Tag poetry

* finding autumn with T. E. Hulme

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment
Autumn – T. E. Hulme
A touch of cold in the Autumn night—
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded,
And round about were the wistful stars
With white faces like town children.
* road to autumn *

* road to autumn *

Moving to a new part of the country means getting accustomed to a new set of seasons.  It is newly October, and while the leaves are turning, the weather seems to be fighting the season change here in Cincinnati.

Or maybe this is the season change.

This kind of indefinite feeling – which only comes from rooting one’s self up and relocating to a new context – is very much the kind of place poetry comes from.

There’s a term we use in teaching English Composition when talking about feeling one’s way through unknown material, that instead of fighting it one must wallow in complexity – I love that!  It’s like advice for life.

And for seasons, too.

Happy wallowing!

Jose

* arriving with Denise Levertov

José Angel Araguz 2 Comments

Overland to the Islands – Denise Levertov

Let’s go — much as that dog goes,
intently haphazard.  The
Mexican light on a day that
“smells like autumn in Connecticut”
makes iris ripples on his
black gleaming fur — and that too
is as one would desire — a radiance
consorting with the dance.
Under his feet
rock and mud, his imagination, sniffing,
engaged in its perceptions — dancing
edgeways, there’s nothing
the dog disdains on his way,
nevertheless he
keeps moving, changing
pace and approach but
not direction — “every step an arrival.”

*arrivearrivearrive*

*arrivearrivearrive*

Our professor snuck in this poem at the tail end of Levertov’s essay “Some Notes on Organic Form” – a good read for you poets if you have the time.

Much of what moves me here in this particular poem – the juxtaposition of senses and sensibility, how the poem insists on perception after perception, leads from word to word in an engaging manner – is discussed in that essay in terms of meditation and breath.

I have been much involved in another kind of meditation and breath, one that centers me after teaching.  Here’s a quote that has followed me into my inner space the past two days:

All the world is a dream, not because it isn’t there, but because we each attach different meanings to it.

— Ming-Dao Deng, 365 Tao

Happy attaching!

Jose