Trees

Mark: I'm just guessing from context. She's talking about handling loss gracefully and one way of doing that is to write about it, and in so doing rise above it - distance yourself from your own little pity party. Just tell it like it is - in other words, write it!

A lot has been written about Bishop so maybe I'll take a look at the literature, as they say, to see how others with more initials behind their names than I may have interpreted it.

not sure if you can access this interesting examination of the poem in the ny times years ago. lot of unanswered questions. the poem has its mysteries.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/18/books/elizabeth-bishop-one-art-poem.html

10/27/23 10:03 AM

#13282

Mike -- thanks for the link. This person's interpretation of the last line is more profound than my snarky suggestion of self-deprecation, to be sure. He (she?) says:

"It’s a loss so deep, it can barely be acknowledged. The speaker strains to write the words.

10/27/23 11:02 AM

#13283

Mark: You are so snarky I think I'll have to write a poem about how snarky you are.

Fortunately, "snarky" rhymes with both "malarky," and now that I'm thinking about it, "Marky," so I'm halfway there already.

Top it all off via "black heart" and "Schweikart" and maybe work in the word "fart" for good measure and I think that will be perfect to finish you off in a breezy final stanza.

Hope you have kept your subscription to the new yorker up to date because I'm sure they'll be all over me to get this one.

Remember, you started this long ago. I think. It was either you or Jack Maxwell who gave me the nickname of "Glid" to rhyme, sort of, with how my family pronounced "McLeod."

Later in life I went back to the original Scottish pronunciation and preferred going by "McLeod" to be pronounced "mick-CLOUD".

But back to our grieving poet: In all seriousness, it's just so beautiful, so artful and intimate. It took years of tinkering for her to finish it. And it's profoundly true of our lives and the necessary but difficult virtue of accepting loss with grace. I just love it. I love to just read it aloud to myself.

Hmm. That would be "aloud to Mc Cloud."

10/27/23 12:24 PM

#13284

Speaking of the same subject, and handling it with grace......

Future Plans

by Kate Barnes

When I am an old, old woman I may very well be

living all alone like many another before me

and I rather look forward to the day when I shall have

a tumbledown house on a hill top and behave

just as I wish to. No more need to be proud—

at the tag end of life one is at last allowed

to be answerable to no one. Then I shall wear

a shapeless felt hat clapped on over my white hair,

sneakers with holes for the toes, and a ragged dress.

My house shall be always in a deep-drifted mess,

my overgrown garden a jungle. I shall keep a crew

of cats and dogs, with perhaps a goat or two

for my agate-eyed familiars. And what delight

I shall take in the vagaries of day and night,

in the wind in the branches, in the rain on the roof!

I shall toss like an old leaf, weather-mad, without reproof.

I’ll wake when I please, and when I please I shall doze;

whatever I think, I shall say; and I suppose

that with such a habit of speech I’ll be let well alone

to mumble plain truth like an old dog with a bare bone.

10/27/23 06:33 PM

#13285

Mike -- I think I see why you're posting these poems lately. It's because you identify with them intensely, am I right? My spies in Orlando tell me that they have spotted you too pulling down a floppy hat over your white hair (I assume your hair is white by now) and that your bougainvillea, that once was the envy of the neighborhood, is now terrifyingly overgrown and is a threat to anyone who dares come near. And of course, clearly you now tend to instantly speak anything that you happen to think of, so what's not to like in a poem like this?

Oops, am I being snarky again?

Snarky Marky (full of malarky) signing off for now.

10/27/23 07:46 PM

#13286

Periodic Pictures, Past and Present (And a POEM!)

The photos in this post are all present photos!

This past September was one of the very few autumns that I was unable to ascend to the "high country" of the mountains and passes west of Colorado Springs to photograph the changing of the aspens. They grow best between an altitude of 7,000 to 11,000 feet. So, over the past week I took my camera through some of the areas close to home to capture the fall color change that was still present in the various trees which grow in my Rockrimmon neigborhood at a mere 6132 foot level.I shall call these pictures "Late October in Zip Code 80919".

To satisfy the current topic of poetry which is being disussed by some of our classmates, I will add a very short poem written by Alfred Joyce Kilmer:

I think that I shall bever see

A poem lovely as a tree.

I like short poems and this one fits with may favorite photographic subjects!

Kilmer was considered the leading Catholic American poet of his time. He was killed in action by a sniper during WWI.

That feature in the last picture is Pulpit Rock, just east of I-25, the road that is the east boundry of our Zip Code.

Have a great weekend!

Jim

10/28/23 12:31 AM

#13287

Ahh, the beauty of nature. A sweet respite from the smoldering anxiety of our planet today.

10/28/23 05:00 AM

#13288

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

No beautiful photos or poems to share but I do have this.....

PS It doesn't seem to be true but even so...

10/28/23 08:39 AM

#13289

Joseph Gentilini

Beautiful pictures, Jim. Thanks. joe

10/28/23 11:17 AM

#13290

Mark: my bouganvillia is blooming like crazy and you are just jealous. The colors are so intense! Technically they are leaves, not flowers, of a purple/rose tone mostly, though I have a bush that is yellow and another that is white for contrast. But the thorns - whoo-wee!

I'll post pics just to rub your nose in it. That's what a garden is for.

As for you, Jim. I believe there is a med for people with short attention spans. But see if you can keep it together long enough to read this lovely poem to the very end.

You will notice an antiquated spelling of "pressed." Not a misprint. And try not to blush and avert your gaze when you encounter the word "breast," not to mention "bosom" a few lines later. We're all adults here. Except for Mark. Who used to be my friend.

Trees

BY Alfred JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

10/28/23 11:39 AM

#13291

Mike,

Thanks for including Kilmer's entire poem.

It's not my attention span that is short, but rather my memory for all the verses!

And with all his anatomical references I can't believe he omitted a line regarding feet which could be have represented the tree's root system.

Joe G.,

Thanks, the trees in Rockrimmon displayed the best colors they have had in many years. Our usually dry summers were blessed with more rain which made the difference.

Jim

10/28/23 11:43 AM

#13292

That's what I figured Jim. You'll hear that first catchy couplet spoken so often that I bet a lot of people come to assume that's all there is to it.

10/28/23 11:21 PM

#13293

Mike -- Talk about being snarky, what do you mean "used to be my friend"? Just throw me into those bougainvillea bushes of yours, why don't you? Ouch!

10/29/23 11:06 AM

#13294

Mark: if you are serious I apologize. I was just kidding. You have obviously forgotten how much of a chronic smartass I am. If you're waiting for me to mature in that respect I admire your optimism, misplaced though it may be.

As for the poem I love the last couplet most of all.

10/29/23 03:15 PM

#13295

Farewell Fall and Welcome Winter (An alliterative post!)

After an awesome autumn what looks to be a wonderful winter arrived to my awakening early this morning.

As I opened the drapes a winter wonderland of white was there to greet me. Although it was cloudy and cold I was struck by the beautiful blanket of snow that surrounded the trunks and casually coated the needles of the Ponderosa pines in our backyard.

My "Critter Cam" was capped with snow but stood locked and loaded, ready to capture any winter wildlife that might meander in front of its ever looking lens.

Alas, first flakes of snow seldom linger long in Colorado Springs but, for now, they are here to enjoy.

Jim

10/29/23 09:33 PM

#13296

Francene Maple (Kriegel)

Donna Kelly .... I laughed at your post .... I wonder if that is true

10/29/23 10:34 PM

#13297

Donna,

Having lived there for a summer (1965) I am surprised Salzburg even has an airport. Mountians all around.

There is a case years ago of a guy who somehow boarded a plane from L.A. to Aukland New Zealand, thinking he was flying to Oakland California. Whoops!

10/30/23 12:36 PM

#13298

Joseph D. McCarthy

How many of you remember the commercial flight headed for Port Columbus airport where the pilot could see the landing strip lights and received clearance to land. Which he unfortunately did.

They had to dismantle the aircraft to remove it from DON SCOTT (OSU) Airport.

10/30/23 12:45 PM

#13299

Mike -- Fear not, my feelings were not hurt. I was just returning snarkfire.

10/30/23 02:08 PM

#13300

Joe,

I remember when that happened.

10/30/23 02:16 PM

#13301

NFL fans note: My Denver Broncos finally beat the Kansas City Chiefs for the first time in 16 games!

Reason; Taylor Swift was not at the game!

10/30/23 02:29 PM

#13302

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Francine, it made me laugh too when I saw it on FB so I wanted to share. According to what I have read on Google it seems that the PR of the Salzburg Airport does find it so amusing though.

Dave, let's face it they have had enough time to build a few airports since you lived there. :-)

Jim, more great shots. Keep warm!

10/30/23 08:30 PM

#13303

Donna,

Who Knew?

In 1926 Salzburg built W. (Wolfgang) A. (Amadeus) Mozart Airport ("W.A." was some local kid who used to play a little bit of piano) only about 7 miles from the old city center. When I went there in 1965 and again in 1971 (belated honeymoon) we flew in and out of Munich, about a two hour drive.

Never knew there was so much flat countryside that close.

And while looking this up, I learned that Innsbruck also has a major jet airport. If you've ever been to Innsbruck - that very narrow valley beween huge steep peaks would give you some pause about flying into there. No thanks. We took the train.

10/31/23 12:13 PM

#13304

Lately I've been missing 50-cent pieces. They were cool. (sigh). Had a reassuring heft to them.

And I never thought I'd see the day when I would personally use the expression "I never thought I'd see the day" BUT: I never thought I'd see the day that a pair of jeans cost you a frickin' hundred dollars - or, likely, more.

10/31/23 06:27 PM

#13305