酷我-北美枫

[anna]

Remembering more, imagining less?
-reading John B. Lee’s “The Full Measure” (Black Moss Press 2015).


In John B. Lee’s “the Full Measure”, the last line “Remembering more, imagining less” of the opening poem “Today I am remembering” kept repeating in my head. The whole book recounts stories about John’s childhood and his family. His sadness and helplessness toward his aged mother grasped me, as I too have witnessed loved ones losing their memories and wandering like a child in another world. I cannot help wondering when I become old, what will happen to me. “Remembering more, imagining less” might be the only way that John hopes to hold “the glass of hour”, or even stop its sand sifting. In his following poem “A Boy and His Dog”, the boy in this poem, “now has led a five-dog live”, “beg the master /of each dark and unresponsive night/may all most serious stars/that roam past calling/hear me/with the wishing/and quietest whisper of prayer/come home and come home and/come home”. Yet in this world, sometime people unconsciously or unwillingly destroy their Home due to various reasons such depressions, wars etc. In his poem “Bringing the Farmhouse Down” he remembers “as a world-weary/nine-year-old it seems I knew/even then/there was a glass/I emptied/and one I filled/both from the same deep well/the drained glass always/heavy with a second thirst”. This sad and brilliant ending line summarizes life itself. When we finally know about Life, can we refill the glass? With memory loss and time flying by, we all hope to remember more… Fortunately, for poets, more or less, we still have hope: we can take off with our imagination just as the last poem in this book does: “where everything is brand new/here in the cottonwood faith/where even the trees/believe in loving/the way it melts away/the way it stays”

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/9780887535505-item.html?mkwid=samIPaHTl_dc&pcrid=44154474422&pkw=&pmt=&s_campaign=goo-Shopping_Books&gclid=CjwKEAjw3PGtBRCWgajpu_uY9hYSJAAICRalESrdiz47ZQVmENZxf20skBTA7zShOoVfKoCLxJ8JSxoCqCrw_wcB
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Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Remembering more, imagining less?
-reading John B. Lee’s “The Full Measure” (Black Moss Press 2015).


In John B. Lee’s “the Full Measure”, the last line “Remembering more, imagining less” of the opening poem “Today I am remembering” kept repeating in my head. The whole book recounts stories about John’s childhood and his family. His sadness and helplessness toward his aged mother grasped me, as I too have witnessed loved ones losing their memories and wandering like a child in another world. I cannot help wondering when I become old, what will happen to me. “Remembering more, imagining less” might be the only way that John hopes to hold “the glass of hour”, or even stop its sand sifting. In his following poem “A Boy and His Dog”, the boy in this poem, “now has led a five-dog live”, “beg the master /of each dark and unresponsive night/may all most serious stars/that roam past calling/hear me/with the wishing/and quietest whisper of prayer/come home and come home and/come home”. Yet in this world, sometime people unconsciously or unwillingly destroy their Home due to various reasons such depressions, wars etc. In his poem “Bringing the Farmhouse Down” he remembers “as a world-weary/nine-year-old it seems I knew/even then/there was a glass/I emptied/and one I filled/both from the same deep well/the drained glass always/heavy with a second thirst”. This sad and brilliant ending line summarizes life itself. When we finally know about Life, can we refill the glass? With memory loss and time flying by, we all hope to remember more… Fortunately, for poets, more or less, we still have hope: we can take off with our imagination just as the last poem in this book does: “where everything is brand new/here in the cottonwood faith/where even the trees/believe in loving/the way it melts away/the way it stays”

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/9780887535505-item.html?mkwid=samIPaHTl_dc&pcrid=44154474422&pkw=&pmt=&s_campaign=goo-Shopping_Books&gclid=CjwKEAjw3PGtBRCWgajpu_uY9hYSJAAICRalESrdiz47ZQVmENZxf20skBTA7zShOoVfKoCLxJ8JSxoCqCrw_wcB
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[anna]

Reading “Implicate Me” by Elana Wolff

I read “Implicate Me” by Elana Wolff several times, each time I was touched and I told myself to write something. But each time I feared I could ruin the perfect mood and the great work that Elana has created. Well, here I summoned my courage to write about this pearl.
The book begins with “Pearl” by Ruth Panofsky. A brief poem, so brief, it hurts. Elana unwraps the pearl for readers in many dimensions: historical tragedy, literary devises and personal connections. I am in awe of the possibilities of language. The next poem is “Leaf for Claire” by Allan Briesmaster. This time Elana swirls around this leaf‘s sound, rhythm and diction of the poet’s choice with readers so that we can visualize the dance, hear the music and feel the trust between father and daughter, what a feat of words.
John Oughton’s “Life in Forest Hill” brings us back to the life urgency of bill payments. All kinds of dues, yet dreams hang in the future, “Tomorrow”…
Elana examines “Strays” by Laura Lush through opening the poem in many layers… With Elana’s close reading, we see how its structure enhances the effect, how the tense helps to imply the situation and how the word choice shifts the meaning and mood and more.
This whole book is truly a treasure both for poetry reading and analyzing. I would like to stop here and let others discover each pearl in this book with Elana Wolff’s extensive, skillful help. Enjoy your journey!


_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

Reading “Implicate Me” by Elana Wolff

I read “Implicate Me” by Elana Wolff several times, each time I was touched and I told myself to write something. But each time I feared I could ruin the perfect mood and the great work that Elana has created. Well, here I summoned my courage to write about this pearl.
The book begins with “Pearl” by Ruth Panofsky. A brief poem, so brief, it hurts. Elana unwraps the pearl for readers in many dimensions: historical tragedy, literary devises and personal connections. I am in awe of the possibilities of language. The next poem is “Leaf for Claire” by Allan Briesmaster. This time Elana swirls around this leaf‘s sound, rhythm and diction of the poet’s choice with readers so that we can visualize the dance, hear the music and feel the trust between father and daughter, what a feat of words.
John Oughton’s “Life in Forest Hill” brings us back to the life urgency of bill payments. All kinds of dues, yet dreams hang in the future, “Tomorrow”…
Elana examines “Strays” by Laura Lush through opening the poem in many layers… With Elana’s close reading, we see how its structure enhances the effect, how the tense helps to imply the situation and how the word choice shifts the meaning and mood and more.
This whole book is truly a treasure both for poetry reading and analyzing. I would like to stop here and let others discover each pearl in this book with Elana Wolff’s extensive, skillful help. Enjoy your journey!


_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com