February Monthly Poetry Post

This monthly event is hosted by Lu at Regular Rumination and Kailana at The Written World.  I am a few days past due on this post and actually thought I would skip it altogether except today, I read a poem by Mark Doty in Kevin Young's anthology, The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing which led to a google search which led to Doty's web site, which led to this amazing essay; a response to the question, "Can Poetry Console a Giving Public?"

In it, he provides a thought provoking answer to the following question, "what are the uses of elegy?"

To confirm the loss is real, that individual disappearance matters; that the rupture in the known world is pointed to, held up for attention, shared.  Death is, simply, not to be understood.  But to assume that therefore no accommodations with it may be made is to give up on language's project of discovering and articulating meaning in experience.  Through negotiation with the fact of mortality arises our education as human beings.

Wow - this really spoke to me.  I have experienced a "rupture" in my known world, the day our 17-year old son was buried - now almost three years ago but at times, seems like yesterday. 

And this quote in which he is speaking about his personal experience with death, of writing about it, and fellow sufferers' reactions to his work.  

Art may not make anything better, but there is some power in recognizing that someone else has felt as you do, that your interiority which seems especially in grief so unreachable, may in fact share a space with the inner life of another.

This articulates why I continue to write on Josh's blog and why I have become a insatiable reader. 

I have put his following works on my wish list:

• Atlantis - a collection of poems published in 1995 in which the title poem is dedicated to his lover Wally, who died in 1994 from AIDS. 
• Heaven's Coast - a memoir published in 1997, based on their final years together. 
• Dog Years - a memoir written ten years later and according to Goodreads, "is the story of two beloved retrievers and is a pointed, perceptive meditation on life, death, and the nature of companionship."

January Monthly Poetry Post

I came across this event hosted by Lu at Regular Rumination and thought I would join the discussion. For the first post of the year, I cut and pasted a post that I published a few days ago on Josh's blog which says it all:

It is coming up on three years since I have been thrust on this grief journey by the tragic and irrevocable action of our youngest son, Josh. This blog was created with a duel purpose: to remember him and to chronicle the painful trek.  As I try to find ways to express myself, a new path has emerged, one evidenced by recent posts - POETRY.

I am losing myself in this unchartered world, profoundly impacted by the writing of newly found authors such as Lord Alfred Tennyson, Robert Pinsky, Anne Sexton, W.H. Auden, and John Berryman, while excited to discover more.

My attraction to this genre is surprising.  I've never been one for poetry, finding it too obscure, archaic and ambiguous for my simple taste and analytical mind.  I've not had the patience or motivation to read closely, dig deep for meaning, or make the extra effort to find and interpret ideas or supply connections.  I've gravitated towards the vast material written in prose form: fiction, memoir, biography, non-fiction.  And while I find prose easier to read and comprehend, it is far harder for me to write. Poems, at least right now, are an easier medium for me to portray a certain thought, feeling or emotion as evidenced by the three penned so far:  A Mother's Love, Silence Is the Answer and Over and Over Again.

For example, I have tried to write about the horrible day that I found Josh, not necessarily as a blog post but just within my own journal.  Where do I start?  What do I say?  How can I ever hope to convey what happened in that life-changing second?  Simply put, I cannot.  But when I was writing in my journal this morning, I started stringing words together that began describing that terrible morning.   The resulting poem says what no amount of prose could:

No Answer

by Sue Anderson

1/29/2012

No answer,

   Voice silent.

No response, 

   Mind gone.

No sight, 

   Eyes unblinking.

No movement,

   Body stiff.

No breath,

   Chest still.

No beat, 

   Extremities blue.

No life,

   Hope abandoned.

Why?  I screamed,

   No answer.

2012 Fearless Poetry Exploration

I have decided to join Serena's challenge as I am in the midst of reading The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief & Healing, an anthology of poems edited by National Book Award finalist, Kevin Young.  I am also reading Lord Alfred Tennyson's epic poem In Memoriam A.H.H., written over a 17-year period in memory of his best friend and fellow poet, Arthur Henry Hallam. 


The rules are to complete one or a combination of the following: 1) read and review up to 2 books of poetry this year; 2) participate in at least 3 Virtual Poetry Circles or 3) sign up to feature poetry in April's National Poetry Month.

Poetry, a newly found genre, is becoming an important part of my grief journey, so I am desperately trying to self-educate.  I am excited to learn from others who are participating in this challenge.

I've been writing posts on Josh's blog and will post the links here.

Initial thoughts on TAOL and an original poem, "Silence is the Answer"
Initial thoughts on In Memoriam A.H.H
A.H.H. Canto IV - "deep vase of chilling tears"
Original poem: "Over and Over Again"
Epilogue by John Berryman and A.H.H. Canto V
Thoughts on "why poetry?" and original poem: "No Answer"
Prose poems - "The Dead" by Billy Collins and original poem: "Where He Lay"