When I look into the snow, I watch a single flake fall. If I follow it,
the spiral trail echos until it disappears among its forebearers
and covers the dead grass.
The next one tracks a different route,
but it achieves the same goal
as its predecessor, and the next one, and the next…
If I lose focus and see only the field, the snowfall moves in groups.
The trailing falls away as it becomes something
more wracked and solitary.
I am immobile.
Later, I can see the ground where my dogs make paths.
They follow the same tracks they make in summer months
to investigate the smells of the borderlands.
In the snow, the paw prints map the trips to their favorite tree
and circle back the long way around. It outlines a crescent shape
that lays a shadow against the porch light.
My neighbor has a grove of pampas grass
that looks like a huddled mass of people paused –
making their way around his house against the force of a winter gale.
Lyrical phrasing, meter, rhyming, consonance, assonance, timbre, and tone mean so much to both choral music and poetry. Perhaps that is why, when good poetry is combined with a beautiful musical foundation, the result can be an emotional and spiritual adjuvant. It soothes the soul. There is no doubt that there is music in poetry/poetry in music.
********************
Once again I have been affected by a poem/choral arrangement that is not a cappella. Thus, I have renamed this feature Music in Poetry.
James Agee (1909-1955) was born in Knoxville, TN. His father died when James was only six, and his mother sent James and his younger sister to boarding schools. He was educated in Episcopal Boys Schools, ultimately graduating from Harvard in 1932. He worked as a freelance writer for most of his short life. He was a journalist, novelist, film critic, and screenwriter. He was a well-respected film critic in the 1940s and wrote screenplays for The African Queen (1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955). His book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) detailed the conditions of sharecropper families in the Depression era Deep South. Agee was also a poet. He published one volume of poetry in 1934, entitled Permit me Voyage, which contained the poem Sure on this Shining Night.
Sure on this shining night*
by James Agee
Sure on this shining night
Of star made shadows round,
Kindness must watch for me
This side the ground.
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
Sure on this shining night I weep for wonder wand’ring far
alone
Of shadows on the stars.
*from Permit me Voyage published 1934 by Yale University
The poem itself is simple and hopeful. There is no doubt that Agee’s religious upbringing and education had instilled a faith in him, yet a loneliness pervades this poem. Perhaps due to the loss of his father at an early age and being sent to boarding schools away from family, the middle four lines
The late year lies down the north.
All is healed, all is health.
High summer holds the earth.
Hearts all whole.
indicate times when things are good, implying the typical holiday and family times of the year in the late year and the high summer. It is interesting use of the phrasing “all is healed, all is health” which follows the phrasing of the Christmas carol Silent Night, and has as it’s message, heavenly peace.
Other times are spent wandering and wondering, hopeful for Kindness to watch over him.
It is a strong emotional poem and is made musical on its own merit, through consonance with repeating sh-, sure and shining, l- late and lies, and h- healed, health, hearts, and whole. Lyrically, all very pleasing and comforting sounds.
In 1938 Samuel Barber wrote a musical setting of Sure on this shining night as a vocal solo (and later as a choral setting). The piano accompaniment evokes some of the emotional loneliness, and the solo performance by Cheryl Studer (soprano) captures the ache of lonely wonder/wander -ing. I like Barber’s choral arrangement (and have sung it), but this solo art song version is very beautifully done.
Sure on this shining night, music by Samuel Barber, published by G. Schirmer, Inc.
Rather than link to Barber’s choral arrangement, I found a different version of the song written in 2005 with music by Morten Lauridsen, a contemporary American composer. Lauridsen manages to bring the contemplative nature of the poem out in a subdued melody line that just seems to breath a life of its own. The performance by the Vox Humana Choral Ensemble is stunning.
Sure on this shining night, music by Morten Lauridsen, published by Peermusic Classical.
Both versions of the song do credit to James Agee’s poem.
Writing
I mentioned a while back that I had submitted a poem that was accepted for an online publication. It is posted here, in The Front Porch Review, or at the link Periodicity under Published Work, down at the lower right of the menu bar. I am fond of this poem, as it captures some actual experiences of my life, and rolls some of the meaning into life’s cyclic nature. There are some other excellent poems in that issue, I invite you to give it a read. As always, I welcome your comments and thoughts.
I’ve started off the new year writing (attempting to write) some flash fiction pieces. I may share something here soon, but I’m also contemplating moving/reorganizing my blog site to accommodate things differently.
Music
After bingeing on holiday/Christmas music since mid-November, I have been cleansing my musical palette with “oldies.” That’s such a relative term, isn’t it? One generation’s oldies are not the next. When I say oldies, I mean 50’s and 60’s jukebox tunes. Doo-wop and British invasion songs are peppy enough to gloss over the general ‘suckiness’ of January weather. I don’t mind the snow…but the bitter cold. What do you listen to on a winter day?
Some random statistics
Since my unemployment began, I’ve applied for approximately 125 positions, mostly through internet application processes. I’ve gone through 12 phone interview processes (with different companies) resulting in 1 onsite interview. That means almost a 10 % conversion from application to phone interview, and only about 8 % of those result in a site interview. This gives a whopping 0.8% likelihood of a job interview based on internet applications – I think. This is biased due to my specific area of expertise and experience level, but it demonstrates the level of difficulty in finding the right job. Sorry about the math…I have to keep my skills up.
Reading
I wish I could say that I did a lot of reading over the last part of 2014 and the Christmas holiday…but I didn’t. I’m still nursing Philip Kerr’s novel Dark Matter:The Private Life of Sir Isaac Newton– A Holmes-esque mystery novel during the time when Newton was Warden of the Royal Mint. I’ve read some interesting journal articles about anthocyanins that I mentioned in a post a while ago in December. And, my MIL gave me three Jack Higgins novels to read…which I am excited about. I read The Eagle has Landed when I was in high school and really liked it. Also, I dusted off my copy of The Silmarillion (after seeing the third and final Hobbit film), and leisurely read a few sections to try and jump start my interest in the book…sigh…the names.
A darkness dwells, just out of sight,
among these brilliant, twinkling lights
and through the house all decked with green
a shadow stalks the verdant scene-
A dimness to the Advent host
pursuing room-to-room to boast
a victory not fought or won,
yet hides in fear, a braggart shunned.
And words of cheer and light revealed
keep gloominess at bay, concealed.
Joyeux Noel thus shared among
us brings to darkness- light- along.
So sing we all in towns and homes
a Christmas song in merry tones,
persuading those from shadows dim
to brilliant light and life with Him.
*********************
Writing a Christmas poem is difficult because the themes are so familiar. The difference between light and dark has been on my mind lately, and it seemed a fitting Christmas thought. My hope is to continue writing in 2015, and that you will continue to read.
I attached a clip below sharing Steven Curtis Chapman’s arrangement of O Come O Come Emmanuel, a text which resonates with this poem, but a different melody than typically associated with the song.
Best wishes this holiday season, Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous new year.
you held close
your gathered words-
berries ripening in the basket
leaves, before falling,
turned from green
to yellow
or red.
the wind blew around,
whisking between the
clattering branches
before a whisper
of snowfall.
an ascendant path
obscured ahead,
reveals much
upon arrival.
There-
Look at how
you make me wait
for you.
*************
A poem about transitions and how things change on/in a moment. Something that is prominently in my thoughts these days. The “and then” moment. Sometimes grand in scope, sometimes merely just a moment. But the ‘and then’ always tilts the balance.
I had to seek out a new strand of white cord, clear light (not LEDs*), non-blinking icicle lights. This was because a) I had to replace a strand that I had tested prior to installing on the eaves of our humble abode (and it worked), yet after hanging them, one section of lights stopped working (arghh) and b) I was tired of troubleshooting this strand of lights with extra bulbs and fuses.
I was out running another errand when I got sucked into a newly built megastore (Oh..I’ll stop in there) – Like I had a bullseye on me or something.
First of all…it was as if the retail master had thrown all the quest ploys in my path. I entered the store, and had to decide to go straight ahead or turn left. I don’t know where the holiday section is here, but..just to the left, there is a token holiday light display, with the simple green string lights (white twinkling and multicolored variety), but no icicle lights. Surely there is more, I thought. I decided to turn left into the main thoroughfare and begin my descent into the labyrinth. I was met by all manners of shopping chaos, carts going across the aisle, people standing in the middle of the aisle talking…After weaving in and out of traffic, I hung a sharp right through the greeting cards and cut through the kitchen linens and was almost popped by a shopping cart rounding the corner. After exchanging apologies with the nice lady, I resumed my journey into the retail hell.
In the center of stores they like to place shelves that engulf you like some sort of canyon in which you lose your way, and by some fortunate circumstance find your way back. I moved to the left towards kitchenwares and tchotchkes so that I could get a better view of the landscape. I rounded the corner just in time to see the same lady that almost plowed me over in linens. We shared an uncomfortable smile and I quickly looked for a means of navigating out of there. Scanning the horizon, I saw red placards hanging from the ceiling. Further back in the store to my left, I saw one labeled HOLIDAY.
This was like some sort of heavenly sign – I swear I heard an angel choir.
They placed their entire holiday section in the back, the farthest corner from the entrance, with no indication of where it was. I moved toward the holiday zone with its bustling activity, and noticed the light displays on the back wall. Cautiously peeking around every corner, I walked through the prelit tree display and found myself among a huge throng of shoppers, the likes that I have never seen in one retail aisle.
The great equalizer in holiday decorating is that everyone uses lights, but everyone has different tastes in style of lights. Men, women, and children, young and old, wearing boots or slippers, fleece sweaters or jerseys, well made up or just woke up, all seeking quality holiday lighting.
On one 15 foot stretch of aisleway.
In the very back of the store.
I quickly scanned the available products and found icicle lights, but they were only available in green strand lights and that does not match our sense of decor. Green strand lights go in bushes and trees. White strand lights hang from eaves and windows.
Dejected from my lack of finding proper icicle lighting, I turned and began the walk out. To console myself I purchased a small strand of green lights on green strand (knowing that I needed an extra hundred lights for the final tree decoration in the front yard). Then, staying to the main aisles this time and moving slowly as to properly scan the intersections for oncoming traffic, I went to check out.
As I waited to pay, I pondered my trek through the maze and decided that even though I had not found what I wanted/needed, the excitement of the afternoon was exhilarating. I also purchased a diet green beverage to slake my thirst. I then thanked the cashier for her pleasantness and walked out of the store.
I found the icicle lights I needed later that night at a different store.
But it was all about the journey.
********************************
a great equalizer
funneled into the
cosmos
to seek
enlightenment,
where she wanders-
how she sulks
and saunters,
and nothing
can be
ventured without
the journey
in the maze.
*Lest you chastise me for not choosing energy efficient LEDs, in my opinion they are cost prohibitive (in the retail sense), and only available in small strand lengths.
Taps and Ratamacues 