The
Civil War - from the Sonnet - never thought of it as a Civil War - nice pick of words from this Sonnet
Leah - I just remember growing up and hearing roses have thorns - never knew where it came from but I do remember all the hoohaw when Ingrid Bergman became a real person rather than one of her characters - from nuns and saints to the horrors of horrors, a divorced woman - and then, of all things, she marries an Italian - oh my - everyone was outraged and the back-fence gossiping was non-stop similar to later when Jackie Kennedy married Onassis. My mother, who had a quip for nearly every sentence that ever came out of our mouths responded, teaching us to not follow the hysteria, saying, roses have thorns and then she added platters have cracks - I am sure it was changed along the way by the average since folks in our economic community did not have silver platters much less silver fountains where as, the platter was very indicative of a well fed family and that was a big step in the ladder of success.
Reading the poem I could not help but smile and remember that thinking used daily when my youngsters were in high chairs - and even as youngsters - either they were capable of being a thorn or whatever they messed up or broke was a thorn in my side of a special item that was like a rose in the garden - years ago I remember the star of any garden was the rose. Maybe because my mother loved roses so much. As a teen I remember how special and filled with joy and satisfaction when I could gift my mother a rose bush for her birthday in February and for Easter and for Mothers Day all in the spring planting time. And so if something went wrong it was like the thorn on the star of the garden, the rose bush.
hmm my daughter and I were only talking about how some folks have a natural happiness that baubles to the surface regardless their circumstance - that is it, isn't it - I was a child of the 30s when we were all hanging on but life was a rose that had some thorns - to look at life as a rose - amazing - yes, that is it.
ha yes, you also
Bellamarie - how much fun - we all get a similar vision from this poem.
"When the world never seems to be living up to your dreams
It's time you started finding out what everything is all about
You take the good, you take the bad,"Well this is just urging me to find out what rose it is that folks have good luck growing with all our deer that eat any flower like it is their private stash of candy, because I need to get back to remembering how uplifting it was to get up everyday believing life was a beautiful soft petaled rose. All the rat tat tat of the day between politics and wars and corruption and duplicity and just plain ornery unkindness my view on life was getting more and more like a prickly pear cactus with a brief spring flower - that is glorious but nothing like the soft Fibonacci, or Golden Spiral arrangement of rose petals.
Bellamarie perfect I need to memorize the four lines you pulled from the Sonnet - they are too perfect as a fun way to smile at myself and with anyone as we make our errors.
Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud,
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.
All men make faults, and even I in this,Leah thanks for the kudos - my daughter, who was visiting and is out with old Austin friends tonight was only making similar remarks that embarrassed the heck out of me - as if it was special and all I could think is that everyone knows this stuff - and of course my daughter said, no and proceeds to name names and how they respond to life.
No
Leah, I was not a teacher per se although, I was a trainer for adult Girl Scouts and was sent by national to Canada to train and I taught needlework that involves more history than you can imagine from, how and when felt was made and how the early stitches were developed etc. Part of my learning took me to England and France for research - I was a trainer in a good size Real Estate office for new Agents - all this helping others learn, for me meant lots of research and my curiosity is endless so research is my middle name.
Growing up, I was the oldest of 4 in difficult circumstances. My role was to be caretaker for my siblings and so formal education did not happen for me till my eldest two children were in Junior High and High school and my youngest trailed them by 5 years. Where as both my sisters have degrees out of the gazzoos - the sister just younger than I am has two doctorates for heaven's sake.
I remember before entering the first grade wanting to read the 'books' that looked like a typical adult 300 plus page leather or cloth bound book - one of my achievements that never thought was special till again, my daughter pointed out folks do not read an entire school library by the time they are in the eighth grade and get special permission to read the adult books, reading so many of the adult classics just because they had a good story and I seemed to see the symbolism and metaphors long before I knew those words.
I think the other bent to my interests is, I went to Catholic School and we were taught the symbolism in the church literature we read and all the aspects of the mass and the architecture etc. so that symbolism was a natural -
Long answer just to say I am very curious, still read mountains of books and see connections in what I read as I do in life. I love sharing - thinking others get the fun of connecting dots if someone will just start it. And as I said, my mother always had a quote, a poem, the words of a song for everything that came up - automatic -
I remember doing that at the airport one time - exasperated looking for my ID while tearing through my purse saying quietly, "
Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star's stories." ha and someone behind picked up with the next couple of lines and together we went on a bit more and finally there were three of us filling in the lines, smiling and having a good time so that even the gal behind the desk was smiling. We didn't get it all but we had a good time with what we did remember from Joy Harjo's
Remember.
So that is all we really do here in this discussion - read a poem and make connections - since our lives are different we often make different connections and that I think is the fun of seeing words mean something so different as we each associate with the words or phrase or the entire poem. We bring what we have floating around in our experience that a Sonnet connects us and off we go... sharing...
