapjacks and gurgling down his pop, and in the middle of this he whips out a little copy (I mean a tiny little copy smaller than a greeting card) of "The Waste Land" and insists that I take it and memorize it. Apparently he had hundreds of these in his attic and used to hand them out to his students. To my enduring shame, I have neither memorized it nor deciphered its meaning, and have misplaced the little book altogether. What I've gathered of Eliot is that he was a mega WASP and probably had some rather exceptionalist views. Accepting these possibilities, I'd still love to understand why this was my grandpa's favorite poem. I didn't even know enough about anything at the time to ask him anything resembling an intelligent question.
I love that Cheryl. At the start of this year when I was optimistic with my reading habit I thought to read more classics and I had a little collection of Eliot's poems in my bag so I could read after writing at a cafe in town. I've checked the contents and Waste Land lays therein. In a couple of weeks time we shall take it piece by piece and bath in it and see if we can pierce some of its mysteries. And after that I hope I will be inspired enough to make a video on it thank you for the suggestion and for sharing that wonderful story behind it (I just love the image of that tiny little copy)
Also forgive my tardy response: sickness and finishing editing thoreau have seen the lapsing of my manners!
If you're somebody to whom it makes perfect sense the first read through, then … I wouldn't know what to say other than 1) good for you, and 2) you definitely owe us a video. It looks as though, since the last time I sought out guidance for the poem, a sparse handful of serious-headed youths have taken it upon themselves to understand it at a pretty deep level. (I guess the kids call that “based” these days?) But (!) your commentary, as somebody who's gotten to know Jung, for instance, would be especially interesting. Looking forward to Bukowski first, however. 🥂 Never heard of him before.
given my history with Eliot I doubt I'll be producing any miracles but it'll be good to go in blind and see what impressions are thrown up before digging into the thickets of its depth. Needless to say, you've got me excited for reading it!
“ I want to open up those cracks in the concrete and let more beauty in…”
Wonderful idea - I’m in , whatever form it takes .
As Frost was known to say ,
“ Poetry will never make the daily news, but our souls will die for the lack of it ..”
Significant the way your articles so often have a poetic thread weaving through them . Sometimes they read a little like the quintessential prose poem !
If it helps at all , I started up a poetry group 12 years ago , with four dear friends who were spread around the continent - two in Central Aust , one in Canberra , one then in Melbourne & me , in little old Tasmania .
We each contributed a poem a fortnight ( sometimes weekly) , via email - purely for the joy of sharing and the salving power of a fine poem.. Sometimes we reflected on them , shared a favourite line or two, or wrote a few treasured lines on how one of the poems had spoken right then and there to a particular aspect of our lives at the time ..
Sometimes they were read aloud at weddings, funerals, and all kinds of celebrations , including at the breakfast table .
We managed to “ meet “ and share this way for 4 or so years - drops of pure gold into our Inboxes each & every time - strengthening our capacity to meet with all kinds of challenges, losses , changes in our diverse and connected lives .
I still have all of those poems , tucked away in folders on my computer or inside a beloved book. Of course I do.
Love it. Seems like a poetry group has a lot of potential for nourishing the soul. We'd be doing well if we kept it going for 4 weeks never mind 4 years! If you have any poems you'd like to put forward lemme know!
Ah well yes - very soul nourishing . Rest assured we certainly didn't manage a poem a week every week for 4 years..We had a few lags every now and then! (a bit like this reply - apologies for that)
Have been thinking about poems.. How about Love After Love by Derek Walcott? ; a gentle reminder of the importance of presence perhaps, and a few other things..?
Love after Love
Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Hello there! Not to worry about technical glitches I deleted the other one (though I'm still not sure why some of your comments are showing up formatted like email replies 🤔). Anywho apologies for the delayed response I've been out of it with the sickness and final editing on the video
Carla suggested Blue Bird by Bukowski so we'll start with that and then follow that up with this lovely bit of Walcott next week! I'm not even looking at the poem now so I can come at it fresh next week
Love the idea. I’ve been wanting to get back into reading poetry (note the stacks of books I’ve recently pulled off the shelf, still sitting there…). Bukowski, anyone?
Oooh yes!! I've been meaning to read some Bukowski for years that's a great one. Any suggestions for a good poem?
No, but some exploration will turn up some tasty tidbits.
Awesome. I'll go check out some of his more iconic ones and might use him for the first instalment
Bluebird.
Love your process of thought and discovery, exploration of the mind, the wants and the desires of the world within. Stay open, stay curious and stay the amazing person that you are James.
thanks Bill I'll do what I can 💛
Unambiguously to the affirmative. And though not yet expired, I have some poems. Time commitments are rough at the moment. What if I was to ask: could you ever do a video on "The Waste Land"? It was my grandpa's favorite. In fact, once upon a time in my early twenties I went to visit him. He had been waiting in a cafe, surrounded by other family, but refusing to eat his flapjacks and rootbear until I arrived. When I did arrive, he was then free to take out his dentures, start gumming down his flapjacks and gurgling down his pop, and in the middle of this he whips out a little copy (I mean a tiny little copy smaller than a greeting card) of "The Waste Land" and insists that I take it and memorize it. Apparently he had hundreds of these in his attic and used to hand them out to his students. To my enduring shame, I have neither memorized it nor deciphered its meaning, and have misplaced the little book altogether. What I've gathered of Eliot is that he was a mega WASP and probably had some rather exceptionalist views. Accepting these possibilities, I'd still love to understand why this was my grandpa's favorite poem. I didn't even know enough about anything at the time to ask him anything resembling an intelligent question.
I love that Cheryl. At the start of this year when I was optimistic with my reading habit I thought to read more classics and I had a little collection of Eliot's poems in my bag so I could read after writing at a cafe in town. I've checked the contents and Waste Land lays therein. In a couple of weeks time we shall take it piece by piece and bath in it and see if we can pierce some of its mysteries. And after that I hope I will be inspired enough to make a video on it thank you for the suggestion and for sharing that wonderful story behind it (I just love the image of that tiny little copy)
Also forgive my tardy response: sickness and finishing editing thoreau have seen the lapsing of my manners!
My unsolicited advice is that you first jump gleefully into the abyss and see how much of it you can endure before clicking this link: https://youtu.be/PSI5AejsFbU?si=JGrIp90iDcQQLkw2
If you're somebody to whom it makes perfect sense the first read through, then … I wouldn't know what to say other than 1) good for you, and 2) you definitely owe us a video. It looks as though, since the last time I sought out guidance for the poem, a sparse handful of serious-headed youths have taken it upon themselves to understand it at a pretty deep level. (I guess the kids call that “based” these days?) But (!) your commentary, as somebody who's gotten to know Jung, for instance, would be especially interesting. Looking forward to Bukowski first, however. 🥂 Never heard of him before.
given my history with Eliot I doubt I'll be producing any miracles but it'll be good to go in blind and see what impressions are thrown up before digging into the thickets of its depth. Needless to say, you've got me excited for reading it!
Belinda Lang
From:
belinda.lang@yahoo.com.au
To:
The Living Philosophy
Wed, 14 May at 9:13 am
“ I want to open up those cracks in the concrete and let more beauty in…”
Wonderful idea - I’m in , whatever form it takes .
As Frost was known to say ,
“ Poetry will never make the daily news, but our souls will die for the lack of it ..”
Significant the way your articles so often have a poetic thread weaving through them . Sometimes they read a little like the quintessential prose poem !
If it helps at all , I started up a poetry group 12 years ago , with four dear friends who were spread around the continent - two in Central Aust , one in Canberra , one then in Melbourne & me , in little old Tasmania .
We each contributed a poem a fortnight ( sometimes weekly) , via email - purely for the joy of sharing and the salving power of a fine poem.. Sometimes we reflected on them , shared a favourite line or two, or wrote a few treasured lines on how one of the poems had spoken right then and there to a particular aspect of our lives at the time ..
Sometimes they were read aloud at weddings, funerals, and all kinds of celebrations , including at the breakfast table .
We managed to “ meet “ and share this way for 4 or so years - drops of pure gold into our Inboxes each & every time - strengthening our capacity to meet with all kinds of challenges, losses , changes in our diverse and connected lives .
I still have all of those poems , tucked away in folders on my computer or inside a beloved book. Of course I do.
So, yes - I am definitely in!
Love it. Seems like a poetry group has a lot of potential for nourishing the soul. We'd be doing well if we kept it going for 4 weeks never mind 4 years! If you have any poems you'd like to put forward lemme know!
Had a few tech glitches , and my apologies for that , but here we go. .. How about the poem Love After Love by Derek Walcott?
I think it could beautifully compliment that marvellous Thoreau video of yours I just had the pleasure of watching ?
Belinda Lang
From:
belinda.lang@yahoo.com.au
To:
forum+2p7avr&nz05y&1xo666&8a33cb2b0c2bae24ba4898c24d9b9325e4f8a74032d44c7ba96e635d45db341d@mg1.substack.com
Fri, 16 May at 5:29 pm
Ah well yes - very soul nourishing . Rest assured we certainly didn't manage a poem a week every week for 4 years..We had a few lags every now and then! (a bit like this reply - apologies for that)
Have been thinking about poems.. How about Love After Love by Derek Walcott? ; a gentle reminder of the importance of presence perhaps, and a few other things..?
Love after Love
Derek Walcott
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread, Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Hello there! Not to worry about technical glitches I deleted the other one (though I'm still not sure why some of your comments are showing up formatted like email replies 🤔). Anywho apologies for the delayed response I've been out of it with the sickness and final editing on the video
Carla suggested Blue Bird by Bukowski so we'll start with that and then follow that up with this lovely bit of Walcott next week! I'm not even looking at the poem now so I can come at it fresh next week