Greg’s Comments (group member since Jul 02, 2014)

Greg’s comments from the All About Books group.

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "Gregg I used to live on brick lane,how you finding the book?"

It's a great crosssection of life of what it was like for some of the immigrants who lived there back at the time it was written. I find the stories quite moving. And the flashbacks of her childhood in Bangladesh in particular are completely new to me.

That's interesting that you lived in Brick Lane yourself! Since I live in America, I have no idea of what that area must actually be like, but one of my Goodreads friends who taught in that area said that she thought Brick Lane was very accurate and authentic in describing the lives of her students.

How did you like it there?

I have still never yet read Louise Penny. I need to rectify that!

May Schedule:

1st May: Greg
8th May: Cleo
15th May: Laura
22nd May: Alannah
29th May: Tumbleweed Words

Great - thanks Laura! And I'm happy to say that the signups for May are all filled up!

I'll generally post the sign up sheets a month before so expect June signups to be posted around May 1st everyone.

And thanks everyone for helping to get the Monday poem going again!

Rhonda wrote: "My total pages read: 6,204"

Wow Rhonda! Our group is going to have quite a total!

Kathleen wrote: "A book of essays by Wendell Berry:
What Are People For?: Essays

Even though they are a little dated (written mostly in th..."

Looks interesting Kathleen and great review! Berry is such an interesting guy - he's completely outside of the political categories we have nowadays, in the best possible way.

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "fair comment here, Baudelaire is not for everyone for sure"

I do like it Tumbleweed Words, and all of my friends who have read Flowers of Evil rated it highly! But yes, I'd say he's not for everyone. It's pretty daring and sometimes quite dark.

I'm curious as to what happened in the obscenity trial when it was published? Do you know? I see the book was banned by French courts all the way from 1857 to 1949!

It's hard to believe the book was published in 1857!!! I just saw the publishing date, and it shocked me. He was so ahead of his time! I can see why the introduction in my book calls him "the poet and thinker of our age, of what we like to call modernity."

Only one spot in May to fill! Can anyone take it?

Thanks for the signups everyone!

1st May: Greg
8th May: Cleo
15th May:
22nd May: Alannah
29th May: Tumbleweed Words

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "29rh please!!!"

Fantastic, thanks Tumbleweed Words! :)

Alannah wrote: "Did you add me in Greg? I will take 22nd"

Yes, thanks so much Alannah, I put you in. :)

Current list:

1st May: Greg
8th May: Cleo
15th May:
22nd May: Alannah
29th May

Leslie wrote: "I saw that Greg was reading Baudelaire and his The Flowers of Evil is available at my library ..."

I don't know what you'd think of it Leslie?

It's much less raw and disordered and undisciplined than Arthur Rimbaud, but I can feel the beginning of that sort of decadence in it.

For instance, from "A Carrion":

"The flies swarmed over the putrid belly,
From which emerged black batallions
Of maggots, which flowed like a thick liquid
Along these human rags."

I feel a little of Wilde in here in the attraction for morally ambiguous beauty, for deadly loveliness, but it doesn't have much of his Wilde's wit. Wit is replaced here with passion.

From "The Mask":

"--Also, see that enticing voluptuous smile
In which Fatuity parades its ecstasy;
That long sly look, langorous and mocking"

I was reading it because Tumbleweed Words mentioned it in an earlier post and I haven't read it in many years. It's a seminal French work. It's not the sort of poetry I usually read, but I do like it. I don't know if I'd recommend it to you or not.

I like some of the extended metaphors, such as "The Abatross," where poets are compared to the great birds who are objects of wonder in the air but just comic and ugly when landed on the ground of the deck with their huge wings dragging.

It's hard to tell how good my copy's translation is since I don't speak French. Poor translations can cause a lot of the magic of poetry to be lost.

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "poet in New York Gregg :)"

Ah, interesting, I've never read that one! Poet in New York Thanks for the recommendation Tumbleweed Words!

Let's move general conversations and questions to the new Poetry Chat thread going forward: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

We'll keep the sign up threads for sign ups.

We still have two open dates in May - May 15th and May 29th.

Anyone want to take either of those?

Cleo wrote: "I can take the 8th 👍🏻"

Thanks Cleo! :)

Thanks for creating the thread Leslie! :)

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "great idea! I love so much poetry but return to the following more than others, bukowski (saw poetry in unique places), Lorca ( the New York collection is amazing) and Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil ..."

I have read some Lorca, but I don't think I've read the New York collection. Which one is that?

Tumbleweed Words wrote: "poetry forever! can someone at me the sign up sheet? cannot find it on my phone :/"

Just say here which open date you want, and I'll add you Tumbleweed Words

1st May: Greg
8th May: Cleo
15th May:
22nd May: Alannah
29th May

Alannah wrote: "Steve wrote: "Are there any copyright issues?"

Originally posted in 2014 so may be slightly different.
There's currently a lively debate going on in the Akhmatova thread about copyright law regard..."

Thanks Alannah! And thanks for the thoughtful question Steve!

I think for my part, I don't feel bad posting individual poems here with the author and translator clearly attributed because poetry itself is not given as much love as it should be, and we are posting only single poems that might spur those interested to find some new poets they can support and enjoy. A single poem is only a small excerpt of a much larger book, and I don't see how it's very different than posting poems in the review of a book.

But as Alannah says, everyone should do what they feel comfortable with. And if anyone feels uncomfortable, they can post older poetry that is in the public domain already.

Nidhi wrote: "Greg, do you have any plan for categorizing poetry? Mostly Contemporary and Classic poetry or every era mixed together with brief introduction of the poet of the week?"

What we did last time is just one poem a week where the person who signs up for that Monday can post any one poem they like.

A brief introduction is not required, but it would be nice for more unfamiliar poets that people might not have heard of before. And it would be nice to say just a little about why you like the poem or what you see in it. But feel free to include as much or as little as you like. With some poems, a little background can be helpful.

Poetry from any era is perfectly fine. We had some poems that were practically contemporary and others that were composed in ancient times - anything whatsoever that speaks to you is fine!

In the past, when people from the group discussed that week's poem, I feel like there were a lot of wonderful insights. And as a person who enjoys reading poetry, I liked it very much. I was introduced to more than one poet that I had never read before, even though I feel like I have read quite a lot of poetry!

Alannah wrote: "I will take 22nd"

Thanks Alannah! :)

Anyone else want to sign up for a slot? It would be fun if we could get this going again.