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

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

I just started The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel do we have any fans here?

I just finished SELECTED & NEW POEMS by Jim Harrison and I liked it- it spans many years of his poet career. Many of the selections are reflections or moments in nature, which attract me, but the collection is also very male, and in this, I find a fair number of his pieces rather alienating. Showing one's maleness or femaleness is not a requirement of good poetry. Some people just do it more heavily than others. There is a hardness in many of the pieces .. still I am not really feel critical about these pieces instead I feel like they are dated, and that may not even be fair. Anyway, I am glad John or Larry introduced me to this poet...

Is oneNote on our iPhone? That's a really clever solution Larry. Wow, I am impressed.

Does GoodReads have any competitors that are privately owned? The only service even close-- that I am aware of is Library Thing, but I think the purpose of Library Thing is different... maybe...?

Ok, ... Right I understand what you mean about the smartphone app-- I hate to use it, and will only so in an emergency.... although I do use it for notifications to see what is happening in my groups.

Larry wrote: "I have that book, Sher. If only I get through the energy book and three other nonfiction books I'm reading now!"

It's really mind blowing! I hope you get to it Larry. The author is the son of the well known (infamous, brilliant) Columbia professor Rupert Sheldrake. This is one terribly interesting family....

John wrote: "I cannot seem to recall any specific dialogue in the poets I have read. Carver sounds like one who would put dialogue in a poem."

I know, and I wish I could share his poem "Plus" with you, but I would have to type it all out... not enough time, but yes Carver comes to mind. It is fun to think about this; I just read a book about dialogue and the author had a section on dialogue in poetry. Myself and a list of other reviewers felt the book exceptional for the addition of this special chapter.

John:
I read _The Professor and the Madman_ years back, and I liked it very much. I still recall a fair amount about the book. I think you would like it. What is that line between intelligence ad madness and how are the mad dealt with in society?

Larry wrote: "It is excellent, indeed, John."

John:
I very much like
"Ode to Soliutude"

Last night in a moment of fancy I asked my husband where can we go to be away from all of this...by this I mean the virus, the coming fire season, the financial chaos, and the layers and layers of instability? He was saying - nowhere- right here-- we live our lives out right here on the farm as the person in "Ode to Solitude." But ... somehow this wish is now fanciful too.

I just finished an extremely interesting and rather provocative book written by a young, accomplished biologist: Merlin Sheldrake
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

Board to visit another planet about mold, fungus, slime, and lichen. Most amazing is how these things communicate and also solve problems. Gives you something to think about when considering the current problem solving virus running the world.

Lovely hand drawn illustrations and interesting research. This is a book being talked about!

Larry-- how will this effect our Goodreads experience?

John,
I appreciate your sharing your experience with reading Dickinson. I think this could happens with another poet too- such as how I began to find too much similarity in the endings of many of Louise Gluck's poems. These endings really began to bother me. So dark and negative; I felt a disdain build. The beat of Dickinson's verse can be unsettling. I wonder if others have noted this sameness of beat in her poetry. Thanks for the reflection.

Larry wrote: "John wrote: "One more by Theodore Roethke. It may be his most well-known poem.

MY PAPA’S WALTZ

The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing ..."


I appreciated Carol's description of this one as "gritty." I was thinking of the same word. Lots of imagery and the ability to feel like we are right there in the kitchen with this little boy. Poignant too.

Do any of you know of any poets famous for dialogue in their poetry?

I found a poem called "Plus" by Raymond Carver, but I am unable to share it with you here, because it doesn't seem to be online.

Larry wrote: "Carol wrote: "John wrote: "I did not watch any of the inauguration, as I spent the day golfing and was just very tired when I got home. It has been a rather draining four years, worse in the past y..."

I think it is strange they do not have a Mary Oliver collection. (too)

If you had to pick two themes all poets cover what would they be? I mean what themes do all poets write about in some way? Maybe not in the same poem.

I think one would be loss.

Hi Larry-- this essay series is just great! I wonder what we will find in this collection considering the way the world is 2020. I'm checking it out....

Well, the reviews, almost all of them are very mixed on the 2020 collection. When I read Best American essays, I start each one, and if it is in't too taste or it doesn't grab me, I drop it and move on to the next essay in the collection. What about your Larry- how do you tackle these essays?

Hi Larry... sorry I can’t do a read of the book because I’m just starting another poetry prose read with a friend in Alaska that I expect will run three months or more... posting from my phone... thanks Sher

Curious -- when you read a book of poems, do you read it beginning to end, or do you often randomly select poems here and there , and then perhaps in another year go back and read more?

Larry wrote: "Sher, you know I actually looked first to see if there was a Kenneth Rexroth translation of his poems. I mentioned the books by Rexroth, with the essay on Tu Fu. I'll quote a bit more from that:

"..."

Larry- that poem acme from here:
The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy

I have some others from this book, I will share eventually.