Dear friends,
It’s a short letter from me this weekend — I’m currently in New York, and there were launches for the Poetry Unbound book in Dublin and Belfast this week, too.
At the Dublin launch, I asked folks to share a particular poem (or excerpt of a poem) that they often, or even occasionally, call to mind. Someone quoted that famous Emily Dickinson poem: “Hope” is the thing with feathers.
There were murmurs; it’s a well-loved line.
However, clearly someone objected a little — in friendliness and fierceness. They said, “Hope may not have feathers / but it’s definitely got claws.” There was laughter, and I loved it. It showed how any metaphor like the “little bird” of Emily Dickinson works for some, but not all; it also took the metaphor deeper, focusing not on soft feathers, but the sharpness of little talons.
What I liked about that exchange is that it showed a subtlety about the question of hope, too: What is hope? Is it a good thing? Does it help? Is a little bird good enough? Maybe hope punctures, rather than sings.
I’m curious: are there famous lines of poetry that your life experience has called into question? If there are, I’d love to read below — and perhaps how you would adapt and deepen the language. I’m not asking you to say what you think is a crap poem — that wouldn’t be interesting. I’m interested in you saying, “Here’s a line from a poem that I’ve always wanted to take to a new level.” Something like that feathers / sharp claws line.
This coming week our episodes are from Carolina Ebeid and Adam Zagajewski. Each poem is a praise-song, in a certain sense, of what it is that creativity (music, poetry, performance, writing) can mean for us. Both poems are vivid with their own absences, too, and it’s in the creativity shaped around those absences that much is found. You can keep up with the full season of Poetry Unbound, and revisit past episodes, at poetryunbound.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
There’ll be a longer letter next week — for now, hello from Lenape Land, New York City.
Pádraig
PS: Here’s a piece of mine, just out yesterday in the Irish Independent — you can read a bit about the origins of the Poetry Unbound podcast, and get a glimpse into some of the poets featured in the book. On poetry as an act of hospitality, an act of seeing, an act of invitation.
A few events, this week and next …
I’m in the US for a few weeks, first for the Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark, NJ. I’ll be interviewing some poets, and there with a few colleagues from On Being. It runs from October 20th-23rd, and is an amazing festival — if you’re in the area, you’ll be glad you went.
And, there are just a few spots left for the Poetry Unbound Omega Retreat running October 23-28. Join me, and near a hundred poetry lovers (including members of our team) for a week in the beautiful area of Rhinebeck, NY.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light is the song of a young man. At 74, bless the light, though dwindling feels right.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the road less traveled by, and it was muddy and bumpy and much harder than it needed to be.