Poems of the Week ~ Three Poets on Poetry

Today we are sharing poems about poetry, written by Sanaa, Rajani and Sumana. Pour yourself a cup of tea, draw your chairs up close, and let's contemplate why we find playing with words so fascinating. I can't imagine what people do with their time, if they don't write!

POEM HOLDING ITS HEART IN ONE FIST*

And sometimes it’s better to counsel with our hearts
alone. 

I have found that pink buds are perfect within
and destined to open.
Perhaps it’s the inclusion of personal pronouns 
in daily life– 
of singular I, me
and plural we, us.
A few more days of warmth and it would bloom
one need only be patient.

Even cherries as luscious as lips bear secrets,
no matter how swift we wish to extract 
its nectar 
ease out carefully using a chopstick 
and the pit should fall through into the bottle.

As soon bathe in eucalyptus mineral bath salt
let go of the past 
it’s searing worries and pain augmented 
there are few things in this world that are better left
unsaid.

Yet, twilight disappeared over the horizon
the last vestiges of gutsy purple
robbing me of what little courage I had left 
I stand with my soul stripped for the perusal of night.

This poem after several years of growing up
and wisdom
shall laugh and ponder upon with unrestrained tears
cherishing every moment.

*A tribute response to Jane Hirsfield’s poem, 
“Poem Holding Its Heart In One Fist.”

 Sherry: This is a beautiful poem, Sanaa.

Sanaa: Sigh.. I remember this poem as if it was written yesterday. It was in response to Kerry's Challenge: Instructions for Living a Life ~ A Tribute to Poets of Our Time at Imaginary Garden with real toads. 

"Poem Holding Its Heart In One Fist," was inspired by JaneHirsfield's poem of the same name and is a glimpse of my subconscious. It's everything I believe about writing poetry and maturing as a person with time. 

These are lonely times we are living in, Sherry. An era where sorrow cannot name its friend. I personally feel that social media is somewhat responsible in disintegrating several aspects of life. People nowadays (especially the youth)  have no sense of regard for personal interaction other than spending a ludicrous amount of time chatting on the internet. Moreover, it's a rare thing if a person enjoys a simple meal at the dining table without being immersed in a smartphone.

Keeping that in mind I associate blooming of pink buds and personal growth with warmth and attention. One need only possess a kind heart and the rest is assured. 

As the poem progresses the words and their accompanying emotions become more personal, as I seek to explore my innermost feelings regarding growing up and life. There are moments of reflection and vulnerability, hence the reference to "soul stripped for the perusal of night."

Why do we write poetry? There are many answers to this question. But I, as a person who is young and has yet a lot to experience, believe that poetry is equivalent to therapy and healing. We write because we can no longer hold the words inside. I know for a fact that I will cherish and laugh heartily at my work ten years later. I will whisper in my heart; "every poem that you wrote blazed your path and instilled your faith in life which in turn just keeps getting better and better."

Sherry: So true, "we write because we can no longer hold the words inside." And our poems chart our path, for sure. Thank you, Sanaa.

Let's see what Sumana has to say about poets and the art of poetry.

THE POET HAS GONE

It’s comfortably cold here-
Winter birds have all come-
The pond is full
With water, tree-shadows and fish-
The blue sky seems dreamy,
So are the night stars-
Things of beauty,
Scattered everywhere
Like a Mary Oliver page-
Yet there’s an uncanny calm-
Where’s the ecstasy gone
With the “luminous fruits”,
“emerald eddies”, “lean owls”
“egrets”, “daisies” and all……
When I close my eyes
I see ‘red’
What’s burning, methinks-
A fire in a forest in a faraway land
Or a heart?
An ear of mine catches a note-
Is it a dirge in the woods?
May be-
A poet is gone-


*Words in inverted commas are from Mary Oliver’s Poems


Sherry: Sigh. Nature's beauty, spilling down the page. I love this, Sumana.

Sumana: Mary Oliver was one poet who asked us to be astonished, to stay amazed about life. She writes, in her poem “When Death Comes,” “I want to say all my life / I was a bride married to amazement”.  A nature lover, she has opened our eyes to the immensity of our surroundings. She helps us see the hidden pattern of the world in her simple language. Her critics sneered at her ‘simplistic’, ‘plain’ language and 'easy accessibility' to her poems by one and all. But she stuck to her own beautiful style and enriched poetry. When such a person dies the world seems bereft of beauty. My immediate reaction was an immense sadness. This little poem of mine is a kind of homage to this poet seer. I tried to include as many of her own words from her poems I could to embellish my own poem.

Sherry: It is a beautiful homage, Sumana. Mary Oliver's words will stand, long after the voices of her critics have been silenced. Thank you for this gorgeous poem.

I knew when Rajani penned the following poem that I must share it. Let's read.

JUST MATH

Even Rumi, who could fit the entire
universe inside his poem, was yearning
for the grace of the Beloved. The universe
is not enough. It cannot love us the way
we want love. Its miracles are just math.
What would language do, or poems, if
the poet did not suffer the anguish of
loving a sunset? The sky just is. The poem
reaches out to touch your cheek. The
words wipe your tears. The poet burns
in the orange light until he becomes the
darkness. The Beloved holds back the
wine. Love is only an empty tavern, the
sun has been extinguished and the stars
in the window will be gone by morning.

Sherry: Such a beautiful poem, Rajani! A poet does feel "the anguish of loving a sunset" and, through her words, the reader feels that ache too. I love that the poem dries our tears. 

Rajani: Thanks so much for featuring my poem, Sherry.  I wrote about 40 poems in what I called the “Universe Series”  around December-January. This was one of them.  They are all centred around the relationship of the individual with the universe– existential, spiritual or arbitrary. Rumi is probably more metaphor here than actual reference, but I’m not sure how the poem actually came about. I wasn’t really planning each poem, just going with the flow. I’ve posted a few poems on my blog and on Instagram but have no idea what to do with the rest!

Sherry:  We are very happy to be reading your work, Rajani. Thank you for this very wonderful poem. I love thinking of the poet burning in an orange light. 

Thank you, poet friends, for your wonderful words. We appreciate them very much.

We hope you enjoyed this feature, my friends. Do come back and see who we talk to next. Who knows? It might be you!

Poetry Pantry #444

Happy Sunday, fellow poets. We hope you're doing well.  I wanted to share with you the heartbreaking sweetness, hope and love of these Syrian children, singing, and still dreaming,  in their war-demolished country. For them, we wish a world of justice and peace.

On Friday, we featured Canadian poet activist Rita Wong, who is working hard to protect the Peace River valley, in northern B.C., under threat from the controversial Site C dam project. She is a wonderful poet; her poem about Site C is very stirring. She even stopped by and left us a comment!

Tomorrow we are featuring Poems of the Week by three of our most faithful members. And on Wednesday Sumana's prompt will be Solitude, which should bring some wonderful responses.

For now, with the last notes of these beautiful children's song echoing in our hearts, let's share some poetry and dream they may live into the tomorrow they deserve.

I WISH I'D WRITTEN THIS

Rita Wong

In protecting the Peace

Named for where the Cree and Dane-zaa ended their war
Where medicines and food grow
Where forests and farmlands are our best hope for a future
Where women like Helen Knott stand with her ancestors
Where we have the opportunity to stand with her,
                                                       even to sing together
Where the wise ones are dancing with decolonization

Conciliation is an invitation
For settlers to understand that the electricity we use 
in Vancouver
Comes from the sacrifices of the TseKehNay
Whose homes were destroyed so we could turn on the lights
An invitation
For settlers and unsettlers to understand what it means to be
a good neighbour, a better guest
For settlers and unsettlers to give back to the land
To have the opportunity for reciprocity
For dignity, for human care
For a better future than the history that haunts us

If there is an art to reconciliation
It will appear in voluntary simplicity, getting back to basics
Like earning trust through loving the river; loving the land
If there is an art to reconciliation
It will be when governments understand that
Violence on the land
Is violence on our bodies
When we all stand with Indigenous communities
                                        to end environmental

Violence
When people from all four directions come together
                                             for landbodydefense
When we understand how precious and priceless
                                      clean air and water are
When we understand what cannot be bought is what matters
May conciliation
Help us to see
Our lives as walking (prayer)
Camping (prayer)
Last ditch (prayer)
For with the flick of a light switch
                                       we see
The Peace River’s fate
                     is ours

The Peace - source

"To understand what it means to be a better guest." I so wish I had written this poem, but could not have aspired to such heights. It is so powerful in its truth, and its reminder that we are guests here - on traditional territory, and on Mother Earth. 

In northern B.C., and at rallies throughout the province, indigenous people and environmentalist allies are protesting the proposed flooding of Site C in the Peace River area for a controversial hydroelectric project that makes no economic or environmental sense. Over the opposition of a majority of B.C. voters, the powers-that-be are blindly determined to go ahead with it. (First Nations, the B.C. government and B.C. Hydro were in B.C. Supreme Court on February 28 to set a trial date of March 2022. Thus, a ruling will come before the proposed flooding of the dam reservoir area in 2023. The Peace may yet be saved.)

Rita Wong is a Canadian poet/activist, whose work reflects her concern about social and environmental issues. She grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and her first poem was published in the Calgary Sun when she was in grade five. Ms Wong says songs were important to her in her teens, and she studied song lyrics. She was an avid reader as well. Both activities likely led to her journey as a poet.

Ms Wong says a poet’s job is “to be curious, pay attention to the world around you and your feelings, and share what you feel, love and question. This includes speaking truth to power.”

Ms Wong has five previous books of poetry out: sybil unrest, forage, undercurrent, perpetual, and monkeypuzzle.  She has won the Asian Canadian Writers Workshop Emerging Writer award, and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry prize.

source

  

A notable poem, and Ms Wong's sixth book, (with Fred Wah), is “Beholden: A Poem as Long as the River”, a two-line inter-disciplinary image-poem that  flows along a 114-foot map of the Columbia River. The book is stunning, its concept inspired. The poem winds along the curves of the drawn map of the river, reflecting Ms Wong and fellow poet Fred Wah’s concern about the consequences of the hydroelectric manipulation of one of Canada’s largest river systems, which would devastate that northern area, and the lives of all beings who live there.

(Interestingly, today is World Water Day, perfect for contemplation of the life of rivers and all fresh-water sources. Water is life.)

Ms Wong now lives in Vancouver, B.C. She is an associate professor in critical and cultural studies at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

I so admire a poet who uses her platform to address social and environmental issues. This poet is one newly introduced to me, and one whose work I will follow with interest and admiration.

Sources: Poetry In Voice

Material shared in 'I Wish I'd Written This' is presented for study and review. Poems, photos and other writings remain the property of the copyright owners, usually their authors