Friday, September 12, 2014

Poetry Friday: Josephine Jacobsen, A Poet's Poet.

[Quick note: Don't miss Sylvia Vardell's wonderful article w/ teacher resources about poetry and social justice.]

For my Poetry Friday contribution, I hope you'll head over to Numero Cinq, which has just published my essay about the marvelous and woefully undersung poet, Josephine Jacobsen. In the essay I take a close look at three of her poems, and I consider the fate -in general - of "a poet's poet," which Jacobsen was.  To entice you over to Numero Cinq, I offer here the first two stanzas from her beautiful poem, "Of Pairs" :

The mockingbirds, that pair, arrive
one, and the other; glossily perch
respond, respond, branch to branch.
One stops and flies. The other flies.
Arrives, dips, in a blur of wings,
lights, is joined. Sings. Sings.

Actually, there are birds galore:
bowlegged blackbirds, brassy as crows;
elegant ibises with inelegant cows;
hummingbirds' stutter on air;
tilted over the sea, a man-of-war
in a long arc without a feather's stir.

[read the rest over at Numero Cinq.]
For the Poetry Friday round-up, head over to lovely Renee La Tulippe's NO WATER RIVER.

14 comments:

  1. I know what I'll be doing after work today--being introduced to the "poet's poet." Thanks, because I don't believe I've ever come across Jacobsen before.

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  2. I don't know this poet's work either but will click over and learn more. That first stanza here is absolutely alive.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. This paints a picture in my mind, Julie! I love poems that are vivid!

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  4. Your post makes me wish I could be your student (for an entire course, not just one post at a time)! You uncovered meanings and techniques in "Of Pairs" that I would not have found on my own.

    I see what you mean about the difference between a "people's poet" and a "poet's poet."

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  5. So much to stop, re-read, and marvel at in this poem!

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  6. Julie, your article about Josephine (where in Maryland??) connects to your comment on my post directly. How we admire someone who can exert that degree of effort, crafting something that delivers a new text each time we read it...and yet how purely fine it is to just speak, sense and swallow one of those "rhymes of joy," sometimes.

    And also: what Mary Lee said.

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  7. Heidi, all I can find about where Jacobsen lived is that she attended Baltimore schools as a child, and her death was recorded in Cockeysville (Baltimore County) though by that time she might have been in a care facility (in her nineties...?)

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  8. I spent some lovely time with my afternoon coffee getting acquainted with this new-to-me poet and getting reacquainted with the joy that is reading your words as you share a treasured poet and her poems with us.

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  9. Thanks to all who have enjoyed the Jacobsen piece. It's such a pleasure to introduce her work to more people.

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  10. I love that she has Estragon and Vladimir discussing poetry in their moments of waiting. Thanks for the introduction, Julie.

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  11. Yes, Michelle, I love that bit, too!

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  12. I don't think I'll ever read anything about mockingbirds now without thinking about the Mockingjay (Hunger Games). Loved reading this poem, thank you for sharing.

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