Review: Another World Instead: The Early Poems of William Stafford, 1937-1947 edited by Fred Marchant

Source: Personal library
Rating: ★★★☆☆

This is what happens when a city is bombed:
Part of that city goes away into the sky,
And part of that city goes into the earth.
And that is what happens to the people when a city is bombed:
Part of them goes away into the sky,
And part of them goes away into the earth.
And what is left, for us, between the sky and the earth
is a scar.

(from “These Mornings,” Another World Instead, page 52)

Quick summary: These are Williams Stafford’s earliest poems, spanning the years 1937-1947.  Only a handful of these poems were published prior to this collection.  They were inspired by his experiences during World War II.  Stafford was a conscientious objector, which was a difficult stance to take during a popular war that many people deemed necessary and just.  Under penalty of law, Stafford was sent to work in a Civilian Public Service camp in Los Prietos, California, which he viewed as being exiled in his own country.

Why I wanted to read it: Another World Instead was our book club’s pick for May.  (Yes, I am very behind in writing up reviews, hence my new review format.)  Also, the editor of this collection, Fred Marchant, was my English professor back in the day at Suffolk University in Boston.

What I liked: The introduction by Fred Marchant is very informative, and without knowing Stafford’s background, it would be difficult to understand these poems.  I most enjoyed the poems that were about the war, particularly “These Mornings” (which I quoted above) and “The Sound: Summer 1945,” which compares the atomic bomb with a rattlesnake.

What I disliked: The third and last section of poems from 1946-1947 were my least favorite.  They were odd, particularly in comparison to the previous poems, and even numerous readings didn’t reveal any sort of meaning.  Also, there was a lot of nature imagery in this collection of poems, and while I love being out in nature, I’m not a huge fan of reading about it.  Maybe if I read the poems a few at a time, instead of all at once for the book club discussion, I would’ve enjoyed them more.

Final thoughts: I had mixed feelings after my first reading of Another World Instead, but I had a new appreciation for Stafford and these poems after our book club’s meeting with Fred Marchant via Skype.  Fred went into even greater detail about Stafford’s background, and we read aloud several poems chosen by him and members of the book club, and then delved deeper into them.  At some point, I’d like to read Stafford’s later and more popular poems, but it was interesting to read his first efforts in the genre.  Readers who give this collection a try will definitely want to read the introduction by Marchant first.

Book 19 for the War Challenge With a Twist (WWII)

Book 2 for Dive Into Poetry Challenge

Disclosure: Another World Instead: The Early Poems of William Stafford, 1937-1947 is from my personal library.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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National Poetry Month Blog Tour: Here, Bullet by Brian Turner

Source: Borrowed from Serena
Rating: ★★★★☆

I haven’t had a lot of time for reading these days, but I couldn’t pass up a chance to take part in the National Poetry Month Blog Tour, especially since Serena does so much to encourage people to try poetry.  I’m glad I chose one of the books I borrowed from her for the War Through the Generations challenge, and while I finished it in one sitting, I definitely could see myself returning to this book to dig deeper into the poems.

Here, Bullet is a slim collection of poems by Iraq war veteran Brian Turner.  I haven’t read much about the wars in Iraq, but as Turner indicates in the poem “Gilgamesh, in a Fossil Relief,” history tends to repeat itself when it comes to war.  This makes one contemplate the continued relevance of old war stories and question why history is constantly allowed to repeat itself.

History is a cloudy mirror made of dirt
and bone and ruin. And love? Loss?
These are the questions we must answer
by war and famine and pestilence, and again
by touch and kiss, because each age must learn
This is the path of the sun’s journey by night. (page 53)

Turner’s poems focus on the brutality of war and the beauty of it as well, from his use of color to create beauty out of a horrific, fatal wound in “AB Negative (The Surgeon’s Poem)” to the painful imagery of knives and teeth in “The Hurt Locker.” The poems touch upon the chaos and confusion of war, how it turns things upside down for people, of course, but even for animals, as shown in “The Baghdad Zoo.” There are recurring themes of dreams and light within these pages, and even more sensual poems, like “Where the Telemetries End,” that focus on love as an escape from the war raging in the background.

I found myself taking note of numerous lines throughout the book, but I was most struck with the vivid imagery in “2000 lbs,” which describes the moments before and after a bomb explodes in a market in Mosul. Turner shows how everything is normal one minute, then utter chaos in the next, from the points of view of soldiers, civilians, the suicide bomber, and even the dead. It’s almost as if you can hear and feel everything going on in the market, which is difficult to pull off in a poem.

…he still loves her,
remembers her standing at the canebreak
where the buffalo cooled shoulder-deep in the water,
pleased with the orange cups of flowers he brought her,
and he regrets how so much can go wrong in a life,
how easily the years slip by, light as grain, bright
as the street’s concussion of metal, shrapnel
traveling at the speed of sound to open him up
in blood and shock, a man whose last thoughts
are of love and wreckage, with no one there
to whisper him gone. (page 42)

Here, Bullet is a collection of narrative poems that bring to life the different experiences of wartime, from the shock of bombs exploding in crowded markets to the challenge of navigating war in a strange land. With images that both enlighten and haunt, Here, Bullet ensures readers will know and remember what happened.

Book 1 for Dive Into Poetry Challenge

Book 9 for the War Challenge With a Twist (Gulf Wars)

Disclosure: I borrowed Here, Bullet from a friend.

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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2014 Reading Challenges: War Through the Generations and More

I’m really excited about the challenges I’m participating in this year.  I’m probably being overly ambitious, so wish me luck!

January 1 – December 31

Serena and I are doing things a bit differently this year on War Through the Generations.  We’re calling it the 2014 War Challenge With a Twist, and instead of focusing on a single war for the whole year, we’ll be posting a review linky for a different war every two months (though you can read from any war throughout the year and add your review links later).

Here’s the schedule:

January/February: Gulf Wars (Gulf War/Operation Desert Storm and Iraq War/Operation Iraqi Freedom)
March/April: French and Indian War
May/June: Korean War
July/August: World War I (100th Anniversary)
September/October: World War II
November/December: Vietnam War

There are different levels of participation; I signed up for the Intermediate Level, which involves reading 2+ books on one war and at least 1 book on all the others.

If you’re interested in participating, we’d love to have you join us.  For more information and to sign up, click here.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Ancient History level of at least 25 books for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2014 at Historical Tapestry.  I originally wanted to sign up for the highest level of 50+ books, but I think it’s safer to shoot for 40, given that I read 37 books for this challenge last year.

January 1 – December 31

I’m also signing up for the Dive Into Poetry Challenge 2014, hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit.  I’m going to commit to the Dip Your Toes level and read up to 2 poetry books this year.  There are several options for this challenge, so I hope you’ll see how easy it is to get your feet wet in terms of reading poetry.

January 1, 2014 – January 31, 2015

I’m also signing up for the 2014 European Reading Challenge, hosted by Rose City Reader.  I’m going for the Five Star (Deluxe Entourage) level, which calls for at least 5 books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Dilettante level for the Nonfiction Reading Challenge 2014, hosted by The Introverted Reader.  That means I will read 1-5 memoirs or other nonfiction books.

Literature and War Readalong 2014

I plan to participate in 6 of the monthly discussions of war-related books hosted by Beauty Is a Sleeping Cat.

April: Toby’s Room by Pat Barker (WWI)
May: Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (WWI)
July: The Lie by Helen Dunmore (WWI)
August: Undertones of War by Edmund Blunden (WWI)
October: Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey (WWI)
December: Letters From a Lost Generation by Vera Brittain and Four Friends (WWI)

January 1 – December 31

Finally, I decided to create My Personal Jane Austen Challenge for myself.  In 2012, I really enjoyed participating in the Exploring the Many Genres of Jane Austen Challenge, hosted by the late Shanna of Existing’s Tricky.  I decided to revisit her challenge and create different categories.  So I plan to read at least 14 Austen and Austen-inspired books in the following categories:

Books by Jane Austen
Modern Adaptation
Graphic Novel
Mystery
Jane Austen as a Character
Sequel
Retelling
Minor Character in Lead Role
Short Stories
From the Hero’s POV
Paranormal
Young Adult
Alternate Setting
Outside the Box

What challenges are you committing to in 2014?

©2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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2013 Reading Challenge Update

Now that 2013 has come to an end, it’s time to count up the challenge books and see where I stand.

War Through the Generations: 2013 American Revolution Reading Challenge

Goal: 4-10

Books read: 3

Thoughts: I’m not happy that I failed to complete my own challenge, but I just wasn’t motivated to read about this war, even though I do find it interesting.

1. The Turncoat by Donna Thorland

2. Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

3. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2013

Goal: 25+

Books read: 37 — COMPLETED 🙂

Thoughts: This is always an easy challenge for me, so in 2014, I will set a higher goal to see if I can clear more historical fiction books off my shelves.

1. The Passing Bells by Phillip Rock

2. Circles of Time by Phillip Rock

3. The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs

4. The Klipfish Code by Mary Casanova

5. A Future Arrived by Phillip Rock

6. The Flowers of War by Geling Yan

7. The Turncoat by Donna Thorland

8. The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins

9. Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

10. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen

11. The Clover House by Henriette Lazaridis Power

12. The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver

13. The Last Telegram by Liz Trenow

14. The Wars by Timothy Findley

15. Seduction by M.J. Rose

16. The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein

17. Jack Absolute by C.C. Humphreys

18. The Last Van Gogh by Alyson Richman

19. Resistance by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis

20. Defiance by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis

21. Victory by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis

22. I’ll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan

23. Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

24. City of Hope by Kate Kerrigan

25. Letters From Skye by Jessica Brockmole

26. Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw

27. Gracianna by Trini Amador

28. Rutherford Park by Elizabeth Cooke

29. His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire, Book 1) by Naomi Novik

30. Rising Sun, Falling Shadow by Daniel Kalla

31. The English German Girl by Jake Wallis Simons

32. Sophia’s War: The End of Innocence by Stephanie Baumgartner

33. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

34. The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley

35. Wolfsangel by Liza Perrat

36. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

37. City of Women by David R. Gillham

The Pride & Prejudice Bicentenary Challenge

Goal: 9-12

Books read: 21 — COMPLETED 🙂

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this challenge, and I’m thinking about doing a Jane Austen challenge on my own in 2014.

1. Dear Mr. Darcy by Amanda Grange

2. Pride & Prejudice (Marvel Illustrated) by Nancy Butler and Hugo Petrus

3. The Man Who Loved Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke

4. Yours Affectionately, Jane Austen by Sally Smith O’Rourke

5. All Hallow’s Eve by Wendi Sotis

6. For All the Wrong Reasons by Mary Lydon Simonsen

7. A Walk in the Meadows at Rosings Park by Mary Lydon Simonsen

8. A Pemberley Medley by Abigail Reynolds

9. Darcy and Elizabeth: The Language of the Fan by Mary Lydon Simonsen

10. Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton

11. Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance

12. Mr. Darcy’s Promise by Jeanna Ellsworth

13. The Red Chrysanthemum by Linda Beutler

14. The Pursuit of Mary Bennet by Pamela Mingle

15. First Impressions by Alexa Adams

16. Second Glances by Alexa Adams

17. Holidays at Pemberley by Alexa Adams

18. Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan

19. “Jane & Bingley: Something Slightly Unsettling” by Alexa Adams

20. Project Darcy by Jane Odiwe

21. Undressing Mr. Darcy by Karen Doornebos

Ireland Reading Challenge 2013

Goal: 4

Books read: 3

Thoughts: I love reading books set in Ireland, but time just got away from me this year. I had a 4th book picked out, but just didn’t get to it.

1. The Crooked Branch by Jeanine Cummins

2. Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

3. City of Hope by Kate Kerrigan

Dive Into Poetry Challenge 2013

Goal: 1

Books read: 2 — COMPLETED 🙂

Thoughts: I’m glad Serena challenges me to read poetry every year. I don’t think I could read as many poetry books as she does, but I’ll try to read a couple more next time around.

1. Eyes, Stones by Elana Bell

2. Love: Ten Poems by Pablo Neruda

Literature & War Readalong 2013

Books read: 4/12

Thoughts: I really love these readalongs, and even though I didn’t get to participate every month (either because of time or because I couldn’t get the book through my local library), I enjoyed reading the discussion posts. With the focus on WWI in 2014, I hope to participate more often.

February — The Flowers of War by Geling Yan

March — The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen

April — The Wars by Timothy Findley

June — Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw

Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge — COMPLETED 🙂

Read: 102/100 books

Final thoughts:  Overall, I think I did really well, just got a little pressed for time at the end of the year.

Did any of you participate in any reading challenges last year?  How did you fare?

© 2014 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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National Poetry Month: Pablo Neruda

For the 2013 National Poetry Month Blog Tour hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit, I thought it would be fun to read some of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s work.  I borrowed this very short collection, Love: Ten Poems by Pablo Neruda, from Serena, and it was a good place to start.  These poems are from the movie Il Postino (The Postman), which I haven’t seen. (I wonder if I would have enjoyed them even more if I’d seen the movie?)

Neruda’s use of language is beautiful, with unforgettable lines like “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” from “Tonight I Can Write.”  I especially love how this collection has the original Spanish on the left and the English translation on the right.  Some of the poems felt a bit over my head but sounded nice when read aloud — but they sounded even better when read aloud in Spanish.  I finished this collection thinking that I need to add Neruda to my poetry shelf!

Here’s my favorite poem from the collection:

Poetry
by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair Reid

And it was at that age … Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don’t know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires,
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened,
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.
(pages 7, 9)

I love the idea of poetry as a being, seeking out the poet, how poetry is a calling, something that chooses the poet.  And I love the idea that poetry is used to explain, describe, feel, experience, and find wisdom in the “big” things.

What do you think?  What’s your favorite poem by Pablo Neruda?

Book 2 for Dive Into Poetry Challenge

Disclosure: I borrowed Love: Ten Poems from Serena. I am an Amazon associate.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Eyes, Stones by Elana Bell

Source: Borrowed from Serena
Rating: ★★★☆☆

Eyes, Stones is my book club’s first poetry selection, and I can’t wait for our discussion on Jan. 19.  Poet Elana Bell is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, so it’s not surprising that the poems in this collection touch upon the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The poems are grounded in history and human suffering, and Bell gives voice to both sides of the conflict.

Bell uses narrators to tell stories in verse, and she manages to convey a significant amount of pain and emotion in so few lines.  I was most affected by the poems featuring Zosha, a Holocaust survivor, particularly “God,” in which she arrives home to find that her mother and everyone else have been taken away and questions her faith.

You sit put. So that’s how
I survive. What do I know

from God? … (page 21)

There are poems about survival, like “Visiting Auschwitz,” which considers the randomness of how one person survived and another did not.

what glint willed the breath
what saw her and said live. (page 28)

Some hit you immediately with their descriptions of violence and feelings of hopelessness and despair, like “Kishinev,” which is about a three-day pogrom that occurred in 1903.

We are inside the dream of a God who’s forgotten us. There is no other way to say it. Through the stippled glass I watched the neighbors hammer nails into the Jewish babies’ eyes. (page 16)

But Bell goes beyond the persecution of the Jews and tenderly writes of the Arab connection to their homes and land. “On a Hilltop at the Nassar Farm,” focuses on Amal, a Palestinian whose family has farmed their land for generations, and her love for this land, juxtaposing her life with that of someone who moves around and has no connection to the earth. I was struck by the beauty of these lines:

…Amal loves this land
and when I say land I mean this
exact dirt and the fruit of it
and the sheep who graze it and the children
who eat from it and the dogs who protect it
and the tiny white blossoms it scatters in spring. (pages 36-37)

The Girl (age 12) read the poems aloud with me, and though we both know little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we appreciated the stories told here about people who are divided yet have a common understanding of what it means to suffer. My daughter’s favorite poem was “Refugee,” about the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, in which the Arabs of Ramla were displaced by Jewish immigrants.

Who lived here? The doors swing
like slabs of meat on their hinges.
Inside, the cupboards gaped
to reveal their goods, stacked tight,
except a few cans rolling on the floor,
a pot on the stove still steaming.
Who lived here? I tiptoed
into the smallest room and crouched
by the foot of the bed. Mama
pulled me up and cupped my face.
Tonight you’ll sleep in a proper bed
she crooned. (page 9)

While content to merely listen to me read the other poems, The Girl wanted to spend time with this one. She was struck by how it described the end of a certain way of life for one family and a new beginning for another.

Eyes, Stones is a slim volume of poetry that can be read fairly quickly, but it begs to be pondered in more depth. My husband (who is new to reading poetry) loved it and wants to buy his own copy so he can spend more time with these poems. Bell is skilled in her ability to tell both sides of the story in a compassionate, respectful way, exploring the gray issues of a contentious conflict.

Book 1 for Dive Into Poetry Challenge

Disclosure: I borrowed Eyes, Stones from Serena.

© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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2013 Reading Challenges

It’s the time of year where I start thinking about new reading challenges.  I’m going to keep my challenge participation light again in 2013.  Here are the challenges I’ve selected:

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Wade level of 4-10 books for the American Revolution Reading Challenge 2013 at War Through the Generations that I’m co-hosting with Serena.  I don’t own any books about the American Revolution, so I think I’m going to start this challenge by browsing my local library.  The Girl and Jerry have signed up as well for the Dip level of 1-3 books.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Ancient History level of 25+ books for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2013 at Historical Tapestry.  It’s not much of a challenge for me to read historical fiction, but I can’t resist this challenge and want to see how many books I can read in this genre in a year.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Dive Into Poetry Challenge 2013 at Savvy Verse & Wit.  Since I already comment on all of Serena’s weekly Virtual Poetry Circle posts, I’m committing to review at least 1 poetry book and participate in her National Poetry Month blog tour.  There are several options for this challenge, so I hope you’ll see how easy it is to get your feet wet in terms of reading poetry.

January 1 – December 31

I’m signing up for the Shamrock level of 4 books for the 2013 Ireland Reading Challenge at Books and Movies.  I probably should have signed up for this challenge long ago since I tend to read a handful of books every year that are written by Irish authors, set in Ireland, or feature Irish characters or Irish history.

Literature and War Readalong 2013

I also want to take part in the Literature and War Readalong 2013 at Beauty is a Sleeping Cat.  Caroline hosts a discussion on a war-themed novel once a month throughout the year.  I plan to read as many of these books as I can get my hands on.  Here’s the schedule:

January 28: The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (Iraq War)
February 28: The Flowers of War by Geling Yan (Chinese/Japanese War)
March 28: The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen (WWII)
April 29: The Wars by Timothy Findley (WWI)
May 31: All That I Am by Anna Funder (WWII)
June 28: Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw (WWII)
July 29: Children of the New World by Assia Djebar (French/Algerian War)
August 30: Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel (WWI)
September 30: There’s No Home by Alexander Baron (WWII)
October 28: Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman (Post-War)
November 29: Death of the Adversary by Hans Keilson (WWII)
December 30: The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh (Vietnam War)

What challenges are you committing to in 2013?

© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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