REELY'S POETRY BLOG

Today is Independence Day in the Dominican Republic. Let’s read a poem that I just think is awesome by the Dominican poet, Pedro Mir. It don’t speak Spanish myself (but I did add the link to the original Spanish below). However, as you will see, the poet himself wholeheartedly praised this English translation of his poem by Jonathan Cohen:

The Countersong to Walt Whitman

a son of the Caribbean,
Antillean to be exact.
The raw product of a simple
Puerto Rican girl
and a Cuban worker,
born precisely, and poor,
on Quisqueyan soil.
Overflowing with voices,
full of eyes
wide open throughout the islands,
I have come to speak to Walt Whitman,
a kosmos,
of Manhattan the son.
People will ask,
Who are you?
I understand.
Nobody had better ask me
who Walt Whitman is.
I would go sob on his white beard.
And yet,
I am going to say again who Walt Whitman is,
a kosmos,
of Manhattan the son.

continue here

Links:
Contracanto a Walt Whitman
The Colonial Zone-DR – tons of information about the Dominican Republic with great Carnivale photos
Pedro Mir and His Countersong by Jean Franco

Byron wrote an Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte when the emperor was compelled to abdicate in 1814. It originally consisted of the first eleven stanzas, and later increased to nineteen stanzas. (Click on the poem name to read it).

After Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba on today’s date, February 26 in 1815 (which, by the way, was Victor Hugo’s 13th birthday), Byron wrote in a letter:

“… It is impossible not to be dazzled and overwhelmed by his character and career. Nothing ever so disappointed me as his abdication, and nothing could have reconciled me to him but some such revival as his recent exploit; though no one could anticipate such a complete and brilliant renovation. …” and he also wrote:

On Napoleon’s Escape from Elba

Once fairly set out on his party of pleasure,
Taking towns at his liking, and crowns at his
leisure,
From Elba to Lyons and Paris he goes,
Making balls for the ladies, and bows to his
foes.

Links:
Gaslight’s Napoleonic Poetry

Anybody going to a pancake dinner tonight? I am. Wikipedia has some interesting info on the origins of the pancake dinner and other observations of what used to be called Shrove Tuesday and now –

• In countries of the Carnival tradition, the day before Ash Wednesday is known either as Fat Tuesday (Portuguese, Terça-feira Gorda; French, Mardi Gras; Italian, Martedì Grasso; Swedish, Fettisdagen; Estonian, Vastlapäev), or the “Tuesday of Carnival” (Spanish, Martes de Carnaval; Portuguese, Terça-feira de Carnaval; German, Faschingsdienstag). This is in reference to eating special foods before the fasting season of Lent.
• For German American populations, such as Pennsylvania Dutch Country, it is known as Fastnacht Day (also spelled Fasnacht, Fausnacht, Fauschnaut, or Fosnacht). The Fastnacht is made from fried potato dough and served with dark corn syrup. In John Updike’s novel Rabbit Run, the main character remembers a Fosnacht Day tradition where the last person to rise would be teased by the other family members and called a “Fosnacht.”
• In Hawaii, this day is also known as Malasada Day, which dates back to the days of the sugar plantations of the 1800s. The occupying Portuguese used up their butter and sugar prior to Lent by making large batches of malasada (doughnuts).
• In Iceland the day is known as Sprengidagur (”Bursting Day”) and is marked by the eating of salt meat and peas.
• In Lithuania the day is called Užgavėnės. People eat pancakes (blynai) and Lithuanian-style doughnuts called spurgos.
• In Michigan, especially in the Hamtramck area near Detroit with its large Polish community, Pączki Day is celebrated with pączki eating contests, music and Polish food.
• In Sweden, the day is marked by eating a traditional pastry, called semla or fastlagsbulle, a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Originally, the pastry was only eaten on this day sometimes served in a bowl of hot milk. Eventually the tradition evolved to eat the bun on every Tuesday leading up to Easter, as after the Reformation, the Protestant Swedes no longer observed a strict Lent. Today, semlas are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. The semla is now often eaten as a regular pastry, without the hot milk. The semla is also traditional in Finland but they are usually filled with jam instead of almond paste.

I also found a nice pancake poem from Quillings In Verse on Poetry of Kansas:

Song of the Pancake Man
by John Edward Everett

I’m the pancake man,
And I do, when I can,
Eat pancakes by the score;
I bake them brown,
And swallow them down,
And loudly call for more.
continue here:

Can’t say I’m a big pancake lover myself. The rest of the year, I never go near the stuff.

Reely

On February 19, 1942, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.

Following is one of 60 wonderful poems in the remarkable poetry volume, Crossing with the Light by Dwight Okita.

In Response to Executive Order 9066:

Dwight Okita

This poem reminds me of several things.

One is a French short story I once read about a schoolboy living in the area of France that the French and Germans fought over a long time. Consequently, the land changed hands several times and when it did, so did the language that the children had to speak in school. It left an impression of the French schoolmaster standing by helplessly and powerless while the confused children learned they could not do their lessons in French or speak French in school anymore.

Another is the fear and insecurity experienced by my own child who was 6 at the time of the 9/11 attacks. She wouldn’t go on an elevator for years and was terrified of the very idea of flying on a plane.

Children are always innocent victims of war. As lame as that may sound, it doesn’t begin to compare with the lameness of notions that we fight wars to preserve our liberties for future generations when you think of all the children’s lives who have been turned upside down by wars throughout history.

Links:
Dwight Okita Official Website
Will a Police State Protect Your Liberties? by Butler Schaffer

I’m not covering Friday the Thirteenth poetry today. Instead, here’s Tennesse Ernie Ford’s legendary hit, “Sixteen Tons.” Ernie was born on February 13, 1919, which was actually on a Thursday that year.

Visit “Sixteen Tons” – The Story Behind the Legend on www.ernieford.com for the origin of the song.

I always wondered why Travis picked the number sixteen myself and No. 9 coal.

There was a claim made by The Singing Miner, George Davis, that he wrote a song called “Nine-to-Ten Tons” in the 1930s and Travis based his song on that. Davis’ version of “Sixteen Tons” is on Smithsonian Folkways, but can’t find the 1930s song.