Oh Andrew how wonder filled!! I listened first and then read the piece- I heard it one way either/or ing, then read how you wrote either/oaring to give added meaning. Your poems are so rich and much passes me by, but fragments do grab hold and I pray they’re assisting my left dominant brain to “swim as both river and resistance,” and “faerie wed.” Thank you as always ♥️
Thank you for that Andrew… I feel as if I’ve always been attracted to the sublime, perhaps because it places the rational mind in full stop and especially when it comes to poetry like yours, it’s arresting and I’m not sure what I’m reading and have been reluctant to comment, so I appreciate that it sounds as if you’re in awe of your own gifts like us readers. By the way, sometimes I feel “disturbed” by your words, it doesn’t always feel light and that too is a wonder… I hope you continue to write and share and record yourself reading them out loud. Thank you.
I just watched Secret of Kells with my son, his first time. There was something akin in spirit between what we saw there and what I hear...here. I'm still mulling it over. Will keep you posted. Anyways, the voice is so crucial, Andrew for your poetry. Thank you for breathing it out.
I don't remember that one. My small people days are a bit back and hazy on some counts. But I do think we watched it. Will have to run it again now. I like recording. I have a better recording program someone turned me on to. Will do a reading of a bunch of the past posted together for fun.
Thank you, as always, Andrew. I read “Avert” but it’s not just reading/consuming, to me it’s like active engagement with a cryptic window/invitation that whispers “go deeper”
There are words and phrases in your rich poems that the left side of my brain responds with “what?”…while the right expresses delights in recognition!
So….thanks for the adventure and deep gratitude for sharing your gifts with us 🙏
I feel like such a moron. Almost all of this flies right over my head, as if I'm in a foreign country and don't speak the language. Meanwhile, everyone else seems to know exactly what's going on. I don't mean this as a criticism as much as a self-indictment. My brain isn't wired to receive these signals.
Hey Alan. I am sorry I got bit buried in work this week and never got back to your thoughts on that note you replied to with the Neusner bit and the other words reaching in to my response. They are big questions and I am working on them some writing but its still messy. I should have some time this weekend to get a prose post up here finally and a related bit with some thoughts back at you.
I don't think it is really that big a deal if this piece and others like it don't find home with you. Its kind of you to read them even against your own grain. In an interview with McGilchrist, Elizabeth Oldfield asked him (paraphrasing here) if maybe there was a danger in trying to tone down the left brain dominance with the left brain's language. I suspect there is, but that doesn't mean that it needs to be untranslated and if that is the case here then it just means that this pieces is less multi-tongued than I wish it was.
I'm glad that an offhand comment could be so potent, though really, that's always the way it works. It's always the offhand comment. Stranger to me- someone who bases my life on synchronicities (for instance, I had a dream a few days ago where the Wizard of Wellington, another substack, long table denizen who I do not know, dramatically deflected curses with "Avert!")- is that my digging in one hole comment was the second mention of Yoshi Oida that you heard that day. He's not a household name. But whatever you are dredging, it's powerful stuff...
I've reread this now several times and listened once, and I feel like this poem needs more praise than a like button. It's such a deeply riddled incantation, so sonorous and sinuous, that every time I try to extract meaning from it, I find I've gotten lost in the sounds and just slipped along down the chute. It's not so opaque that I can't see where we're going, but it's all felt and tremble in my bones before I know what's hit me.
Oh Andrew how wonder filled!! I listened first and then read the piece- I heard it one way either/or ing, then read how you wrote either/oaring to give added meaning. Your poems are so rich and much passes me by, but fragments do grab hold and I pray they’re assisting my left dominant brain to “swim as both river and resistance,” and “faerie wed.” Thank you as always ♥️
Heather, I am doing the same work as you with them. We are together into the right side of our minds a bit more each day maybe.
Thank you for that Andrew… I feel as if I’ve always been attracted to the sublime, perhaps because it places the rational mind in full stop and especially when it comes to poetry like yours, it’s arresting and I’m not sure what I’m reading and have been reluctant to comment, so I appreciate that it sounds as if you’re in awe of your own gifts like us readers. By the way, sometimes I feel “disturbed” by your words, it doesn’t always feel light and that too is a wonder… I hope you continue to write and share and record yourself reading them out loud. Thank you.
Wow!
Ha! Cheers.
This is so rich Andrew. I hadn't read this yet when I emailed you before. Keep chanting, my friend.
Thanks, Adam. Bless your four leg people as the spring begins to look our way, slow but sure coming on.
I just watched Secret of Kells with my son, his first time. There was something akin in spirit between what we saw there and what I hear...here. I'm still mulling it over. Will keep you posted. Anyways, the voice is so crucial, Andrew for your poetry. Thank you for breathing it out.
I don't remember that one. My small people days are a bit back and hazy on some counts. But I do think we watched it. Will have to run it again now. I like recording. I have a better recording program someone turned me on to. Will do a reading of a bunch of the past posted together for fun.
Thank you, as always, Andrew. I read “Avert” but it’s not just reading/consuming, to me it’s like active engagement with a cryptic window/invitation that whispers “go deeper”
There are words and phrases in your rich poems that the left side of my brain responds with “what?”…while the right expresses delights in recognition!
So….thanks for the adventure and deep gratitude for sharing your gifts with us 🙏
I’ve never read poetry like it before.
And as always these comments help to find the encouragement on the days when the magic slips behind the clouds.
I feel like such a moron. Almost all of this flies right over my head, as if I'm in a foreign country and don't speak the language. Meanwhile, everyone else seems to know exactly what's going on. I don't mean this as a criticism as much as a self-indictment. My brain isn't wired to receive these signals.
Hey Alan. I am sorry I got bit buried in work this week and never got back to your thoughts on that note you replied to with the Neusner bit and the other words reaching in to my response. They are big questions and I am working on them some writing but its still messy. I should have some time this weekend to get a prose post up here finally and a related bit with some thoughts back at you.
I don't think it is really that big a deal if this piece and others like it don't find home with you. Its kind of you to read them even against your own grain. In an interview with McGilchrist, Elizabeth Oldfield asked him (paraphrasing here) if maybe there was a danger in trying to tone down the left brain dominance with the left brain's language. I suspect there is, but that doesn't mean that it needs to be untranslated and if that is the case here then it just means that this pieces is less multi-tongued than I wish it was.
No rush & no worries. … Hope all is well with you.
P.S. I know there's gold in these hills, so I'll keep digging.
I'm glad that an offhand comment could be so potent, though really, that's always the way it works. It's always the offhand comment. Stranger to me- someone who bases my life on synchronicities (for instance, I had a dream a few days ago where the Wizard of Wellington, another substack, long table denizen who I do not know, dramatically deflected curses with "Avert!")- is that my digging in one hole comment was the second mention of Yoshi Oida that you heard that day. He's not a household name. But whatever you are dredging, it's powerful stuff...
I've reread this now several times and listened once, and I feel like this poem needs more praise than a like button. It's such a deeply riddled incantation, so sonorous and sinuous, that every time I try to extract meaning from it, I find I've gotten lost in the sounds and just slipped along down the chute. It's not so opaque that I can't see where we're going, but it's all felt and tremble in my bones before I know what's hit me.
Generous words, Jack. I think about the one hole dig almost everyday lately. More that fair trade, word for word.
Bonnitta Roy is letting me share this paywalled piece. I think you'll like it:
https://bonnittaroy.substack.com/p/5d49c1fd-2690-474d-9db1-812752ce923a
Sorry. I assumed it went straight there. It’s called lyric philosophy: resonance
The link gives me a list to choose
Which piece should I go to?