Celebrating National Poetry Month and the Anticipation of Spring

National Poetry Month was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.

It was designed to "increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States."

My mom instilled my love of poetry often quoting-- by memory-- from the sonnets of William Shakespeare and John Milton.

After majoring in English at Columbia University where I wrote my Masters Thesis on John Milton's extended poem, Samson Agonistes, I taught poetry and prose at Wisconsin State University, Essex County Community College and  Montclair State University.

Epic poems and dramatic verse included in my survey of Western Literature included The Iliad, The Oresteia, The Aeneid, The Song of Roland, Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost. Biblical verse included The Psalms as well.

Why am I posting poems this month on my twitter page?

First, April is designated as National Poetry Month. So why not create a buzz for poetry?

A seven foot  wall of a snow/ice mixture lines my 

driveway just a few weeks ago in March, 2015

Next, this winter has been long, cruel and has been delaying the onset of spring. (Witness the photo above.)  Spring is officially upon us almost three weeks as of this writing, but you would never know it.

We are enduring cloudy, rainy wintry days with temps barely rising into the 40's.

 T.S. Eliot's opening lines from The Wasteland ring true:

     April is the cruellest month, breeding
     Lilacs out the dead land,  mixing
     Memory and desire, stirring
     Dull roots with spring rain.
     Winter kept us warm, covering
     Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
     A little life with dried tubers. 

So I thought it appropriate to select poems that herald the start of Spring starting with lines from William Wordsworth's Daffodils.

Here is a link to my twitter page to inhale the aroma of Spring from some outstanding poets and noteworthy authors like Albert Camus.

https://twitter.com/rj_schwartz

Enjoy, as I will likewise do -  my posting poems several times weekly.

On the road to Relief from stress: How Poetry Works to make known the unknown, to make the impalpable palpable

In a recent article, I pledged to explore how the composition, recitation and listening to verse can alleviate the inevitable stress associated with the study and practice of medicine. In this context, I discussed Psalm 23.

So why, one might ask, is poetry more effective than prose in this regard?

 I was enlightened by comments spoken by Rabbi Gidon Shoshan who declares in G-d's Poem that the text of the Torah (arguably the most read book in  both the original and in translation) "is not prose, but poetry. While prosaic writing is deliberate, detailed and thorough, poetry is concise, choice and laden with allusion. A poet does not write all that he wishes to communicate but, rather, uses the power of language and brevity to encapsulate, in limited words, all virtually unlimited ideas." (italics mine)

What he is saying is so profound. The poet, in my opinion, is a master of words. He chooses words that resonate with meaning, many meanings which allude to many ideas and so what he writes can be interpreted in many different ways.

King David praising the Lord with his Harp

Illustrator: Richard Andre, London, 1884

He is in tune with inner rhythms, that akin to music, can not be expressed in one note, but many notes. Recall that the psalms of David were composed to be sung to the accompaniment of the harp. The classic epics, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey were also written to be sung.

 And since we each have individual sensibilities,  each one of us as reader/listener can and will have our own unique response(s).

The poet, in my opinion, makes the unknowable knowable, the impalpable  palpable. He takes abstruse, complex ideas and feelings and chooses words and rhythms to share conflicts, paradoxes, ironies and emotional states--that are hard to articulate in simple prose.

To write in simple prose is limiting, dull and boring while poetry opens the mind and soul to multiple unlimited feelings and thoughts that need to be communicated.

This is why, reciting, understanding and discussing poetry lends itself to unraveling, the confusing-- often tormenting-- complex of emotions experienced by student medical professionals as they come in contact for the first time with real life threatening diseases afflicting their patients.

Indeed, before one can be an empathetic care-giver to those experiencing pain and suffering, one must first deal with one's own emotions.

In forthcoming article(s), I will explore how poetry discussions are helping to germinate the seeds of empathetic, humanistic medicine. 

Medical Students turn to poetry discussions to share experiences and to develop empathy

In an earlier article I discussed the enlightened lead of the St. Andrews Medical School in giving every graduate a small portable book of poems, Tools of the Trade to accompany them on their rounds.

 Then in my most recent posting, I explained how reading and reciting poetry helps the reader-including the medical student/professional-- to deal with the complex of emotions that are not easily resolved by simple reading of prose.

The next obvious question is: how can medical educators work with their students to get them to express-- in a group setting--what it is they are experiencing when reading poems dealing with their daily contacts with their ailing patients?

St. Andrews has added a new direction: using the Tools of the Trade: Poems for new doctors  book of poems as a base, it has instituted a program called Poems for Doctors. First there is a blog which publishes these short poems. Then "video readings are made by medical professionals or  trainees who have chosen one poem for particular reasons or associations that they explain. Each reading provides a seed for informal discussion in a Facebook group managed by a group of highly experienced medics." (bold italics mine)

Contrast the St. Andrews informal discussion in a Facebook group with the following poetry centered program at Hadassah- Hebrew University Medical Center to "increase student's capacity for empathy and awareness of patients' narratives." Five 1-hour meetings were "held immediately following a teaching round, of seven to nine students with a facilitator doctor. At each meeting a poem reflecting the patient-caregiver relationship is discussed in order to encourage students to share their experiences." The results favored the students' empathetic identification with the patient (what it is like to be a patient). Read evaluation here.

 St. Andrews and Hadassah present differing models of how to  bring students together to share reactions to poetry. First they are alike in that each has an experienced faculty member who facilitates discussion. The former uses an informal discussion in a Facebook group  while the latter brings the students together in a face-to-face meeting held immediately following a teaching round.

Both schools are to be commended for their encouraging students to share their reactions to
poems.

The Hadassah method of having round table discussions, where students face each other --eye to eye --  is, perhaps, preferable because it done immediately after coming off the wards  when the emotions are still so fresh.

   Yet, on the other hand, the St. Andrews method of informal Facebook discussions may be more preferable mode for shy students who may be more reluctant to share their emotions in a 'live' setting.
They may be inhibited to share reactions in a setting where they have to view their peer's reactions such as facial expressions.

Besides St. Andrews and the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center other medical schools such as Yale and Harvard are also taking the lead in including poetry as a means of fostering empathy.

In my next article, I will explore how medical schools are requiring art classes as well. So stay tuned in.

 

Two Feel Good Stories You Might Have Missed: Extending the limits of living through Meditation Music and Poetry

1. 106 year old Eileen Ash, from Norwich England drinks two glasses of wine daily does Yoga daily  and just recently passed her driving test;  she  drives around in her bright yellow Mini.sports car-- yes, at the ripe 'young' age of 105. Click here for a video celebrating her 106th birthday by flying in an open cockpit Tiger Moth.

    Kudos to Eileen....

Eileen Ash drives a yellow Mini Sports Car 

(Courtesy of the Daily Mail)

                  

      2. An announcement during National Poetry Month: With much gratitude to organizer Relly Coleman.  Yael Stolarsky, Shlicha, and I have been invited to inaugurate the First Connecticut Hebrew Book celebration on Sunday, June 10th, 1-6 PM  as part of the second annual  Israeli Food Festival to be held at Temple Israel in Westport. Besides vendor and demonstrations, there will be 2-3 breakout sessions: one about Hebrew short stories with Susan Boyar, a professional book discussion leader and another about Modern Hebrew poetry and music  that Yael and I will lead.

      In prior years, I have led  three  Modern Israeli Poetry and music discussions at the Stamford JCC with Or Berger, Shaliach, and Yael. sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Fairfield County.

      Here is a podcast link to our last event held at Curley's diner--an event hosted by Poem Alley  and introduced by its leader Ralph Nazareth and , Eleni. Begetis, the poet/owner of Curleys.

http://richardjschwartz.com/rj/pods/CurleyPoetry.MP3

Curley's Diner is alive with Israeli Poetry and Music presented
by R.J. Schwartz and Yael Stolarsky, Shlichah

   
                                         

EARTH DAY REVISITED WITH HAIKU POEMS AND ANSEL ADAMS WHO DIED ON APRIL 22, 1984

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH AND EARTH DAY

TRYING MY HAND AT HAIKU

Signs of awakened Spring
In trees tinged with pink purple hues
Wraith boughs-winter begone.

I have been celebrating National Poetry Month with poems reminding us of our brutal, horrific and long-lasting winter and the long-awaited advent of a dramatic spring. You can find poems and lines by T.S.Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Camus William Wordsworth, Rachel France (Haiku) and by yours truly (Signs of Awakened Spring, Haiku).

Click here to see my Twitter Poetry Selection.

Click here to read my blog introducing National Poetry Month.

So what is a Haiku poem and why did I choose this form?

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines of verse. The first line usually has 5 syllables, the second has 7 and the third has 3. The message is strongly visual and concise.

The reason I favor this form of poetic expression is because it is conducive to twitter's maximum of 140 characters including a four color photo . And most important, "brevity is the soul of wit." (Shakespeare's Hamlet )

Why convey a message in over 40,000 lines of verse (the approximate length of Dante's Inferno) when you can convey a strong message in three lines?

Won't your reader be more amenable to reading and understanding your poem, especially with a graphic?

The reason I wrote my above Haiku is simple.

As I was driving in my neighborhood on a recent, rainy and dreary day, an amazing scene caught my attention. I was surrounded by stark skeletal wraith-like arms of trees soaring into the darkened skies.

Lo and behold, right before me were purple pink budding leaves of a magnolia tree 'firing' into life. It was a REBIRTH OF SPRING.

I pulled out my i- phone and quickly captured the scene. The event inspired me to translate this heightened experience into a Haiku. A simple, dramatic, sensual visual event-- instantaneously perceived--became the basis of the Haiku.

So, perhaps my reader will share my sense of wonder and amazement of spring's late--but dramatic- arrival expressed in the Haiku.

Enjoy, the ceaseless cycle of the seasons, especially today Earth Day.

Late Spring:wraith-like boughs 

contrasted with burgeoning pink buds 

Click here for my homage today-- EARTH DAY-- to the poignant photography of the environmentalist and photographer Ansel Adams. He died this day, April 22, in  1984.

National Poetry Month: Celebrating Poetry in Motion at Transit Museum at Grand Central

Hundreds of short poems have been displayed on  train stations, subway cars and buses for over 25 years thanks to a collaboration between the Poetry Society of American and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

This year I highlight the poetry of native american poet Sherman Alexie with this verse from Crazy Horse Speaks:

I wear the color of my skin
like a brown paper bag
wrapped around a bottle.
Sleeping between
the pages of dictionaries
your language cuts
tears holes in my tongue
until I do not have strength
to use the word "love."
What could it mean
in this city where everyone is
Afraid-of-Horses?

Sherman Alexie was born in Spokane, Washington and is a poet, novelist and filmmaker and his works reflect his experience as a native American whose genealogy includes a number of different tribes.  

Sherman Alexie from npr.com

For NPR broadcast interview, click here 

To view my prior articles celebrating the power of poetry click here. 

Stressed out medical professional trainees/students? There's a quiet poetic (R)evolution in the air

For five  earlier articles depicting how the medical arts have devolved, scroll through my blogs beginning with the seminal one entitled Crises in the Medical Arts: Returning Medicine to Patient Centered Care Giving.

The links between the healing arts and poetry are well known.

The Statute of Apollo Outside the National Academy of Athens

Apollo was recognized as the god of healing, poetry, music, truth,

the sun and light and much more  

 For instance,  poets including  John Keats, William Carlos Williams and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.  all received medical education.

The composition, recitation and listening to verse is known to release pent up feelings of angst, sadness, sorrow and depression--making it much easier to deal with these stressful feelings. (this subject to be explored in a forthcoming article)

Perhaps one  of the most calming and stress- relieving poems  is Psalm 23 which begins with:
"The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want."

The verse soothes all those who are  stressed through life's  travails  with its lovely images such as  being lead beside still waters and being guided on the right paths,  though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. 

So it comes as no surprise that poetry would be a tonic for the  proverbially overworked medical trainee.

Kudos to the pioneering steps of St. Andrews Medical School (founded in 1413) that acknowledges the healing benefits of poetry and the practice of humanistic medicine.

Tools of the Trade is a pocket size 

book of collected poems for doctors, It is

small enough to pull out and read when needed

photo from the Scottish Poetry Library.

Each year, each of the circa 900 Scottish medical school graduates receives "Tools of the Trade: Poems for new Doctors."  It's a small volume, less than 100 pages--thus easily potable.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, "the poems are grouped into five themes designed to help young physicians: looking after yourself, looking after others, beginnings,  being with illness and endings."

May this project, though in its infancy, continue to blossom and spread the seeds of empathetic humanistic medicine.

A Modest Proposal: My 2015 Summer Reading List, Part I

A Modest Proposal:  a partial display of my summer reading 

Here is a short description of why I chose these 22 + books of which only 11 are briefly discussed.  

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (not shown) This is great read told by eight-year old Scout from Maycomb Alabama. She is the daughter of Atticus Finch, a small town lawyer who is unsuccessful at defending a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman.

2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This is masterpiece of World War II 'concise' prose which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Read my review for more details.

3. Station Eleven, a novel by Emily St. John Mandel. This is riveting fantastic story that begins with a production of Shakespeare's King Lear in which the lead actor falls victim to heart failure on stage. This event sets the stage for a futuristic scenario in which mankind is 99.9% destroyed by a Russian flu. The play is redeemed by a roving band of Shakespearean actors and symphony musicians managing to survive by their wits, acting and instruments.  

4. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This 1925 classic was recently turned into a big, big bucks  Hollywood production (which I did not see). I choose to imbibe the life of the ultra rich through the timeless prose of a master writer.

5. Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader  by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. This book is on my shelf because of a  recent Fast Company Magazine review entitled The Steve Jobs You Didn't Know: Kind, Patient and Human. So let's learn about the other side of Steve that contrasts with the more limited egotistical, brash and greedy character presented in Walter Isaacson's biography.

6. Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A recent  Wall Street Journal Saturday essay  by the author spurred my interest in reading her thesis. She is now a fellow at the Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. (There are 875 Comments about the article)
     The subtitle of the WSJ article reads:  "To defeat the extremists for good, Muslims must reject those aspects of their tradition that prompt some believers to resort to oppression and holy war."

7 Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership by Susan Butler. It is 1943 and World War II is winding down after huge losses of human life by the Russians. Stalin is eager to have the Allies open up the Second Front (the D-Day Invasion) and Roosevelt is keen on getting Stalin, especially, and Churchill to agree on a world peace keeping force open to both small and large nations.
     Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill and their aides meet in Tehran in December, each with his game plan on the table. FDR uses his enormous diplomatic skills, charm and superior bargaining position to overcome Stalin's mistrust and paranoia and Churchill's reluctance to forge the framework for a lasting peace both at Tehran and Yalta in February 1945, just two months before FDR's death.
   This book is  highly recommenced  not only for its engrossing drama, but its beautifully and intricately developed narrative.

8. Strangers in the Bronx: DiMaggio, Mantle and the Changing of the Yankee Guard by Andrew O'Toole  The year is 1951 and the legendary  Yankee Clipper Joe D's last season. On the scene arrives the 19 year old boy wonder slugger, fleet footed Micky Mantle from  Commerce, Oklahoma. The story is enlivened by the many quoted interviews with noted  sports journalists of the day. There are great portraits of Yankee owners Dan Topping, George Weiss as well as the Ole Professor Casey Stengel who led the Bronx Bombers to the second straight World Series win.

9. The Innovators:  How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. The author, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute introduces us to Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter who was an early computer programmer in the 1840's. He then continues the digital revolution with personality portraits of Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing (subject of the cinematic success The Imitation Game), J.C.R Licklider, Doug Engelbert, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tom Berners-Lee and Larry Page.
   This is a must read for anyone wishing to track what the superhighway of information hath wrought.

10. The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin. My interest in this biography was sparked by  the 'remarkable' biography of JQA's father President John Adams by David Mcullough (2001) and a subsequent tour of The Adams National Historical Park in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Most recently, I published a review of another JQA biography, John Quincy Adams, American Visionary, (click here)  by Fred Kaplan--discussed in a New Yorker Magazine article

   My passion for unearthing the amazing contributions of this family to the growth of our republic from its earliest times is endless. John's son John Quincy was "The Greatest Traveler of His Age."
At age 14,  JQA accompanied the Minister to Russia, Francis Dana who sought Catherine the Great's aid for the American cause. He later became this country's minister to the Netherlands, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain.

 ....and now a 'breath of fresh' air as I digress to discuss some poetry books. My reader may recall that I celebrated National Poetry Month (April) quoting T.S Eliot, William Wordsworth, and Haiku and later William Butler Yeats (click here), as we, in the East Coast were emerging from one of the most brutal winters.  (click here for my postings) 

11. From the New World: Poems 1976-2014 by Jorie Graham. Her honors include winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and the 2012 Forward prize. one of the UK's "most prestigious poetry accolade."  The Poetry Foundation has called her "perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation," She teaches English at Harvard where in 1998,she was appointed Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, a chair that dates back to John Quincy Adams, who was appointed as its first recipient in 1805 before his presidency.

  The best introduction to her poems is to hear her public recitals. It is best to hear the rhythms and pauses and hold the images in your mind, however brief. (click here to listen)


Tune in to Summer Reading List, Part II.

  

Celebrating National Poetry Month: Shakespeare at 400

Title page of First Folio, 1623

Copper engraving of Shakespeare by 

Martin Droeshout (from Wikipedia)

In celebration of the 400 anniversary of the death of  William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616), I salute the Bard of Avon with some of his more memorable quotes: 

"Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars
But in ourselves, that we are underlings."
 (Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2:  Spoken by Cassius to Brutus)

                                   "All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."
(As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII: Spoken by Jaques)

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although is height be taken."
(From Sonnet 116)

"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason,
how infinite in faculties, in form, and moving how express
and admirable, in action, how like an angel, in apprehension
how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals-
and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not
me-nor woman neither..."
(Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2, Hamlet speaking to Rosencrantz)

For my prior articles celebrating  National Poetry Month, click here.

The best way to appreciate poetry is to listen to you tube readings of famous actors reciting their favorite poems. 

National Poetry Month with Walt Whitman's Elegiac Poem "Oh Captain, My Captain"

Commemorating National Poetry Month, established in 1996,  has been a proud ritual of mine for the past ten years. 

The last 100 days here in America have spelled 'disaster'  as 260,000  federal employees have been laid off.  American businessmen, both large and small have paused their investment strategies due to the uncertanty caused by the erratic and sporadic tarriffs. 

 The global economic system, built on established trade practices, is in turmoil. 

  Economic stagnation is a likely result. 

 Our 'ship of state,'  our new government has been floundering on a turbulent unpredictable sea and I thought it appropriate to turn to Walt Whitman (1819-1892) for inspiration. The poet wrote the verse below just after Abraham Lincoln was assasinated on April 15, 1865 and months before General Robert E. Lee formally concluded it with the surrender of the CSS Shenandoah on November 6, 1865.  

  Our  Civil War claimed the loss of about 700, 000 lives.

   It lasted from its start April 12, 1861 until the last skirmish on November 6, 1865.

   That is a total of 1,669 days, paling the first 100 days of this government. 

   Our  constitution, the time honored fabric of our Union,  was sundered by the secession of eleven Southern states.

   It was metaphorically driven to sea where though pummeled by rough seas (the secession followed by war) was arighted  by the steady hand of its Captain.

  In this powerful reading of Whitman's timeless classic piece, metaphoric language is strong at play.  The severed Union at war with the Confederacy is symbolized by the Ship of State.

Abe Lincoln, Our 16th President, 1809-1865

The Captain, much bewailed and mourned with the shores a-crowding with bugle trills, bouquets and ribboned wreaths as his vessel sails safely into port is our heroic President Lincoln who lies fallen at the helm.

 The Ship is now anchored safe and sound. This is the optimistic message of the verse. 

 It is my fervent hope, that after listening to this reading, all responsible US citizens and our government leaders will be "by the better angels of our nature" (from Lincoln's first inaugural address) come to our  better senses to revitalize our sacred union.

 

Milton Appreciation Week: Paradise Lost, Book IX The Golden Apple Consumed

William Blake, The Temptation and Fall of Eve (1898)

Illustration of Milton's Paradise Lost

What I will be doing is arbitrarily picking scenes and passages from Milton's poems to show my readers how delightful and hence readable Milton's poetry is.

However much Milton has been vilified over the centuries, his messages are timeless.

To read Milton is to show just how relevant he is. 

The scene is Eden...

Eve and her husband have been warned not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, for in that day they will experience death.

In this passage Eve is giving in to her curiosity and is now tempted by Satan in the guise of a snake to become like the Divine-- in knowledge and wisdom. She has just rationalized that the serpent himself has eaten the forbidden fruit and yet lives.

......, her rash hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she did eat;

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighing through all Worlds gave signs of woe,

That all was lost. Back to the Thicket slunk

The guilty Serpent and well might, for Eve

Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else

Regarded, such delight till then, as seem'd,

In Fruit she never tasted, whether true

Or fancied so, through expectation high

Of knowledge, nor was God-head from her thought

(Paradise Lost, Book IX, Verses 780-790)

Fifty  years have passed since I first read Paradise Lost for my graduate seminar in 17th Century Prose and Poetry conducted by Edward W. Tayler,  Lionel Trilling Professer Emeritus of the the Humanities at Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences (GSAS).

I was deeply impressed by this passage then and am even more moved now. I have become more and more fascinated with how Milton perceives evil in the Bible, in history and during his time.

A few years ago, a brilliant student of mine, in a summer cram course on Western Literature from Gilgamesh to Milton, wrote a brilliant research paper on what recent Milton scholarship has to say about good and evil. (this paper, hopefully, will be the subject of a future blog)

Milton is fascinated with the mother of man. She is living in perfect bliss and harmony with nature, flora and fauna as well as her husband. She is living in a garden of earthly delights. She, no doubt, has no idea of how blissful her state is compared to what she will have to experience after she eats.

From a state of harmony (Nature is after all attuned to the peace of Paradise), nature is now thrown out of whack. (italics mine) Renaissance thinkers believed in an ordered state of the stars and universe and this harmony of the spheres is abruptly interrupted.

Milton creates a graphic resonant image of the suffering that will embrace mankind. "Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe."

I envision Nature as a Supreme Conductor who has until now presided over a universe that runs smoothly like a swiss watch; Nature can also be seen as an orchestrator of a way of life that is predictably serene and orderly.

What a powerful image this is-- and rightly so-- for with one act, mankind is now doomed to pain, suffering and woe.

Woe is only a three letter word. But what a catalog of horrors it entails: Jealousy, hatred, envy, gluttony, incurable disease as HIV, war, stealing, bullying, oppression both mental and physical--all leading to despair......

The list goes on and on. In Milton's day, there was bitter rivalry between the High Church represented by the Episcopal Bishops and the reform minded Presbyters; there was a rivalry between Royalty and the rebellious Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell which resulted in a regicide.

Doesn't this sound a little like the bitter rivalry in our present day America between a beseiged Democratic Presidents and the Republicans in Congress hell-bent on defeating all the programs that our leader is advancing, from health care reform to extending the Bush and Trump tax cuts for the rich as well as the poor.

Milton says it so well. "...all was lost" Paradise was lost. But not forever

Our challenge, today, as in Milton's times, is to make the most of our 'fallen state.' to take all the tests of life thrown in our path and overcome our personal battles.

All is not woe for us. As the famous bard once said, "Nothing is but thinking makes it so."

Image source (1)

Celebrating National Poetry Month: When Springtime breaks in Oregon's Willamette Valley--Poet Samuel L. Simpson

In celebrating National Poetry Month, I must confess that the advent of Spring in Eugene, Oregon is  a spectacular, remarkable and memorable event.

Springtime arrives in Eugene, Oregon:set against

the backdrop of the Pacific Cascades

photo by Mike Wagner

Nestled in the Willamette Valley of Southern Oregon, Eugene is bombarded almost daily with persistent bleary Northwest winter showers from late November onward.

The rains  cease in April and the sudden arrival of spring  transforms the area into a shimmering emerald paradise.

It is for this reason that I chose Samuel L. Simpson's poem, The Beautiful Willamette to celebrate the dramatic arrival of spring

Here are the opening lines of the poem:  

From the Cascades' frozen gorges,
Leaping like a child at play,
Winding, widening through the valley,
Bright Willamette glides away,
Onward ever, 
Lovely river, 
Softly calling to the sea;

Spring's green witchery is weaving
Braid and border for thy side;
Grace forever haunts thy journey,
Beauty dimples on thy tide;
Through the purple gates of morning.... (italics and enlarged type- mine)

The Willamette River runs through Eugene, Oregon, Photo 

Courtesy of Paint Your Landscape, Biking Bliss-Eugene, OR 

The emerald green campus of the University of Oregon, Photo

Courtesy of Paint Your Landscape, Biking Bliss- Eugene, OR

Dylan at 70: Murray Lerner comments on producing The Other Side of the Mirror: Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival

In 2007, Murray Lerner, a Harvard graduate and East Coast film maker released his much awaited documentary of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festivals that began 44 years earlier.

The Columbia DVD is a black and white masterpiece that all Dylan fans will much admire as it shows Dylan's transformation over 3 years, 1963, 1964 and 1965--from a newly arrived folk singer (much admired by Pete Seeger and others) into a star performer along with Joan Baez.

By 1965, the two-- Dylan and Baez- were the King and Queen of the festival. In fact, it was reported that Dylan and his queen paraded around aristocratic Newport with the former sporting a bull whip that he would periodically crack!

The highlight of the DVD is a 25 minute 'bonus' interview with Lerner in which he describes his inspiration(s) and his ideologies behind his minimalistic camera technique.

There are three major points that Lerner conveys to his viewers.

First, at Harvard he studied modern poetry and TS Eliot's objective correlative was all the rage. The idea, as Lerner explains is that poetry has the ability to communicate  before it is understood. The poet would pick an image that would resonate with the idea you want to express without saying it.

Lerner relates the objective correlative to his filming technique:  "What I'd like to express in film at the time was an emotion that clarified for the viewer new thoughts, new ideas brought to a new level... "

While T.S. Eliot would pick an image to express an emotion, (e.g. 'like a patient etherized upon the table' in Prufrock), Lerner would, in filming the Newport festival, have many unexpected juxtapositions of images that brings the viewer to a new level. An example of such an odd juxtaposition where you see a woman saying pop music is folk music and then you suddenly have Dylan playing an electric organ.

There is no narration in the film and it works by simple odd juxtapositions that make it flow.

Second, Lerner himself and his other cinematographers were instructed to minimize the movement of the camera. There is virtually no panning of the audience when Dylan is onstage. And for example, in Maggie's Farm where Dylan fades in and out of darkness, the camera does not move.

In 1965, when Dylan went electric, the camera angles up to Dylan's face providing a closeup of not only his expression and a dimple on his right side but also his now fashionable leather blazer.

Finally, Lerner discusses the afternoon workshop footage that is featured in all three years. Simply put, Dylan and other artists would offer sessions scattered around the center stage. While the evening sessions drew about 20,000 fans, the afternoon topical performances would attract crowds of 5,000!

The DVD is highly recommended. Perhaps one day, we will understand why Lerner waited over 40 years to share his stored footage with us!

It's National Poetry Month: Here's succinct verse to celebrate both the lows and highs of life

 The Lingering Pain that Will not go away 

A solitary cry I cannot breathe 

I hear only the silence

 of petals floating at a calm sea

Sudden pain on my chest

Like the weight of 50 bricks

The medics rush to rescue

All I hear are the sounds of silence 

Celestial Love 

Slipstreaming in winter skies 

Two centripetal bodies drawn ever closer

Echoing the harmony of the spheres

-Haiku inspired verse composed in honor of Women’s History Month (3/8/21)

A Triumvirate of Professors Ted De Bary, Ted Tayler and Ted Reff. Celebrating the Centennial of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University and Beyond.....

Three Teds are a rare Triumvirate-- three Columbia Professors whose global humanitarian visions and teachings  have had an exponential influence on myriads of students: their disciples, Columbia and other University students, graduates, families, friends, and associates. They are Ted de Bary, Ted Tayler and Ted Reff. 

On July 21, 2014, I met with Professor Ted de Bary (1919-2017)

of East Asian Studies, in his office at 500D Kent Hall.
He autographed a copy of his latest and last book, The Great Civilized Conversation: Education for a World Community

(Columbia University Press, New York City, 2013)

Fifty years plus after studying East Asian Humanities at the feet of Ted de Bary and his colleague Professor Ainslee Embree, I have come to realize the profound and enduring influence of their year-long teaching in the growth and understanding of my own spiritual, mental and physical well-being, and, indeed, as well as others.

In sum, their message is that the westerm core should be expanded to encompass readings from Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Islam, Arab, African and Native American religions.

There is now a new definition for the 'Renaissance man' --once pictured as a 'spin-off ' of the English gentlemen whose oak-paneled library shelves were filled with the classic volumes of  the great works of western civilization. The new multi-culturally educated world citizen is someone whose education knows no boundaries. They have, by choice, freed themselves from the limiting fetters of cultural influences perceived through the prism of Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian values.

Learning for oneself is indeed proudly holding up the banner with 195 Flags of the world declaring, "I ADVOCATE TOLERANCE OF THE OTHER THROUGH LEARNING ABOUT THE OTHER."

Columbia University has lived up to the vision of these two professors. The Global Core Requirement does just that: it "asks students to engage directly with the variety of civilizations and the diversity of traditions that, along with the West, have formed the world and continues to interact in it today."

On the ides of March of 2019, I paid tribute to my 17th Century English Prose and Poetry Professor Ted Tayler, by attending a memorial tribute held at Low Rotunda.  He was Columbia's Milton scholar and I was privileged to spend two years with this brilliant man who inspired me to write my master's thesis on John Milton's Samson Agonistes.  (Click here for the  two earlier articles).

Ted Tayler (1931-2017)

Professor Ted Tayler, Lionel Trilling Professor of the Humanities, was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931 and died April 23, 2017.  He was also a Shakespeare scholar and it is only appropriate that he passed away on the very same day as the Bard of Avon---only 401 years later.

I am indebted to David Lehman CC'70 for his inspiring essay, in essence a dual biograhy---which explores in depth the uncertainties and ambiguities of life--illuminated by the brilliant radiance of Ted's mind---itself  obviously in-spired by a higher order of things. ( To read David's essay: Ted Tayler: The Good Man, The Good Poem, The Great Professor, click here)

Ted Reff  (1930-  )

Third on my list is Ted Reff of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, specializing in the years 1840-1940. I was privileged to attend an all day colloquium in Schermerhorn Hall dedicated to this living legend who has written "extensively on the principal movements of that period: Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism; and above all the artists Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso and Duchamp."

His scholarship was global and multicultural in scope; he focused not only on the artist's social/cultural milieu and personality, as it influenced his art, but also "earlier or exotic art on which he drew."

His former students came from near and far to honor their Professor. Over the course of six hours, 13 of his students each spent about 30 minutes exploring with video slides such diverse subjects as:

    1. "To imitate the Chinese...." Henri Matisse and Far Eastern Art
    2. An Amateur in Africa: Inanke Cave Art as a Celebration of Life
    3. Why So Sad? The Changing Image of Pierrot, 1684-1870

For a 'visual taste' of some of the projected slides  Click here for an earlier article.

Finally, I offer kudos to each of  the many many thousands of disciples of the the Three Teds who continue to share the living legacy of these three towering Teds wherever YOU may be across the globe and whatever endeavor YOU are engaged in.

 ...and especially Professors Rachel Chung and Joanne Covello who, nearly three years after the passing of Ted de Bary, are continuing to offer and teach his signature course Nobility and Civility.

The overriding message of the readings in this course starting with Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi and and continuing through Laozi, Cicero, Plutarch, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Dhammapada to the middle ages-- a time span of about 2,000 years-- is  that peace of mind, harmony and  stability is attainable in all societal and political groupings-for all times.   And, though, our times are reflective of prior ages and civilizations with a remarkable dystopia---an era marked by global opioid deaths, fatal pandemic plagues, continuing wars and upheavals and toxic political gridlock--we have the choice to come together in our families and nation by spurring a movement of individual self development that tolerates and embraces the other. 

And how is that achieved?  Every level of society will cooperate in worshipping, respecting, paying homage, internalizing the love embedded in values passed down from one generation's enlightened leaders to the next  and emulating community strengthening actions. 

A Summer without end seen through the imagination of Wallace Stevens, Poet

Wallace Stevens, Poet, Insurance Executive (1879-1955)

We are still in the throes of summer this day, the 30th of August 2015.

Though fall is only three weeks away, the temperatures today in lower New England are in the low 90's and more of the same is forecast for the first week in September.

That 'summer's lease hath all too short a date'  seems not in accord with our current weather cycles; yet 'Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.' (both quotes from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18)

So what's going on?

We have emerged from one of the worst winters going back to the blizzard of 1947.

Indeed, the winter of 2015 is one  that no one here in the East will ever forget.

Poets from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot and William Wordsworth have written paeans to the dramatic entry of spring.  (For my celebration of National Poetry Month and the Anticipation of Spring: click here.)

These poets powerfully recorded  the transition from harsh spring (e.g 'April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out the dead land,' T.S.Eliot) to the sudden appearance of flora ('When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils,' William Wordsworth.)

So I thought it befitting to celebrate summer with some verse from one of my favorite poets, Wallace Stevens, pictured above.

Farm in Oley Valley, Pennsylvania near Reading where Stevens was born.

Stevens writes: 'One of the limits of reality Presents itself in Oley when the hay, 

Baked through long days, is piled in mows.' 
From Wikipedia Oley Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania

Stevens (1879-1955) was a New Englander who attended Harvard and built a career as an executive at a Hartford, Connecticut  insurance company.

When the the dead heat of summer arrives, when the sun beats down daily on our human landscape, when life, as we know and experience it slows down to a crawl--a 'snails pace,'  the sun is magnified into a reigning omnipresent Sun-God.

Truth is illuminated ... by the very light, the very brilliance, the very permanence of the sun.

In 'Credences of Summer' (click here to hear Stevens read the poem) Stevens brings together many images, frozen in time by the relentless heat, that serve to exalt and capture in an iphoto instant image, the majesty and the squalor ('And last year's garden grows salacious weeds') of the universe and the divinity inherent in the Rule of the Sun ("of sapphires flashing from the central sky, As if twelve princes sat before a king.")

The 'author' of summer is not only the active, concerned and caring  choirmaster of '...happiest folk-land, mostly marriage-hymns'  and of '...last choirs, last sounds...Pure rhetoric of a language without  words.'

He can also be seen as a more passive  'inhuman author' who 'does not hear his characters talk,' and who meditates With gold bugs, in blue meadows, late at night.'

The poem ends on a high colorful note;  he sees his characters 'mottled, in the moodiest costumes,

Of blue and yellow, sky and sun, belted
And knotted, sashed and seamed, half pales of red,
Half pales of green, appropriate habit for
The huge decorum, the manner of time,
Part of the mottled mood of summer's whole,

In which the characters speak because they want
To speak, the fat, the roseate characters,
Free, for a moment, from malice and sudden cry,
Complete in a completed scene, speaking
Their parts as in a youthful happiness.

Today is the Birthday of John Hawkes, Stamford, CT Native, Novelist and Ivy Professor

John Hawkes (August 17, 1925-May 15, 1998) was born in Stamford, Connecticut, educated at Harvard and then taught at Brown University for 30 years.

He was the author of 18 novels, novellas as well as short stories; he wrote 4 plays and a volume of poetry.

One of his novels The Blood Oranges was made into a movie and released in 1997.

His grandfather was one of 9 sons of landed Irish gentry who rode to the hounds. Hawkes lived for a while in Old Greenwich, CT near riding stables.

In his memoirs, he recalls the thumping and stomping sounds as he
struggled to breathe during recurring of asthma attacks.

These factors may account for his fascination with horses in his works.

His themes include: past influences on the present, alienation, death, redemption, the absurd nature of reality, sexuality, relationships, marriage and the importance of the imagination.

He traveled widely throughout his life and incorporated these experiences into his writings.Among the places he lived and visited include: Juneau, Alaska , New York City (he attended Trinity School), Pawling, New York, Cambridge, MA, Burma (where he joined as volunteer ambulence driver in the American Field Service at the end of WWII), then the European Theater in Italy, Belgium and Germany, Grenada, Island of Lesbos, The Brittany Coast, The Cote d'Azur, Venasque, France (near Avignon) and Providence, Rhode Island.

image source (1)

The 2nd of Kislev: and 15th Mar Cheshvan : R. Aharon Kotler, Z"L, My Mom, Z"L and the Pike Street Synagogue and its Rabbi, Moses Kalonymus Skinder from 1922-1947.

Ha Rav Aharon Kotler (1891-1962)

from wikipedia​

On this day, the second of Kislev in 1962/5722, the Hesped of rosh yeshivas Bais Medrash Govoah in Lakewoood, Rav Aharon Kotler was held at the Pike Street Synagogue in lower Manhattan. Tens of thousands of mourners packed the Synagogue and the adjoining streets.

On this day in 1980/5740 my mother Nahama Hadassah bas Ha Rav Moshe Kalonymus Skinder passed away.

​My grandfather Rav Moshe Kalonymus Skinder Z"L

Graduate Yeshiva of Lutsk, Rabbi in four countries,

Knew Torah b'al peh. (Died on the 15th of Mar Cheshvan)

Her dad, my grandfather, was Rav at the well known Pike Street Synagogue in the lower East Side of Manhattan from 1922 until 1947.  He resigned his post and emigrated to Palestine to build housing in Cholon for Jews settling in Palestine from the European DP camps. His development is known as Givat Cholon.

​The Pike Street Synagogue, also known as the Sons of Israel Kalwarie

His synagogue was one of the 7 Great Synagogues in lower Manhattan. On January 10, 1913,  a crowd of 5,000 people jammed the Synagogue to hear the first of many lectures delivered by the noted Rabbi Judah L. Magnes. 

​The Interior of the Pike Street Synagogue

Rabbi Magnes  had resigned  his post at Temple Emanu-El. and embraced  a more traditional approach and practice of Judaism.

Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes, (1877-1948)

First Chancellor (1925) and
President of the Hebrew University (1935-1948)

Photo courtesy of wikimedia

​

The reason for the near riot that occurred that night was the announcement of the birth of the  Young Israel Movement. A formidable speaker, he aroused his largely unobservant audience to observe the sabbath and kashruth by making the Synagogue a hub of  fun social activities buttressed by traditional  weekday and sabbath prayer. 

The building  of the the Pike Street Synagogue in 1903, also known as the Sons Of Israel Kalwarie, occurred at a time when there were in excess of 350 Shuls serving lower Manhattan--based on an actual count. . 

It has been estimated that between 1880 and 1915  as many as 500  "Jewish houses of worship"  were founded in the Lower East Side. (The Synagogues of New York's Lower East Side , p.31)

In summary, the second day of Kislev reverberates strongly for me and is a inspiration to continue to add to the unstinting and tireless contributions of our  generational greats, Judaic forefathers and fore mothers as well.

My mom (1910-1980) exuding pride standing next to me

Let it be remembered that my mom was an inspirational teacher of Torah and Tehillim at our local Synagogue in Mt. Vernon, NY,  Emanu-El Jewish Center, and served as PTA President of the Ramaz School. Here at Ramaz, she was inspired by its founder Rabbi Joseph Lookstein and was herself a firebrand in inspiring many Ramaz parents (including my dad who taught the ABC's of Sexuality for many years) to actively participate in school activities as well as in their education of their own children. Thank you, mom, for igniting the spark of  seeking out the Ways of Torah and simultaneously instill a love of poetry, especially in its unique role in connecting us to a higher source.