A Religious Selection

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The following is a selection of religious poems chosen for discussion at a recent U3A meeting in Canberra. I have included the list for interest – quite a variety of work.

Amoretti LXVIII: Most Glorious Lord of Life – Edmund Spenser
On His Blindness – John Milton                                                                                    
At the round earths imagin’d corners – John Dunne
A Song for Simeon – T.S. Eliot
Spring – Gerard Manley Hopkins
Making a Myth – R A Simpson
Extraterrestrial Report – Michael Thwaites
To J S Bach – Michael Thwaites
The Late Passenger – C S Lewis
How to hide Jesus – Steve Turner
Christmas is really for children – Steve Turner
Christ in the Clay-Pit – Jack Clemco

And below is Michael Thwaites’ humorous poem concerning Mary’s desire for something quite different from the gift she received – but it was by royal decree – so I guess she shouldn’t complain.

Extraterrestrial Report
 
Arrived at the heavenly mansions, the blessed Saint
(female on earth) was welcomed by St Peter
enquiring whom she most desired to meet.
Mother Mary? Positively no problem;
Let me conduct you.  Presently, bathed in bliss,
they sat together, in light and joy and fun.
The Saint was charmed.  Mother, how can it be –
you so divine, yet still so down-to-earth?
I don’t forget; and here I have my Son –
As a sword pierced my soul, he from the Cross
gave me in tender care to his dear friend,
my Son, my Son.
Yet there, as you have read,
he learned obedience by the things he suffered:
So did we all …
The Saint took courage, asked,
diffidently bold, Those pictures we so loved –
the Babe and you adoring: did we catch
ever a trace of not-quite-perfect joy?
Mother Mary twinkled – I was young:
I’d really wanted a girl.

Michael Thwaites

It is indeed an extraterrestrial report for it is something quite out of this world – to consider Mary desiring a daughter. We are very much conditioned with Mary and son Jesus. It is a nice twist and emphasizes the humanity of Mary – she comes down to earth so to speak – in fact the poem is grounded on the last pivotal line.

Some details on Michael Thwaites.

Mad Girl’s Love Song – Sylvia Plath – Analysis

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Mad Girl’s Love Song was written by Sylvia Plath in 1951 when she was twenty. She was a student at Smith College. It is usually included in the biographical note appended to Plath’s novel – The Bell Jar.

The poem was first published in the August 1953 edition of Mademoiselle.  In June 1953 Plath worked for Mademoiselle as a Guest Editor in New York City, as portrayed in The Bell Jar.

It was written before her first suicide attempt of 24 August 1953.

Looking at this Sylvia Plath villanelle in detail …
 
MAD GIRL’S LOVE SONG

“I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead,

1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1=10
Ten syllable iambic – with an up and down bounce to it as you read the line. The quotes indicate the start of a conversation between poet and reader.

To what extent does the world drop dead when you shut your eyes?

If you say to the world ‘drop dead’ and you are irritated by what is going-on then shutting your eyes may shut out the world – provided there is not a noisy car screeching up the road!

But by shutting your eyes you enter into yourself – at least to some extent – sometimes you may find an internal sanctuary of precious space that is you – shut your eye and think about it. 

I lift my lids and all is born again.

1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,2=10
The end of the first sentence

Opening eyes is a return to the world a return to where you have been – and if you have been truly away from the world, and there is no screeching car to damage your retreat then perhaps you are indeed born again and everything is new.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)

1,1,1,1,1 1,2,1,1=10
This is the closing line to the rhyming couplet of the villanelle – lines 1 and 3.

It is a thought, emphasized by the brackets … a personal thought about a person created in the mind or about a thought about a real person known to the poet – what form this make-up takes is not known … but from the title of the poem we might assume a male person.

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,

Closing the eyes to dance in the sky to blue and red stars – well that sounds pretty high to me (if you excuse the pun)

And arbitrary darkness gallops in.

 The dark is arbitrary, indiscriminate … and the world around continues to interfere with the high … galloping horses invade rather than a screeching car.

 I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

This is a reiteration of getting away from the world around her by closing her eyes.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.

Well I think we can take this as mind-sensuality – if not I’m sure she would remember the experience and there would be no question … indicating a physical desire

(I think I made you up inside my head).

… again the villanelle refrain reinforces the fact that it she is in the mind world

God topples from the sky, hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and enter Satan’s men:

The highs and lows of imaginary love disappear … note that these are defined by the extremes of God toppling and hell fading … and exit an angel and in come Satan’s men the reality of the real world which overwhelms.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

… perhaps living in hope that this will be the case … removal from the world

I fancied you’d return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.

… unfortunately there is no return of the mind-lover and the high/low experience of love

(I think I made you up inside my head).

… It was made up before but where are you now

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.

… I don’t know what a thunderbird is … but there is some guarantee offered of a return … gave me the image of a flash of lightning

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

… the mind-love conversation concludes. Unfortunately it took much more that the shutting of eyes for her world to eventually drop dead.

Sylvia Plath (1932 – 1963)

 

Looking at Madness and the poet and via this excellent website link- http://www.neuroticpoets.com/

“The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact ” ~ William Shakespeare.

From the diary of Sylvia Plath  (early fifties)…

“To annihilate the world by annihilation of one’s self is the deluded height of desperate egoism. The simple way out of all the little brick dead ends we scratch our nails against … I want to kill myself, to escape from responsibility, to crawl back abjectly into the womb.”

Footnote …

The interest in the controversial aspects a poet’s life itself can sometimes draw attention away from their creations. There is a general tendency for the sensational and pathological to attract heightened notice by the general public.

This may not always be a negative thing, however, as it can generate more interest – See more at: http://www.neuroticpoets.com/#sthash.OR0QxSbs.dpuf

Your essential words – Example: Teilhard De Chardin

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Your essential words …

One way at looking at any text … whether a book or books read, an article from the paper, a poem or even a few pages or paragraphs … is to define your own words that give your personal understanding to your reading.

If you work with mind-maps take a blank piece of paper in landscape form and start from the centre of the page. I suggest radiating five key words that reflect your reading. Each of these words could then be explored – this might result in changes to the first level words. These words could then be used in whatever way you wish in your own textual creation, including poetry of course.

The following is an example –

Looking at the philosophy of Teilhard De Chardin here are my five words associated with his thought …

God … providence … control … Christ
Evolution … progression … growth … complexification
Love … spiritual … energy force … connection
Order … physics … … harmony … relationships
Unity … christ in all … inclusive … communion of humanity

Teilhard De Chardin, Pierre (1881-1955), jesuit priest, geologist, palaeontologist, and philosopher-theologian, noted for his evolutionary interpretation of humanity and the universe and his insistence that such a view is compatible with Christianity. He was exiled. He spent time in China and India on scientific work.

Palaeontology is defined as the science of the forms of life existing in former geological periods, as represented by fossil animals and plants.

Scientific evolutionary theory is the key to Teilhard’s thought. Evolution, he wrote, “is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts . . .

“. His major work, Le Phénomène humain (The Phenomenon of Man, 1955; trans. 1959), is an attempt to set forth a comprehensive evolutionary vision that speaks to both scientific and religious interests. Matter, argued Teilhard, has always obeyed “that great law of biology . . . the law of ‘complexification’“. He interpreted evolution as a purposive process in which the matter-energy of the universe has continually changed in the direction of increased complexity. With the emergence of humanity, he argued, evolutionary development entered a new dimension. From the biosphere (the layer of living things covering the Earth) has emerged the noosphere (a mind layer surrounding the Earth). This mind layer, or human consciousness, generates increasingly complex social arrangements that in turn give rise to a higher consciousness. Ultimately, the evolutionary process culminates in the convergence of the material and the spiritual into a super-consciousness that Teilhard called the Omega Point. ‘Love’ is the attractive force in a ‘God-Omega development’ and  gives direction to the whole evolutionary process. Such love, for Teilhard, is most clearly evident in a universal Christ.

Re: evolution …consider the evolution of man … the development of the brain … the jump with the development of language … and the attendant jump in social communication associated with language … and now in this age with the development of the Internet there is a quantum leap in communication … the development of social networking … the world-wide physical independence of human communion based on computer technology … and the speed at which a ‘common mental consciousness’ can develop.

Teilhard’s three components … Apologetics (a branch of theology concerned with proving the truth of Christianity)… defended by writing … Mystism … spiritual intuition and truth … Physics … natural laws, matter and energy

Some thoughts …

As a scientist he understood the growth of humanity and the ever-increasing complexity of life especially that of the mind and the deepening of relationships based on his phenomenological approach. Christ is in all life. The emphasis is on an inclusive worldview of humanity unified by the personal presence of Christ within each individual.

Eventually the evolution of humanity will grow to a point where increased consciousness is the key to a new understanding in the relationship between man and God.

God is the destination and the love-force that develops and controls the development of both the collective and the individual.

I think he believed in the individual and the relationship to ‘the whole’ … the individual is not lost … the communion of the universe is seen through personal eyes and each person is defined by their relationship to all life. A person is seen as having no meaning outside their relationship to others, the common and to God.

definition – phenomenology

  1. 1.      the science of phenomena, as distinguished from ontology or the science of being.
  2. 2.       the school of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl, 1859–1938, which stresses the careful description of phenomena in all domains of experience without regard to traditional epistemological questions.

Poetry Annoys

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Poetry is annoying

Well what do we mean by poetry … many answers to this question … what do we mean by beauty … a similar problem … but perhaps it is easier to know when we recognise beauty … but do we know when we recognise poetry …

If there is a formalised definition – for example, we could say poetry must have within it some sort of poetic structure and then define poetic structure ( such as rhyme, rhythm …), so in this way we could filter work according to our agreed definition (I still meet people who say a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes)

But of course what happens then is that a defined poem may not be ‘poetic’ in the eyes of the beholder … just as beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder … so perhaps individual taste has a lot to say on what is poetry and what is not poetry (or at least what is worthy of the name, what is ‘good’)

… today conformity to some form of rigour in the nature of poetic expression is somewhat lacking … an almost anything goes attitude and if the author defines the work as a poem then it is a poem (at least to her or him) … so given this wide approach to what is accepted perhaps individual taste is much more important in defining the nature of poetry and poetic expression

… and perhaps those poems that have ‘agreed common poetic respect’ will survive the ravages of time and like splendid historic homes be frequented by many visitors.

But what does a poem do for you? … what differentiates poetry from other reading? … an elderly lady was asked to give her view … her reply was simple …

… a poem annoys

… elaborating … I have to stop and think and spend time looking at the text … in short I am arrested … and furthermore I might not be rewarded after using time and energy

I like this response … poetry makes you think

… whether you – see an experience in a new light, see life in a different perspective to the extent of changing behaviour – or whether your awareness is stimulated to the extent of widening your understanding and appreciation of life by understanding another – is, of course, another matter.

Please enjoy those annoying times when poetry may arrest you out of the blue – but you are always free to go afterwards.

Do not go gentle into that good night – Dylan Thomas

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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas

The above poem by Dylan Thomas is perhaps the most well-known villanelle.  A villanelle has 19 lines and comprises 5 stanzas of 3 lines and a closing quatrain of 4 lines.

Like the sonnet the last two lines are arguably the most important lines of the villanelle. These not only form the closing rhyming couplet but these lines appear repeatedly through-out the first 5 stanzas.

Looking at the above poem the closing lines are –

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

If we label these lines A and B then these lines must appear in the five 3 line stanzas as follows in order to conform to the format of the villanelle.

S1 … A / l2 / B
S2 … a / l2 / A
S3 … a / l2 / B
S4 … a / l2 / A
S5 … a / l2 / B

So after defining the ending two lines 6 lines are automatically defined in the three-line stanzas. Furthermore the rhyming scheme is such that all the first lines, (labelled a) must rhyme with A. In the case of Dylan Thomas’ poem each of these lines must rhyme with night. And all the second lines of the above stanzas (labelled l2) must rhyme. In the case of this poem the six rhyming words chosen by Thomas are – day, they, way, bay, gay and pray.

The first and second line of the closing quatrain must use the rhyming of A and l2 … in this case height and pray.

So looking at the rhyming through-out the poem the 19 end words are –

Night, day, light / right, they night / bright, bay, light / flight, way, night / sight, gay, light
Height, pray, light, night

My advice is to create the rhyming couplet first. This is the key to the poem. You have then created 8 lines of the 19 line poem.

You will then need 5 lines that rhyme with the first line of the couplet and six lines where you are quite at liberty to choose the rhyme.

Below is my attempt at reversing the theme and also the two streams of rhyming words … basing the poem on the couplet …

Go gentle and enjoy your last day
Give a smile as you pass quietly away

Go gentle and enjoy your last day

go gentle and enjoy your last day
don’t focus on loss of your sight
give a smile as you pass quietly away

a wise man knows how to play
knows exactly the way that is right
go gentle and enjoy your last day

and a good man accepts the path-way
as he enters the door of the night
give a smile as you pass quietly away

now a wild man in wild disarray
thinks again his disorganised plight
go gentle and enjoy your last day

while a grave man will rise up to say
‘the end is indeed turning bright’
give a smile as you pass quietly away

so to all I respectfully pray
just savour those last rays of light
go gentle and enjoy your last day
give a smile as you pass quietly away

Richard Scutter 15 May 2013

The official website dedicated to Dylan Thomas – http://www.dylanthomas.com/

Here is an audio of the Radio National program ‘Poetica’ on 11 May in which Villanelles were featured.

International Poetry Studies Institute – Canberra University

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An International Poetry Studies Institute has been created at Canberra University.

From Sally Pryor’s article in the Canberra Times (11/5/13) …

… the country’s first research institute dedicated to poetry is now right here in the capital. The International Poetry Studies Institute has just been launched at the University of Canberra, as part of the newly established Donald Horne Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design. For an institute with such a grand title, its ambitions are suitably lofty – to conduct research into poetry and poets, and publish its findings internationally, as a way of “furthering the appreciation and understanding of poetry, poetic language and the cultural and social significance of poetry”.

Paul Hetherington, an associate professor and a Canberra poet, is on the institute’s management team, along with Professor Jen Webb, another published poet.

Hetherington comments … “We think that in Australia in particular, there’s this burgeoning interest in research into creativity, and also there’s a kind of resurgence in poetry all round the world” … and …

“It’s interesting that although poetry may not be a meal ticket for most poets, there’s a great proliferation of people who are interested in writing it and who are writing it. And in Australia … the national and international standing of Australian poetry at the moment is very high. We’ve got a great number of very skilled and important poets in this country, and at the moment it’s an area that’s been under-researched.”

The institute also has an online journal, Axon: Creative Explorations, established in 2011 as the faculty was testing the poetic waters. It now produces two themed editions a year containing poetry, interviews and articles from around the world.

Hetherington states …

“So far, people we’ve talked to have been very enthusiastic about this nationally, but also internationally there’s recognition of the importance of research into creativity and the way poetry exemplifies the creative process”

“Poetry presents such interesting and diverse ways of using language, it’s an interesting take and way to just look at language and how we express ourselves, how we understand ourselves.”

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/entertainment/an-ode-to-verse-20130509-2jabb.html#ixzz2T4HCXgNe

Rugby – A Mysterious Lass : Matt Laffan

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Old men dream of her,
her soft touch, her goading eyes that challenged them to
deeds that the men’s wives and women despised.
They remember their youth,
youthful lives with youthful mates
that now are old not young
with old men’s bones and old men’s fates.
Yet she is young, even now,
touching younger men, arousing souls
to burn, a raging fire –
old men’s still glow, with embers and coal.

They see glories gone,
eyelids closed, cobwebs clearing
of crowds and team mates
slapping backs, winks and smiles, and cheering.

They hear comments,
they’re proud to love her
and they see her fondness –
deep in the soul emotion stirs.
Old eyes grow misty,
throats are dry, hearts do ache
they look at hands, once skilled
and then sadly the old men’s heads shake.
Comradeship and pride,
is what she’d taught so well,
and that she still does
as more she enthrals with her spell.

Young men, new men
to be trained and told
how to be a good man, a better man
and learn as did the old.
Some she breaks,
their hearts, their lives and they cry
for she can be brutal, harsh –
for the better she loves the more they’ll try.

Some are her champs,
their names chanted in stadiums, loud
while others are just followers
and held silently proud.
Smell of sweat,
Feelings of ache and strain
on bodies brutally thumped
and jumpers soaked with blood and stains.
Hands passing,
flesh on leather, fluent moves
moving forward for the goal
with boots pounding the sound of thundering hooves.
They play her game,
they win, they lose for many years
and time passes on
as men do laugh and shed some tears.

Rivals meet,
they play hard against each other
to be the best in her eyes
and always try to beat their brother.
But in the end,
the men are all as one,
they are all lovers of the woman,
like thousands under the sun.
Many she’s caressed
in her endless global walk
and young men grow old
and of her and their love they talk.

Lovely woman,
A mystical ghost touching deep
within, her men –
to her side they’ll keep.

Matt Laffan 24 September 1985

My comments follow …

S1 … Do men love sport more than woman? … what a silly question – however, sport does take men away from women or attending other activities. But this poem is clearly about rugby being a woman … and of course an eternally young lass that will continue to arouse men. Rugby is remembered as an old man remembering a young woman. An interesting last line – old men’s still glow, with embers and coal – not old men still glow … I quess because the old men are still now.

S2 … old men have to close their eyes to see things … well things from the past – the glory days when they were involved.

S3 … the deep emotional attachment to the game … and the lament that they can no longer play the game looking at hands that no longer can perfom. But they are proud that they once loved the game (the young woman) and what the game gave in  comradeship and what the game continues to give as woman will continue to entrall men with their spell.

S4 … and now a reflection on what the game gives to young men taking up rugby … rugby teaches man to be better … likewise woman of course … the last line has a nice pun play on the last word … rugby is all about trying.

S5 … looking at the game from the game’s point of view … or the view of the game as personified by the young lass … some are her champs and some are just followers … and there is a lot of blood sweat and tears in the foundation of the relationship … and here we have the very physical aspects … to play her game it must be boots and all … and of course there are laughs and tears, winners and losers.

S6 … well, of course there are rivals and competition … but it is all clean fun … they are all lovers of the game and respectful of the game … thousands world wide lovers of this woman

S7 … I rather like the closing stanza … men only part of the game … they’ll keep … woman (and rugby of course) must always put men in proper perspective.

A wonderful poem about rugby the irony of the situation in that he could never play the game. He had a serious disability and was confined to a wheelchair for most of his life and died aged 38. He had a brilliant interlect … a link to some personal details.

ANZAC Day in Australia

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Today is ANZAC Day in Australia

 OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The Australian War Memorial
Hall of Memories
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
The four basic elements as pillars1

Plaque outside the Australian War Memorial

 OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Commemorating the spot of the planting of the first
tree of the remembrance driveway to Sydney
by Queen Elizabeth II in February 1954.

Footnote1 –

The Earth pillar is made of marble and has associations with permanence and endurance, physical structure and the coldness of death.

The metal pillar symbolizes Fire; it is associated with energy and passion, patriotism and bravery.

The wooden pillar symbolizes Air; its polished surface is associated with disembodied spirit and the souls of the dead.

The Water pillar is made of glass, ice-like and colorless. It is linked with the flow of change and transfiguration and the souls of the living.

Words like tree

words like tree
give a recognition
grown by love
from the breath of God
that stirred still waters
came the first seed
into soft earth
to be fired by the sun

we remember an unknown life
how life came
the four great pillars of truth
of a life that is no more
of a life that lives again
of life that lives forever

Richard Scutter 25 April 2013

Link to Australian War Memorial Website