Poetry was read aloud at the Fieldwork opening. Writer and poet Laurie Koensgen was invited to read her own work and a selected work. Unfortunately she met with an accident and had to stay at home (reading) recuperating.
So, instead Barbara read these poems, Pathetic Fallacy by Laurie Koensgen; And Yet the Books by Czselaw Milosz:
So, instead Barbara read these poems, Pathetic Fallacy by Laurie Koensgen; And Yet the Books by Czselaw Milosz:
Pathetic Fallacy Your lips need never move – still I can hear their soft refrain. A tender mist is falling down and whispering my name. Across the crowns of mountains and surrendered shields of grain, Ventriloquist, I feel your kiss in vintage drops of rain. Your eyes need never look at me but I can feel their stare. They follow me, like moonlight and the afterglow of prayer. I turn toward some lustrous thing and yearn to find you there. My alchemist, you manage this conspiracy of air. Your arms may never hold me and yet I know the rush. Warm wind lights up my skin your distant fingers cannot brush. I feel your hands caress me when the night is close and hushed. My hypnotist, I can’t resist illusions of your touch. Laurie Koensgen | And Yet the Books And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings, That appeared once, still wet As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn, And, touched, coddled, began to live In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up, Tribes on the march, planets in motion. “We are,” they said, even as their pages Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame Licked away their letters. So much more durable Than we are, whose frail warmth Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes. I imagine the earth when I am no more: Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant, Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley. Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born, Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights. Czeslaw Milosz |
Laurie's introduction to reading these particular poems was thus: 1.
This poem by Laurie Koensgen is her homage to the traditional lyric poets whose volumes still linger in our libraries.
It’s called Pathetic Fallacy – a re-interpretation of that bookish literary term…
2.
And finally, a poem by Polish poet and Nobel Laureate, Chay-suave Mee-whosh. It affirms the writer’s belief in the book’s permanence, despite the mutability of this shifting world. And Yet the Books. …
This poem by Laurie Koensgen is her homage to the traditional lyric poets whose volumes still linger in our libraries.
It’s called Pathetic Fallacy – a re-interpretation of that bookish literary term…
2.
And finally, a poem by Polish poet and Nobel Laureate, Chay-suave Mee-whosh. It affirms the writer’s belief in the book’s permanence, despite the mutability of this shifting world. And Yet the Books. …