I love this poem with its surreal change of landscapes, times, and all matter of characters in the writer/reader's mind or just sitting there in that coffee shop. Not sure if I was 'supposed' to but I laughed out loud at the finale.
A longtime newspaper subscriber, the subscription cost has risen so much that when my subscription ends 3/23/23, it truly E N D S. They said the www would kill newspapers...didn't happen but...
To live long enough includes venturing into a new medium . Doesn't it for a person like westerners serious horse faced at being productive? I assign us to celebrate our ten years relationships. We learned we really learned and I guesstimate the body reason we did not become one person was time apart does not make enough of us fonder. Two and four can be one but the work involved is like fiery war. We are so leathery and tough, self overcoming has to be similarly tough. Parsimonious explanation for beautifully old couples. I looked at the millennial and thought i saw enthusiasts about the long part of love. Seen no lessons to suggest otherwise. Animal being there for each other, in my private language I said they prized over committing. Thank-you for surveillingthe coffee shop. We like that collection of clever people looking for a cleopatras needle to the future. Should they reach for grandparents when ours had alot to say about our metaphysics? Almost it looks like we are more workers than we are wise.
I never knew my Father's Father. He died before I was born. I've heard various opinions about him, but have always wished I had known him. As always, Thanks Sherman
I never understood poetry and I know nothing about it. The construction, the types. What I have read didn't make sense to me. But yours I get. To be honest, I didn't really know they were poems until you said they were. So I guess now I like poetry.
This makes me wish I was still teaching ELA. So rich, and made richer when you read it (morning voice works for a poem about coffee.) I could write the lesson for it right now.
I'm doing okay. Writing a bunch. Trying to work off the Covid weight that's on top of the weight I already had. This Substack thing has really been great for me. I'm far more disciplined about writing now. I've got a couple of traditional book projects in the oven. Family life is great. I'm looking forward to your Substack.
Instant tears. It’s so important to me to be able to hear your audible voice in your poems for a variety of reasons. The beauty of your poem here, for me, in listening, is immediately visceral. As an adoptee, originally an abandoned newborn foundling in 1955 Spokane, I never knew my biological parents or my ancestors but I have always longed for them. Now with the advent of DNA segment analyses and genetic genealogy I know their names. There are so many beginnings.
Thank you so much. You're a foundling, such a tender word for such a traumatic experience. I hope your learn more and more about your bio family's history.
Thank you so much for recognizing my birth abandonment as a trauma. So few do, most fail to see because it’s painful to see and acknowledge the full reality, they only see the adoption. It took me many decades to recognize that it was my first traumatic experience in life, being born and immediately abandoned. Thank you so much for your vision and acknowledgment. 🙏🏻
I agree absolutely with your comments re Harry's silly ghostwritten book. There are all sorts of tawdry ways to make big bucks here. The difference between publishing and pro sports isn't in the integrity of the process (publishing is notoriously corrupt) but in the fact that banal books by overprileged royals may nauseated but don't actually kill people. I really like your writing, the strength and lucidity and humor and truth and the fact that you're able to reach people of all ages and backgrounds are outstanding qualities. I was just surprised at the need to include football reference, especially in view of battlefield damage to Damar Hamlin just this week.
Thank you for this beautiful poem. Your writing is so economical. I'm older and hope someday to be a grandmother. I hope to share stories with my grandchildren, influencing who they might become.
I've read 90% of your writing and loved it. I've never felt "preciousness" is a quality that exists in abundance. Who will speak to the pernicious effect of football in society--the danger of TBE and other bodily damage, as well as the big money and associated crime etc., the "entertainment" that eats up the young rather than educating-them? I know literacy is important to you. You prefaced one of your books with a quotation from W.B. Yeats. Just don't overemphasize football, in the interests of long life, please, please.
I don't think professional sports are any more corrupt or capitalist than other endeavors. This last week, I've seen dozens of lists of Books to Read in 2023, many at prestigious websites and journals, that include Prince Harry's memoir. How the hell can a book-person put Prince Harry on a list with Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood? It's the result of the collusion of publishers, agents, publicists, journalists, bloggers, etc. When you see Harry's book on a list then you know money and influence are being traded.
That is a beautiful poem. I love the short three line stanzas they convey real intimacies between the couple, couple and observer, observer and ancestors. Thank you for sharing.
I like the three different coffee cups that illustrate ‘Trinity’. I’m white - and elderly. How would I relate this to me? Both sets of grandparents were Catholic - defined their souls like that. I would answer their question “What did you become?” with “A rebel”. And then would demand, “Why didn’t you?”
Ah, the challenge! I'm reminded of a common phrase in the Indian world: "I am my ancestor's wildest dreams." Whenever I hear that, I think, "Are you sure about that?"
Love the poem. I can’t concentrate too much because I’m just so sick of those nutsy 20 republicans that that idiot who finally won speaker of the house by selling his tiny little soul. I adore K. Jeffries so much. We’re in for two years at least with dingbats. Elena
I love this poem with its surreal change of landscapes, times, and all matter of characters in the writer/reader's mind or just sitting there in that coffee shop. Not sure if I was 'supposed' to but I laughed out loud at the finale.
A longtime newspaper subscriber, the subscription cost has risen so much that when my subscription ends 3/23/23, it truly E N D S. They said the www would kill newspapers...didn't happen but...
I'm still a newspaper guy.
To live long enough includes venturing into a new medium . Doesn't it for a person like westerners serious horse faced at being productive? I assign us to celebrate our ten years relationships. We learned we really learned and I guesstimate the body reason we did not become one person was time apart does not make enough of us fonder. Two and four can be one but the work involved is like fiery war. We are so leathery and tough, self overcoming has to be similarly tough. Parsimonious explanation for beautifully old couples. I looked at the millennial and thought i saw enthusiasts about the long part of love. Seen no lessons to suggest otherwise. Animal being there for each other, in my private language I said they prized over committing. Thank-you for surveillingthe coffee shop. We like that collection of clever people looking for a cleopatras needle to the future. Should they reach for grandparents when ours had alot to say about our metaphysics? Almost it looks like we are more workers than we are wise.
I never knew my Father's Father. He died before I was born. I've heard various opinions about him, but have always wished I had known him. As always, Thanks Sherman
I never understood poetry and I know nothing about it. The construction, the types. What I have read didn't make sense to me. But yours I get. To be honest, I didn't really know they were poems until you said they were. So I guess now I like poetry.
I try to write poetry that's very accessible upon first read with all the construction and poetic techniques discoverable upon further reading.
This makes me wish I was still teaching ELA. So rich, and made richer when you read it (morning voice works for a poem about coffee.) I could write the lesson for it right now.
Thank you, Stephanie!
Nice!
Is that you, Blake??!!!
yes. how are you doing? I just found your substack a couple weeks ago. digging the poetry. hope you're well!
I'm doing okay. Writing a bunch. Trying to work off the Covid weight that's on top of the weight I already had. This Substack thing has really been great for me. I'm far more disciplined about writing now. I've got a couple of traditional book projects in the oven. Family life is great. I'm looking forward to your Substack.
Instant tears. It’s so important to me to be able to hear your audible voice in your poems for a variety of reasons. The beauty of your poem here, for me, in listening, is immediately visceral. As an adoptee, originally an abandoned newborn foundling in 1955 Spokane, I never knew my biological parents or my ancestors but I have always longed for them. Now with the advent of DNA segment analyses and genetic genealogy I know their names. There are so many beginnings.
Thank you so much. You're a foundling, such a tender word for such a traumatic experience. I hope your learn more and more about your bio family's history.
Thank you so much for recognizing my birth abandonment as a trauma. So few do, most fail to see because it’s painful to see and acknowledge the full reality, they only see the adoption. It took me many decades to recognize that it was my first traumatic experience in life, being born and immediately abandoned. Thank you so much for your vision and acknowledgment. 🙏🏻
You're welcome.
I agree absolutely with your comments re Harry's silly ghostwritten book. There are all sorts of tawdry ways to make big bucks here. The difference between publishing and pro sports isn't in the integrity of the process (publishing is notoriously corrupt) but in the fact that banal books by overprileged royals may nauseated but don't actually kill people. I really like your writing, the strength and lucidity and humor and truth and the fact that you're able to reach people of all ages and backgrounds are outstanding qualities. I was just surprised at the need to include football reference, especially in view of battlefield damage to Damar Hamlin just this week.
You really don't like football!
Do you know the first thing Hamlin asked when he regained consciousness? "Who won the game?"
This poem brought to heart the Sweet Honey in the Rock song, We Are--especially this verse:
We are our grandmothers prayers
We are our grandfathers dreamings
We are the breath of the ancestors
We are the spirit of God
Thanks, Sherman, for so much beauty. I needed it as we await yet another atmospheric river here in the Bay Area.
I have not thought of Sweet Honey in the Rock in years!
Thank you for this beautiful poem. Your writing is so economical. I'm older and hope someday to be a grandmother. I hope to share stories with my grandchildren, influencing who they might become.
Thank you, Carol, that's a lovely response.
You are my kind of poet.
Thank you, Andrew.
I've read 90% of your writing and loved it. I've never felt "preciousness" is a quality that exists in abundance. Who will speak to the pernicious effect of football in society--the danger of TBE and other bodily damage, as well as the big money and associated crime etc., the "entertainment" that eats up the young rather than educating-them? I know literacy is important to you. You prefaced one of your books with a quotation from W.B. Yeats. Just don't overemphasize football, in the interests of long life, please, please.
I don't think professional sports are any more corrupt or capitalist than other endeavors. This last week, I've seen dozens of lists of Books to Read in 2023, many at prestigious websites and journals, that include Prince Harry's memoir. How the hell can a book-person put Prince Harry on a list with Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood? It's the result of the collusion of publishers, agents, publicists, journalists, bloggers, etc. When you see Harry's book on a list then you know money and influence are being traded.
That is a beautiful poem. I love the short three line stanzas they convey real intimacies between the couple, couple and observer, observer and ancestors. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for noticing the construction of the poem.
I like the three different coffee cups that illustrate ‘Trinity’. I’m white - and elderly. How would I relate this to me? Both sets of grandparents were Catholic - defined their souls like that. I would answer their question “What did you become?” with “A rebel”. And then would demand, “Why didn’t you?”
Ah, the challenge! I'm reminded of a common phrase in the Indian world: "I am my ancestor's wildest dreams." Whenever I hear that, I think, "Are you sure about that?"
Postscript! He is Hakeem Jeffries not K.
Love the poem. I can’t concentrate too much because I’m just so sick of those nutsy 20 republicans that that idiot who finally won speaker of the house by selling his tiny little soul. I adore K. Jeffries so much. We’re in for two years at least with dingbats. Elena
I think we are eternally beset by dingbats!