“Looking at the Genesee River” by Kitty Jospé

Posted by [email protected] | May 10, 2016 | Cultural Life | 0 |

from Kitty Jospé provides nourishment for the mind at Rundel

You first met Kitty Jospé in Emotions recollected in tranquility on University Ave. There she lovingly described the Poets Walks on which she gives tours. Kitty also charitably explicated my zen chalk poem written next to the Walk.

from Emotions recollected in tranquility on University Ave.

Kitty in back, myself to the left. From Kitty Jospé provides nourishment for the mind at RundelThen, in Kitty Jospé provides nourishment for the mind at Rundel, Kitty inspired us with an account of the poetry discussion group, Poetry Oasis: Unwind at Noon, she leads in the Literature Study Room at Rundel Library. The current session ends May 26 and will resume in October on Thursdays at noon.

But Kitty can do much more than just Talk the Walk. Here, she walks the walk, providing us with a poem inspired by a photo she took of the Genesee River in May 9th, 2016.

Kitty’s photo: 2016-05-09 at 9.09.21 AM; King Log in the Genesee River

Looking at the Genesee River (2016)

Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog,

And the hoarse nation croak’d, ‘God save King Log!

Alexander Pope

Here, come closer… let me kiss you dear

says the river, rushing to the falls,

rolling the log in the roiling murk.

Perhaps the couple on the bridge

might end up with a kiss as well,

but where do we start, what would you like to hear?

Shall we discuss who are we and who says what?

And how does the media wrench our gut?

What do you hear in the river thunder?

What story in the log? What lies under

Pope, Socrates, parliament sleeves

the plural of grief in one grieves?

Look in the river, how it polishes

the argument, sharply demolishes

it to dullness, stilts for the next dunce

declaring once upon a time is only once.

“If only Talker would accept my submissions. They already passed on “The Dunciad.” Alexander Pope as depicted in William Powell’s 1863 painting The Rejected Poet [Image: WAVE Wolverhampton Art Gallery]

OTHER POETIC CONTRIBUTIONS

“In a clinic in Paiwas” — Thomas W. Harris (1925 – 1999)

Our first submission! “November” by Olivia Spenard, Creative Writing Program, School of the Arts

A poem from former Degrad Jonathan Caws-Elwitt, BHS ’80. And advice to young writers.

The Criterion publishes “The New Yorker is publishing my poem!”

Two on a Rickety Bicycle

On the Road. Destination Little Bohemia in the South Wedge.

SEE ALSO

Quiet eyes awakened and delighted on upper Monroe

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.