Welcome to the 154th Virtual Poetry Circle!
Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.
Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.
Also, sign up for the 2012 Fearless Poetry Reading Challenge because its simple; you only need to read 1 book of poetry. Please visit the stops on the 2012 National Poetry Month Blog Tour.
Today’s poem is from Natasha Trethewey, our new U.S. Poet Laureate:
Pilgrimage
Vicksburg, Mississippi
Here, the Mississippi carved
its mud-dark path, a graveyard
for skeletons of sunken riverboats.
Here, the river changed its course,
turning away from the city
as one turns, forgetting, from the past—
the abandoned bluffs, land sloping up
above the river's bend—where now
the Yazoo fills the Mississippi's empty bed.
Here, the dead stand up in stone, white
marble, on Confederate Avenue. I stand
on ground once hollowed by a web of caves;
they must have seemed like catacombs,
in 1863, to the woman sitting in her parlor,
candlelit, underground. I can see her
listening to shells explode, writing herself
into history, asking what is to become
of all the living things in this place?
This whole city is a grave. Every spring—
Pilgrimage—the living come to mingle
with the dead, brush against their cold shoulders
in the long hallways, listen all night
to their silence and indifference, relive
their dying on the green battlefield.
At the museum, we marvel at their clothes—
preserved under glass—so much smaller
than our own, as if those who wore them
were only children. We sleep in their beds,
the old mansions hunkered on the bluffs, draped
in flowers—funereal—a blur
of petals against the river's gray.
The brochure in my room calls this
living history. The brass plate on the door reads
Prissy's Room. A window frames
the river's crawl toward the Gulf. In my dream,
the ghost of history lies down beside me,
rolls over, pins me beneath a heavy arm.
What do you think?
For the WWI Reading Challenge, we’re doing a group read of Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.
With my teaching and professional responsibilities consuming only three days a week, I could block out significant amounts of free time for research and writing. My work station, set in an alcove, includes good overhead lighting and a comfortable swivel chair. What I like best about this arrangement is that it’s downstairs (I live in a townhouse), away from all window views and other distractions in the upstairs living quarters.
On this lower level is the family room with sliding doors out to the patio, but my back is to all that and so I can easily concentrate on what I’m doing. My re-energizing breaks from writing are either a power nap on the nearby couch or a half hour on the treadmill. An occasional cup of hot green tea is another good, healthy stimulant to keep me going.
About the Author:
Revenge (6:1 Series, Volume 2) by Janel Gradowski is even more well crafted than the first volume of short stories and flash fiction, beginning and ending with a wallop. Once again there are six stories in this collection: “Persistent Foe,” “Kaboom,” “Check Out,” “Inconvenience,” “Anniversary,” and “Addendum.” Some are longer than others, but each is well paced, with only one typical revenge story — “Kaboom.”
