Sher’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2020)

Sher’s comments from the Nonfiction Reading - Only the Best group.

Carol— that’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t thought of ... perfectionism... I was thinking of the poem as this living organic entity that evolved throughout ones lifetime... I’ll share what I learn in the book comparing her early work with her later work...

Carol:
I wanted to share with you something super interesting about Marianne Moore. I just finished listening to 6 lectures about her and her poetry given by a U of Illinois professor. Apparently Moore felt like her poems were never really finished—she revised her poems throughout her life—really over a 30 year period. And, she never really wanted her poems to be put into a book, because this might mean they were finished, So, the first collection was done without her approval. Eventually she had to acquiesce — but she continues revising. A new book has just been published that shows her original poems and then shows the layers of printed revisions over a long period of time. The other interesting aspect of her work was her ability to cover so, so many different topics in her poems. I’ll post more of interest as I can...

So, John, I like the way she crafts her line breaks, and I can feel the rhyming and the rhythms , but I don’t really like the poem, because it doesn’t reach me with any feeling or wisdom of depth. Thanks for sharing this —-interesting.

Thank you Larry and Steve-- the schedule is a great helpful me too, and I know it will make for a much rewarding experience for all of us. I need to make sure Jerome sees this too... We are in the middle of a major Thomas Mann discussion, so I will be sure to let him know.

Everyone - I made a separate thread for this so you can see the schedule --anytime.

For those of you who have read with Larry and me before, you'll recall sometimes we like to make a reading schedule. I thought it would be helpful for this book, so we would have enough time to read the short story, read the chapter in the Saunders book, and discuss the book with each other.

Reading schedule for A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
We will read one short story and one chapter in Saunders book per week. This give everyone plenty of time to read the short story and read the chapter. This schedule is just a suggestion.

Chapter 1 In the Cart or The Schoolmistress June 1- 8

Chapter 2 The Singers June 8 -15

Chapter 3 The Darling June 15- 22

Chapter 4 Master and Man June 22- 29

Chapter 5 The Nose June 29 - July 6th

Chapter 6 Gooseberries July 6th - July 13

Chapter 7 Alyosha the Pot July 13- July 20th

Reading schedule for A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
We will read one short story and one chapter in Saunders book per week. This give everyone plenty of time to read the short story and read the chapter. This schedule is just a suggestion.

Chapter 1 In the Cart or The Schoolmistress June 1- 8

Chapter 2 The Singers June 8 -15

Chapter 3 The Darling June 15- 22

Chapter 4 Master and Man June 22- 29

Chapter 5 The Nose June 29 - July 6th

Chapter 6 Gooseberries July 6th - July 13

Chapter 7 Alyosha the Pot July 13- July 20th

and ta da! The Blake book just came in the mail, I will look it over and post back to you about it in the other group. :)

John:
You will get a kick out of this. I have one collection Stephen Dunn’s called _Local Visitations_. I bought this collection after hearing him speak at a humanities conference in Alaska in 2003 or 2004, and inside is all the poems he wrote about 19th C writers —Chekhov, Bronte, Hawthorne, Stendhal, Tolstoy, SHelley, Henry James, Melville. I read the book years ago—perhaps my memory was tugging at me to go get this off the shelf, and voila!

John--
This is a poetry journal I have been recently reading-- you might like it too.

This link takes you to a poem by Steven Dunn, but if you scroll below that, you will find an interview with Dunn.

https://www.rattle.com/?s=Steven+Dunn...

p.s. I would love to read the rest of those poems revisioning 19th C literary figures that you posted on Poem A Day-- I can't find the collection, so maybe you found these poems online? Or...

John- here is an example of Moore's Syllabic verse that I like and this piece on the jellyfish also is a good example of her involvement in the mid-20th C period of Imagism in poetry.

A Jelly-Fish
Marianne Moore - 1887-1972



Visible, invisible,
A fluctuating charm,
An amber-colored amethyst
Inhabits it; your arm
Approaches, and
It opens and
It closes;
You have meant
To catch it,
And it shrivels;
You abandon
Your intent—
It opens, and it
Closes and you
Reach for it—
The blue
Surrounding it
Grows cloudy, and
It floats away
From you.

John- are these poems by Dunne from a new collection that you have the name for? I was reading in a new literary journal last night and came across a new poem by Stephen Dunn. He is active right now.

John,
I have a poem of Marianne Moore’s that I will share in the daily thread. It’s short and clearly shows her preference for syllabic verses and her identification of imagism. P.s. Blake book is still not here—- but I shall be doomed to no Blake with you this year— it will arrive; I keep the faith!

Hi John
Thanks for sharing Dunne. I heard him speak in Alaska many years ago. I bought his current collection at that time. I very much like “Happiness” for many reasons - mostly for the wisdom it offers regarding the ephemeral nature of happiness.

Jeff:
That's a delightful heartfelt review of Carver's collection. Thank you-- and I will try it. Stellar.

Thanks for commenting. You are welcome to join our June read, if you like-- by the way. It would be nice to have you, if you have time and interest...

Hi All:
I bought a new iPad, so I am trying to see how to use it with apps. With GR it is different from phone and laptop; I hope I enjoy it.

Anyway, reading short stories almost seems like an acquired taste— like reading poetry. I hardly read any fiction any more. I have never been a fan of short stories... I am not sure why—perhaps because they were over to quickly, and I did not have enough time to enter in, and then would be on to the next story and topic. But that was then. I wasn’t a fan of poetry back in the day either, and the past two years I have been reading poetry widely and deeply.

Perhaps I will become a fan of short stories too.

Larry do you mean you read the full PDF of the first story or that you read the first story in our Saunders book?

I’m afraid Jerome won’t start until June 1... because we are deeply into reading and discussing Thomas’s Mann’s _Magic Mountain_ right now. I love Mann’s work, so I agreed o re-read it with him, so he could read it in German. Fabulous to return to Mann after 20 plus years.

John wrote: "Sher wrote: "John:
I have just discovered Gerald Manley Hopkins. Is this a poet you like?

And what about Marianne Moore?

Have you ever watched any of the interviews that were done with Robert Fro..."

John- I have been reflecting on the value of reading biographies of poets. Recently, and maybe I shared this, I read a biography of Edna St Vincent Millay-- and learning the story of her life in such detail impacted my respect of her poetry. I saw her poetry ( a lot of it- not all) in a totally new light --- right now I have taken a break from Millay for this reason. It is disappointing that knowing about her life made a difference in how I read her, but it did. I worry about this happening again. Maybe the biography - their lives doesn't matter-- it is how the poetry strikes and means to one.
What do you think???

Hi John:
I've not read this one by Bishop before- I am familiar with her most anthologized work Fish-- I believe it is called. This one is interesting and different feeling. The repetitive lines strike me...

I was interested in Moore because most of her work is in syllabic verse. :)

John wrote: "The innovator and Modernist that Pound was still believed that Thomas Hardy was one of the greatest of poets."

That is an interesting side note John!

I thought there wasn't a poem of Ezra Pound's that I could get, but here is one I found I like:

Salutation

O generation of the thoroughly smug
and thoroughly uncomfortable,
I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun,
I have seen them with untidy families,
I have seen their smiles full of teeth
and heard ungainly laughter.
And I am happier than you are,
And they were happier than I am;
And the fish swim in the lake
and do not even own clothing.
Ezra Pound

John:
I have just discovered Gerald Manley Hopkins. Is this a poet you like?

And what about Marianne Moore?

Have you ever watched any of the interviews that were done with Robert Frost in the 1950s? For that matter have you read a Frost biography? I watched an interview last night, and I was very struck by some of his views-- For example his idea that there is no place for equality-- that equality takes away individual creativity.