Welcome to Litsy!

I read Marathon by Louise Gluck yesterday, and Part 7, The First Goodbye gave me the #sameenergy as the song Silver Springs by Fleetwood Mac. Since it's #tuesdaytunes, I wanted to share.

Audio of Part 7 The Last Goodbye: https://poets.org/poem/first-goodbye-marathon-audio-only

Video of a performance of Silver Springs: https://youtu.be/eDwi-8n054s?si=3YriUvWx_w0qpvsm

I love this collection for a few reasons. 1. This should be taught in place of Emily Dickinson‘s little innuendo poems, because all of these are far more clever (in my opinion). 2. How beautifully arranged it is! Including the Nôm alphabet that the poet originally wrote in, modern Vietnamese text, and English translations side by side. So beautiful to see the language change shape like this.

Pardon my planner‘s language and my horrid handwriting 😂 but getting a few days head start on the February reading list. I‘ve mapped out my TBR pile over the next few months - and made my goal for January! Starting off with some poetry, and ending with poet-and-essayist Clint Smith‘s new book, How The Word Is Passed. Wish me luck!

Gluck's eleventh collection is a powerful meditation as she creates the lives of men, women, children of an unnamed Mediterranean village over generations. Some leave only to return, some stay their whole lives, all questioning their motives and decisions. A beautiful, passionate work of a major poet. Highly recommended.

As the poems show, death was again beckoning seductively, but superficially Sylvia was still vivacious and full of plans for the future.

Ch 13, "In Devon" p 168

#currentlyreading #SylviaPlath #poets #womenpoets #nonfiction #nonfictionnerd

All her life she dreamed of living by the sea..

I noticed the sexual references in some of the poetry, but others I had to read the translator's notes. Because the native language could mean two separate things, but the way Hô Xuân Huong wrote it, physically, it was sexual which is marvelous because she was a concubine in the early 1800s. I just thought most of it lovely.

#FoodandLit @Texreader @Catsandbooks

I hadn‘t heard about Louise Gluck before she won the Nobel Prize for Literature last year. Since the waiting list at the library was insane, I decided to buy my own copy of one of collections and I‘m so glad I did.

To me it feels like every poem tells a story. About youth, marriage, growing old, meeting a friend for coffee and burning leaves. All things that happen in a village.

From the poem “Tribulations”

Last poetry collection of the year and may let it carry over (vs rush thru just to finish by 12/31 🙄) I am enjoying it. #DogsofLitsy #EstherAssisting #poetry