Amherst Common
—Poems by B.Z. Niditch, Brookline, MA
IMPROVISATION #460
MARCH FROST
March frost
all over the field
of Amherst Common
Even in an elation
of Emily Dickinson
in a rope of first light
She expects
us for a poet's visit
her words seem to levitate.
_____________________
IMPROVISATION #459
MIGUEL JIMENEZ
(1910-1942)
Under the Andalusian sun
writing with purity
Birds are gingerly
eating their meal
Thinking for a moment
about the erupted words
that fill
his tabula rasa.
IMPROVISATION #445
THE NEON BUTTERFLY
The neon butterfly
touches the fringes
of the curtain
in the study
you hear Nabokov's voice
explain a lapidary deferment
which kept us familiar
by the sunken Neva River
far from home.
___________________
IMPROVISATION #444
IF YOU DOUBT
Even when you
doubt your eyes
and ears
or jumbled words
in your power to conceive
the Aurora Borealis
the time will suddenly
appear to believe
into a fervent poem
with nature lifting the bulbs
by the garden shed
in flower bed of Iris.
IMPROVISATION #443
RILKE
Rilke unwilling
to give up a word
at the edge
of the river
recalls the first
line
of hidden
gestures.
________________
IMPROVISATION #441
ADORNO
Adorno cannot sleep
he sees every note
in colorful shapes
scattering on the music stand
with retouching
his cadences and cadenzas.
IMPROVISATION #440
WOLE SOYINKA'S JOURNEY
Juices flowing
with loyalty
to the words
of a daydream
as freedom
strikes in symbolism.
__________________
IMPROVISATION #437
SZYMBORSKA'S VOICE
The voice
of detachment
yet she enriches
every hesitation
of flowers fallen
in the figures
of Warsaw's tree
sweeps.
_____________________
Today’s LittleNip:
IMPROVISATION #442
AN OFF-BEAT POET
An off-beat poet
on the streetcar
outs the meter
and gets himself
the change
that justice expects.
____________________
Many thanks to B.Z. Niditch for today’s poetic “improvisations”; he says the poems “mark an evolution of modernism grasping onto one string of thoughts as on a violin.” Stay warm back there in Massachusetts with all those storms, BZ! For more about Nabokov’s butterflies, see www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/04/nabokovs-butterflies-introduction/378103/. For more about Nigerian Poet and Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka, go to www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1986/soyinka-bio.html/.
Today we have several poetry events in our area (which is bursting with spring right now): At noon, Sacramento’s Central Library on I Street will have a poetry read-around: bring your favorite poems (preferably by a writer other than yourself) which deal in some way with the season of spring and/or its side effects: keen expectations, irrational joys, irresistible celebrations. Then at 8pm, you have your choice of Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe in Sacramento, featuring Angela James, Adrial Doligon and open mic; or head over to Davis to hear Erin Rodoni and Lauren Rudewicz plus open mic at John Natsoulas Gallery. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa
Celebrate poetry!
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