This Poem was Submitted By: Mell W. Morris On Date: 2004-08-29 18:24:42 . . . Click Here To Mail this Poem to a Friend!To Listen to Music While Reading this Poem, just Click Here!
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Becoming Acquainted With Bly
I know you avoid most people, sir, so I
appreciate your hospitality. I don't talk
much, will never say anything negative
about your family or poetry, and one day,
might recite by heart a Wallace Stevens'
poem. (I've heard you admire his work.)
My favorite month? October, when the wind
blows leaves from trees to form intricate
patterns on the ground below. The wind is
fervent music upon which I've laid the
joists of my life, moving from plains
to seas with wind's freedom to blow when
or where it pleases. I once fell in love with
a pinecone placed at my feet by the wind
which was following and obeying a force
irresistible. A triangle formed: pinecone,
wind, and me. You once were fond of a sprig
of chervil, the nicest gift you ever received.
In one of your poems, you say if you are sad,
it means you are home or that the blackbirds
on the telephone wires excluded you from their
conversation. You musn't allow those aviary
snubs to distract from your important work
but I'll leave you with thirteen ways.
A handshake and I depart with the greatest gift
of all. The life-long pleasure that awaits
anyone eating the honey of Bly's words. |
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Copyright © August 2004 Mell W. Morris
Additional Notes:
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
Wallace Stevens, 1953
"Eating The Honey Of Words"
Robert Bly, 1999
JoMo, you said we need poems or else I'd never post this tribute to Bly.
This Poem was Critiqued By: G. Donald Cribbs On Date: 2004-09-07 06:14:08
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Mell,
I'm so glad you've found your way to Bly. An excellent masterful writer, well deserving of this admirable tribute. I too am a HUGE Bly fan. Love to go to the library and hear him reading poems and poetry. His lectures are awesome. He does a great job with translations too, such as Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry from the German. Very well done.
Thank you for sharing this one with us. I'm glad you did. I quite enjoyed it. Excellent as always in the details you've selected, line by line, all the way down. Excellent, my friend!
Warm regards,
Don
This Poem was Critiqued By: Thomas Edward Wright On Date: 2004-09-02 22:15:20
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
I avoid most people who write to poets,
ex-specially those whose poetry is better
than the poets they think are better than them
who they're writing too to look or sound
educated when they could write circles around
the aortic roots of those who obfuscate them
into the tirades that end up on web sites
frequented by the rabble rousers or would-be
pundits of the internet.
I avoid the irritating urge to send letters
to those who don't know me or don't care
to step out into the world to see it as it really is.
A shit-hole with a lid.
But I come out when people like you raise the bar,
just to see if I can hit my head on it when I run under it.
This Poem was Critiqued By: Turner Lee Williams On Date: 2004-09-01 16:45:01
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.86111
Mell--I immediately found fascination in the title and stanza #1: the ice-breaking small
talk is obviously protocol for “getting acquainted with a recluse,” but so much more than
that. IMO, literally a connection which is intricately expound through non-literal language
by the enjambement of stanzas #2 and #3.
The tract of allegory followed in stanzas #4 and #5 depict a metaphoric dialogue which
is a verbal feast: vivid imagery creates a bitter-sweet-almost poignancy that we’d be hard
pressed to duplicate elsewhere. The word pictures painted by you provide something for
all the senses and every emotion.
Your penning of this tribute draws from a well I’m sure that is not available to all of us
at TPL. Furthermore, it’s quite clear that a familiarity and bond exist with your subject/
subject matter which reach beyond my abilities to scribe it’s context properly. Moreover,
in you, at all levels, poets have an ally and champion that’s astute as well as vocal (a very
dangerous combination-smile). Thanks for these visions; addition to my library; and this
Mell-velous read. TLW
P.S. Of course I quickly acquired a copy of Robert Bly’s “Eating the Honey of Words”
and reread (1 ea.) Wallace Stevens “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and Walt
Whitman’s “Poets to Come” (this one seemed fitting too-- somehow).
This Poem was Critiqued By: Joanne M Uppendahl On Date: 2004-08-31 20:44:30
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
Mell:
What a fabulous tribute to Bly! Makes me want to re-visit his poetry, as I've been
away from it for a while. This is a poem to whet the appetite - both for Bly's
work and for yours. And for some reason, your poetry usually makes me hungry.
I especially enjoyed this first-person address. I would love to hear you
recite a Wallace Stevens' poem. I know that most of the stanzas are
referential to Bly's work - and my memory of it is hazy.
I know you avoid most people, sir, so I
appreciate your hospitality. I don't talk
much, will never say anything negative
about your family or poetry, and one day,
might recite by heart a Wallace Stevens'
poem. (I've heard you admire his work.)
Here you expand on the idea or concept that we make ourselves at home in
poets' writing, as cozily as if in our own interior cottage. I love the
idea and hadn't considered it in this way.
My favorite month? October, when the wind -- I especially live these two lines
blows leaves from trees to form intricate
patterns on the ground below. The wind is
fervent music upon which I've laid the --what would a Mell-O poem be without music? :>)
joists of my life, moving from plains
to seas with wind's freedom to blow when
"blow/wind/below" -- lively, lovely allits
or where it pleases. ("The wind blows where]ever it pleases..." John 3:8?)
I once fell in love with
a pinecone placed at my feet by the wind
which was following and obeying a force
irresistible. A triangle formed: pinecone,
wind, and me.
--- Oh, I love this. What thrilling geometrics
you have, my dear! This is to savor and return to --
again and again. The 'irresistible force' vs. the
'immovable object' paradox is elicited here.
Rich layers of meaning. The scent of the pinecone. The forces
of love and falling in loves. Ah, luscious layers, indeed!
In one of your poems, you say if you are sad,
it means you are home or that the blackbirds
on the telephone wires excluded you from their
conversation. You musn't allow those aviary ---WONDERFUL!
snubs to distract from your important work
but I'll leave you with thirteen ways.
A handshake and I depart with the greatest gift
of all. The life-long pleasure that awaits
anyone eating the honey of Bly's words.
See how you whet a reader's appetite for Bly's AND your words?
Truly, you give us much more than a hint of the pleasure that awaits
the reader with a lifelong passion for poetry. I think that this poem
would enjoy a splendid presence in a (cook)book on poetry and poets.
Delicioso! Brava! A gift-wrapped golden box of delicate
honeycomb from the nectar of meadow flowers extended. . .
Applause for this treat,
Joanne
PS Thank you Jo, for asking
This Poem was Critiqued By: Claire H. Currier On Date: 2004-08-31 08:56:37
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 10.00000
My favorite month is May when the world now comes to live once more.......October is filled with beauty though and one can understand why it would be their favorite as well......love the images you projected and the feelings associated with this one....nicely structured, great word flow, in the fall of the year with all out mighty pines surrounding the yard I wonder out to collect those that have fallen to use with my crafts. This past fall we had so many it was like a hugh snowfall but only with pinecones.........thanks for posting and sharing, I hope you are well these days....be safe and may the Lord continue to bless you and your work.....Claire
This Poem was Critiqued By: Wanda S. Thibodeaux On Date: 2004-08-30 23:54:33
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 1.00000
Dear Mell,
I love his "Morning Poems". especially the way they came to be, writing one each morning
before getting out of bed. Is that the life or what?
This poem takes on its own life, is cleverly written so that we get a birdseye view of the
little idiosyncrasies that Bly possessed.
I enjoy his work, I think of it as intense simplicity.
Your poem is delightful in it's truth...and fiction. I'm glad you posted it.
I enjoy your work so much.
I hope you are feeling better.
Best always,
Wanda
This Poem was Critiqued By: Joanne Duval Morgan On Date: 2004-08-30 19:16:45
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.90476
Gee up to now the only Bly I was familar with was the characrer from Munity on the Bounty.
No longer through your conversation in the poem with a deceased poet striker a harmonic cord, and moves along smartly and shows those of us unfamilar with a wonderful Poet he was. Nice movement, sweet natured, and a wonderful portrayal.
You may have seached your archives and contrite any poems you wrote that marchs to this beat, for it's wonderful. It allows a less liker reader, like me, to become familar with the charaterization via the conversonsational tone of this poem. smooth words proclaiming a man (talent).
No way I can take exception, and thank you for the support in trying to start this site to flashes of what we were and where we can go agin.
God put me here to be a reader, and listener and you for poetic talent. Loved it......Love, Jo
This Poem was Critiqued By: Elaine Marie Phalen On Date: 2004-08-29 21:52:25
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.87500
Hi Mell,
The conversational tone of this delightful monologue is well suited to such an accessible poet as Robert Bly, with Stevens shadowing him a few steps behind. I enjoyed your wry humor in S1, with its slightly facetious acknowledgement of the poet's reclusive sensitivity. The imagery befits his own style and subject matter; most of it is nature-related and all of it is wonderfully descriptive. S3 is my favorite passage. The speaker places herself in the triad with wind and cone, a part of the larger picture, for we are - or should be - integrated within the world around us. "The nicest gift you ever received" - the chervil sprig - links Bly to the speaker and her world.
The wind is
fervent music upon which I've laid the
joists of my life, moving from plains
to seas with [wind's] freedom to blow when
or where it pleases [I please].
If I have a small suggestion here, it is to re-examine the repeated use of "wind" in some form (five times). For instance, in the above, you imply windiness with use of "freedom to blow", so I don't think you need to specify the wind as the source of the blowing. Just my take, of course. I absolutely love the fervent music, and "laid the joists of my life"!
You musn't [mustn't] allow those aviary
snubs to distract from your important work
but I'll leave you with thirteen ways.
This is another favorite. "Aviary snubs" is awesome! I subconsciously also think "apiary" which brings in the honey idea. And "thirteen ways" is such a clever link to Stevens!
A handshake and I depart with the greatest gift
of all. The life-long pleasure that awaits
anyone eating the honey of Bly's words.
In the last strophe, you shift POV. The direct communication with Bly is lost, as you objectify him with "Bly's" words, not "your" words. Of course, if you've left him, you can't be talking to him ... but I keep thinking, must you leave before the poem stops? How about ...
A handshake, before I depart with the greatest gift
of all: a life-long pleasure awaiting me,
as I eat the honey of your words.
Just one possibility. I think something like this will keep Bly in the picture and still signal the speaker's intent to take away what she's gained from his work. The allusion to the title is retained, albeit somewhat altered from "eating" to "eat"; readers will still get it, though. Anyway, your call to use or toss! I hope you don't mind this kind of feedback, since the poem itself is so strong to begin with.
Anyhow, yes, there's a dearth of critiques and poems this month. I've posted only one piece, out of guilt at not doing more crits. I'm glad you were moved by Jo's comment to post this piece! It's well worth the read.
Brenda
This Poem was Critiqued By: James Edward Schanne On Date: 2004-08-29 18:58:42
Critiquer Rating During Critique: 9.02273
I'd hate to think you would't post this, It was very enjoyable with the :
or where it pleases. I once fell in love with
a pinecone placed at my feet by the wind
which was following and obeying a force
irresistible. A triangle formed: pinecone,
wind, and me. You once were fond of a sprig
of chervil, the nicest gift you ever received.
with the stanza being my favorite, Its hard to step back from what we write and see what might be most treasured, I certainly enjoyed this . Thanks for posting it.
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