booklover — Poetry. Renewal

Column Editor: Donna Jacobs (Retired, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425) <donna.jacobs55@gmail.com>

Politics and the pandemic have dominated every fiber of current life. Which is why the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature was a breath of calming air. Once again a poet was chosen. Not without note, this is the third Booklover column in a row dedicated to Laureates whose language is given to us in the form of poetry.

Poetry and the poetic form have always been somewhat of a mystery to me. There are sonnets and limericks and haikus. There are lyric poems, narrative poems, and dramatic poems. There are rhyming rules, rhyming structures, iambic pentameter, alliteration, metaphor usage and onomatopoeia, just to name a few terms. Even some of these terms sound poetic when spoken. I’m drawn to events that feature poetry like the Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Series held in May as part of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the

Free Verse: Charleston Poetry Festival

organized by Marcus Amaker, the Poet Laureate of Charleston, and Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth organized by Horace Mungin.

This word craft of poetry is complicated yet inviting to read and even better to be heard. One is often forced to reflect, to contemplate, or on occasion smile from the skillful use of the poetic form.

Louise Glück, an American Poet, was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.” This accolade of Nobel Laureate can be added to her list of recognitions that include: the Pulitzer Prize, The National Book Award and the position of U.S. Poet Laureate. Yale University is fortunate to have her serve on their faculty as a professor of English.

A notable observation associated with the timeliness of her award is her subject matter of radical change — “where the leap forward is made from a deep sense of loss.” The epic disruption of life caused by this pandemic has forced everyone to reconsider what day-to-day even means. Terms like loss, rejection, and also hope and renewal have been used to describe Glück’s works of poetry. All fitting descriptions for poems that could help guide thought during these most unusual of times. The Wild Iris (1992) collection of poems won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. In this collection is a poem ”Snowdrops,” where “she describes the miraculous return of life after winter.” It seemed a fitting way to introduce her poetry in hopes that from the peril of this pandemic there will be a miracle that renews the spirit of life in all of us:

“I did not expect to survive, earth suppressing me. I didn’t expect to waken again, to feel in damp earth my body able to respond again, remembering after so long how to open again in the cold light of earliest spring –afraid, yes, but among you again crying yes risk joy in the raw wind of the new world.”

Collecting to the Core

from page 42

Endnotes

1. Halliday, M. A. K. Explorations in the Functions of Language. New York: Elsevier North-Holland, 1977.* 2. Strazny, Philipp, ed. Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 2 vols. London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005.* 3. Asher, R. E., and Christopher Moseley, eds. Atlas of the World’s Languages. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2007.* 4. Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.* 5. Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.* 6. Jakobson, Roman. The Framework of Language. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications, 1980.* 7. Chomsky, Noam. Syntactic Structures. 2nd ed. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002.* 8. Chomsky, Noam, and Morris Halle. The Sound Pattern of English. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.* 9. Austin, J. L. How to Do Things with Words. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1975.* *Editor’s note: An asterisk (*) denotes a title selected for Resources for College Libraries.

Rumors

from page 16

March of 2018. Well, I have tried to search the ATG archive and haven’t found anything yet. I know we never got an obit which I generally try to get. I do remember Scott and his Timberline Conference well. Scott and I visited with his mother in Ohio several years ago. I am sorry that I can’t find anything now, but I can’t believe that I didn’t mention his death in Rumors?! Could this be? Many thanks to Helmut for pointing this out. Helmut says he is reasonably well at 82 and enjoying his (late) autumn years in New Hampshire!

And — The Acquisitions Institute at Timberline Lodge (Mt. Hood, Oregon, a breathtakingplace!) began in 2000 to provide an opportunity for acquisitions and collections librarians to meet and discuss

continued on page 48