{"id":242,"date":"2006-10-20T00:13:12","date_gmt":"2006-10-20T05:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=242"},"modified":"2006-10-20T13:48:47","modified_gmt":"2006-10-20T18:48:47","slug":"poetry-friday-louise-glucks-averno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: Louise Gl\u00fcck’s Averno<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

averno.gif<\/a>*{Note: Visit here<\/a><\/strong> at Chicken Spaghetti for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up} . . .<\/em><\/p>\n

Did Eisha and I mention last week that we’re thrilled to finally be participating in Poetry Fridays? We really are. Eisha was looking forward to composing this week’s poetry post, but she is unable to and so I will humbly be doing so again. This week’s selection is not from the realm of children’s poetry, but we promise to get to that soon (not that it’s a requirement . . . I just don’t want to seem as if we’re neglecting all the wonderful poetry for children out there). <\/p>\n

This week’s selection is Louise Gl\u00fcck’s<\/a><\/strong> most recent anthology of poetry, Averno<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, which was announced on the 11th of this month as a 2006 National Book Award Finalist in Poetry<\/a><\/strong>. (And I apologize that the cover image of this poetry anthology is so difficult to see here, but you may click on it to be taken to another link in which it’s clearer). I have read this collection of poetry twice and might do so again. As Maureen N. McLane put it in The Washington Post<\/em><\/a><\/strong>, “{r}eading Louise Gl\u00fcck is excruciating.” She means this as a compliment, a deserved one (“{a} poet of taut intensities, she walks a high-wire between the oracular and everyday, the absolute and the ephemeral, the monumental and the delicate,” she elaborates). But this is also to say, on my part, that this is not an anthology to be read quickly. Gl\u00fcck’s writing deserves your full attention and concentration and rumination, but then any good poet does.<\/p>\n

This is Gl\u00fcck’s tenth collection of poetry — poems that work as a sequence, eighteen parts of a larger whole that re-work the myth of Persephone. Gl\u00fcck portrays this famous mythical daughter as caught in “an argument between the mother and the lover.” But she also provides contemporary interludes, such as a moving meditation on old age from the first section of the title poem. An excerpt follows:<\/p>\n

\n

You die when your spirit dies.
\nOtherwise, you live.<\/br>
\nYou may not do a good job of it, but you go on–
\nsomething you have no choice about.<\/p>\n

When I tell this to my children
\nthey pay no attention.
\nThe old people, they think–
\nthis is what they always do:
\ntalk about things no one can see
\nto cover up all the brain cells they’re losing.
\nThey wink at each other;
\nlisten to the old one, talking about the spirit
\nbecause he can’t remember anymore the word for chair.<\/p>\n

It is terrible to be alone.
\nI don’t mean to live alone–
\nto be<\/em> alone, where no one hears you.<\/p>\n

I remember the word for chair.
\nI want to say–I’m just not interested anymore . . .<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, also for your reading pleasure, The Academy of American Poets<\/a><\/strong> offers on its site section one of Gl\u00fcck’s “October”<\/a><\/strong> from Averno<\/em>. Enjoy, and happy Poetry Friday . . . <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*{Note: Visit here at Chicken Spaghetti for this week’s Poetry Friday round-up} . . . Did Eisha and I mention last week that we’re thrilled to finally be participating in Poetry Fridays? We really are. Eisha was looking forward to composing this week’s poetry post, but she is unable to and so I will humbly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}