tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post6188841762580899669..comments2024-01-20T06:51:58.729-08:00Comments on Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded: Language and Loss: Some More ThoughtsJohn Guzlowskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-55769629828719717062008-11-02T15:09:00.000-08:002008-11-02T15:09:00.000-08:00Life is not meaningful and so all attempts to pres...Life is not meaningful and so all attempts to present it that way will fail.Urkathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086121300436012432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-40630948644282305122008-10-14T20:12:00.000-07:002008-10-14T20:12:00.000-07:00another great post!another great post!Fittshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13996167043550983015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-58857509828639716442008-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:002008-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00John, Your atheism is the surest indication of you...John, Your atheism is the surest indication of your faith. You can't believe a loving God would have created a universe like this.Urkathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086121300436012432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-38951301071376336602008-10-09T11:34:00.000-07:002008-10-09T11:34:00.000-07:00Elise, Thank you for the poem.Elise, Thank you for the poem.John Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-35261690313821253712008-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:002008-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00Well, I'm SUPPOSED to be working on new poems toda...Well, I'm SUPPOSED to be working on new poems today ... but here is an old poem about my mother that appeared in Poetry magazine in the summer of 2000. My mother had Hepatitis C and was in the hospital awaiting her second liver and kidney transplant when she had the stroke that led to her death ten years ago this month. At her bedside, we held her eyes open to see our desperate words.<BR/><BR/> <BR/><BR/>The Stroke<BR/> <BR/><BR/>On a grabbed<BR/>notepad we scribbled<BR/><BR/>messages to your face,<BR/>forced your eyes<BR/><BR/>open, waited for<BR/>a nod, a squeeze,<BR/><BR/>scribbled more,<BR/>torn between letting<BR/><BR/>you sleep, making<BR/>you see our words<BR/><BR/>not sure we'd said<BR/>enough through the years,<BR/><BR/>scrawling, tearing<BR/>sheet after sheet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-86865658275836871832008-10-09T08:35:00.000-07:002008-10-09T08:35:00.000-07:00Hi, Elise, thanks for the letter. Why do we send ...Hi, Elise, thanks for the letter. <BR/><BR/>Why do we send poems out? I sometimes think they're like prayers. I'm an atheist but still sometimes I pray. I send those thoughts with my Hail Marys out into the void hoping that some kind ear will hear them and take pity on all our sorrows.<BR/><BR/>Are some of the poems about your mom online? If not, would you post one here?John Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-16737457360941227142008-10-09T08:29:00.000-07:002008-10-09T08:29:00.000-07:00As a writer of poetry, I often wonder about my rea...As a writer of poetry, I often wonder about my reasons -- not for writing poems but for seeking their publication in magazines. Why not just toss each poem I write into a box? <BR/><BR/>The process of getting a poem published involves mostly waiting, rejection, and the wasting of one's stamps. And if one finally succeeds, there's no money in it and certainly not much fame, though there is always the satisfaction, of course, when one works hard and well, for recognition. <BR/><BR/>For me, there has never been any other reason for writing a poem than to try to deal with some loss or hurt, whether it is the one I started out to write about or not. And I'm happy for now with the answer that, though not in any way a "closure" (my mother will be gone ten years this month, and I still reach for the phone to call her), the sending out of my poems, "the telling," perhaps in some way "closes a circle."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-28198746592908486802008-10-09T06:47:00.000-07:002008-10-09T06:47:00.000-07:00I received the following from poet Joseph Lisowski...I received the following from poet Joseph Lisowski. Please take a look at the link at the end of his note. <BR/><BR/>Hi John, here is a link to a chapbook dealing with the sudden death of my daughter. It is on line as you can see, and I also have a few hard copies. It is one way of dealing with grief. I don't know what else to say.<BR/> <BR/>http://www.2river.org/chapbooks/lisowski/default.html<BR/> <BR/>Peace,<BR/>JosephJohn Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-1925932932820645692008-10-09T01:18:00.000-07:002008-10-09T01:18:00.000-07:00I think this a great post! I can see that you are ...I think this a great post! I can see that you are a great writer, keep up the good workFittshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13996167043550983015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-549963549429593969.post-32881042112129807522008-10-08T16:04:00.000-07:002008-10-08T16:04:00.000-07:00Please let me add, respectfully, this observation ...Please let me add, respectfully, this observation about writing about pain and loss. I think we mistake when we assume that, in order to express our feelings of loss and pain, we must write about the events that gave them birth. The brain is more evasive than that, and avoids any direct access to its most private reasons.<BR/><BR/>I think we should let our brains choose the way and the subjects that will evoke the appropriate feelings. It may be, for instance, that you begin writing about a train ride, or a child's tears, or some other subject more or less remote from your own experience, but that very fact of its remoteness will allow your mind to infuse the private feelings it has held on to so long into the seemingly unrelated subject. I think we often succeed better when we talk about such things indirectly because only in that way can we broach the subject without violating the tacit confidentiality that safeguards our memories.Urkathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17086121300436012432noreply@blogger.com