Dear friends,
Well, we are in January. A new year. A friend texted me on January 1st and said “Happy Monday.” I like it when New Year’s Day is also a Monday: it grounds it into the ordinary sense of another week, as well as a turnstile, just like every moment.
We’ve had two episodes of Poetry Unbound out this week: Eugenia Leigh’s brilliant “How the Dung Beetle Finds Its Way Home” and Valencia Robin’s “The Coup.” I love both of these poems for the verve of language that contains powerful self-reflection. Eugenia’s poem depicts a benevolent present weighed down by malevolent past trauma. She’s thriving in a good relationship and good friends, but this positive place is still burdened by diagnoses and difficulties. In trying to accept the belonging that can be so hard to accept, she’s aided by dung beetles and their Milky Way-based navigation system. (It’s true.)
And in Valencia’s poem, a poet is surprised by quite how precise she can be in saying the one thing that’ll go to the heart of her powerful mother. How intimate these communications in child-parent relationships are, and how complex the task of individuation is, the things we say to each other, the things we bear.
Both poems make use of muscular language to describe struggle, decision, ramification, and resolve. Neither poem has self-pity, even though each poem is describing experiences that are hard to overcome and leave long memories. The two poems mention relationships with parents. Both poems pair narrative with creative form. Time stretches forward and backward in the works.
It can be hard to know, sometimes, what to do with experiences that are a burden. (Safety is the first destination to seek, though; art can wait.) Art does not promise solutions, but art can be one of the ways for reflecting on what time, memory, feeling, craft, creativity, change, and endings are doing in the psyche of the maker.
Friends, it’s a joy to be back with you for another season of Poetry Unbound. As I think of the Substack for 2024, I’m going to respond to some questions that were raised in the end-of-year Substack when I asked if you had questions about poetry, or Poetry Unbound, or questions for me. So far, the questions are under categories of: What is poetry? How to read and interpret a poem? Questions of craft in a poem. Recommendations of poems for certain circumstances. Can poems speak to world events? And some general questions about Poetry Unbound, and ones asking me about books I’d recommend.
So this week’s question is one more chance for those who want to ask something about Poetry Unbound, or poetry in general; whether on the topics mentioned, or on something different.
With thanks to you all, and hellos to January, where you are.
The Latest from Poetry Unbound
Episodes 1 & 2
You can also listen on Spotify, poetryunbound.org, or wherever podcasts are found.
Poetry in the World
When I was poet-in-residence for The Church of the Heavenly Rest in Manhattan, I wrote a book titled Being Here (pre-orders here; all proceeds go to support the American Friends of the Parents Circle). To mark the publication, there’s an online event, as well as an in-person event in NYC (which is also live-streamed). Both are free, details and registration below.
Being Here Book Launch: A Conversation with Pádraig Ó Tuama and Philip Metres | The Interwebs (Free)
Monday, January 22nd at 7:30pm ET, I’ll be in an online conversation with poet Philip Metres about poetry, prayer, and the overlap between literature, language, craft, and religious text. Registration here.
Being Here Book Launch, Reading, and Signing | New York City (Free)
Tuesday, February 6th at 6pmET, join me for an in-person book launch at The Church of the Heavenly Rest (if you’re in or around NYC, they’re at 1085 5th Avenue). If you’re coming in person, you can RSVP here, and it’ll also be live-streamed here.
I have a “true north” practice designed to bring me back to the present by “seeing art everywhere”… I have a little notebook and pen in my back pocket to notice the magical in the mundane…simple and available to all throughout the day
"Muscular Language" - What are aerobic, strength and balance exercises to build poetic muscles?