tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post4392671442804074076..comments2023-12-05T03:34:14.680-05:00Comments on <b>Issa's Untidy Hut</b>: Louise Gluck: GratitudeIssa's Untidy Huthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-78619657187733956222013-07-06T14:19:11.260-04:002013-07-06T14:19:11.260-04:00Oh, my, op, certainly this is right to the point (...Oh, my, op, certainly this is right to the point (!) of things. Here's the rest for the curious:<br /><br /><b>Retreating Light</b><br /><br />You were always very young children,<br />always waiting for a story.<br />And I'd been through it all too many times;<br />I was tired of telling stories.<br />So I gave you the pencil and paper.<br />I gave you pens made of reeds<br />I had gathered myself, afternoons in the dense meadows.<br />I told you, write your own story.<br /><br />After all those years of listening<br />I thought you'd know<br />what a story was.<br /><br />All you could do was weep.<br />You wanted everything told to you<br />and nothing thought through yourselves.<br /><br />Then I realized you couldn't think<br />with any real boldness or passion;<br />you hadn't had your own lives yet,<br />your own tragedies.<br />So I gave you lives, I gave you tragedies,<br />because apparently tools alone weren't enough.<br /><br />You will never know how deeply<br />it pleases me to see you sitting there<br />like independent beings,<br />to see you dreaming by the open window,<br />holding the pencils I gave you<br />until the summer morning disappears into writing.<br /><br />Creation has brought you<br />great excitement, as I knew it would,<br />as it does in the beginning.<br />And I am free to do as I please now,<br />to attend to other things, in confidence<br />you have no need of me anymore.<br /><br />-Louise GluckIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-32400328900428928832013-07-06T11:35:06.945-04:002013-07-06T11:35:06.945-04:00Gluck's "POEMS 1962-2012" - yes, ele...Gluck's "POEMS 1962-2012" - yes, electric more often the earlier or mid-life works - are writ not using a tool undistinguished as a pen, but with a switch-blade.<br /><br />The end of "RETREATING LIGHT"...<br /><br />Creation has brought you<br />great excitement, as I knew it would,<br />as it does in the beginning.<br />And I am free to do as I please now,<br />to attend to other things, in confidence<br />you have no need of me anymore.old pajamashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10229885785933385293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-8072231148188479082013-07-06T09:25:10.711-04:002013-07-06T09:25:10.711-04:00Dylan:
Thanks so much. Your point about Glück cut...Dylan:<br /><br />Thanks so much. Your point about Glück cutting directly to the heart of the matter may be exactly why she is a lyrical poet who appeals to someone who writes almost exclusively in the briefest of forms. <br /><br />There are some haiku and tanka that take so incredibly long to sound like they are spontaneous (yet sometimes, at least in these forms, the spontaneous ones seem best).<br /><br />I read a few of your own tanka on <a href="http://dylan.tweney.com/tag/poetry/" rel="nofollow">your site</a>. Fine work.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-32100037206090040972013-07-05T23:34:29.497-04:002013-07-05T23:34:29.497-04:00Nice post. I studied poetry with Louise in college...Nice post. I studied poetry with Louise in college, many years ago. She is a terrific reader and editor of poetry, cutting directly to the heart of every piece and helping you find the pure, spare, minimally effective and maximally powerful lines. You can see the results in her poetry too. And, as she suggest in this short video, it might take some time before a poem is whittled into shape like this.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15174732189477508664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-14297308256818713512013-07-05T14:32:12.313-04:002013-07-05T14:32:12.313-04:00Great point, Rehn. Sometimes there is that little ...Great point, Rehn. Sometimes there is that little something that is not quite <b><i>there</i></b> and it turns out that it some<i><b>where</b></i> else ...<br /><br />Sometimes it's even a place in <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608182421.htm" rel="nofollow"> a totally different kind of space</a>.Issa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849270578857708223.post-15252675595976282932013-07-05T13:03:22.923-04:002013-07-05T13:03:22.923-04:00Thank you for the wonderful clip. Living with an ...Thank you for the wonderful clip. Living with an unfinished poem makes me uneasy. I too take it with me. Reading the same lines in a different location seems to help.Rehnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17914234673793422610noreply@blogger.com