Friday, May 22, 2009
MARSH HAWK PRESS FEATURED IN GALATEA RESURRECTS!
Marsh Hawk Press is also pleased to announce that it has received Galatea Resurrects' Poetry Publisher Prize (only one of four recipients to date)!
And in the new issue, Steven Karl reviews Thomas Fink's CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS. Here's an excerpt!
Marsh Hawk Press is also pleased to announce that it has received Galatea Resurrects' Poetry Publisher Prize (only one of four recipients to date)!
And in the new issue, Steven Karl reviews Thomas Fink's CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS. Here's an excerpt!
When I think of Thomas Fink's poetry I think of ice. His poems are clear and opaque, shiny and slippery, inviting and yet deceiving. Clarity and other poems is a pleasure to read because a majority of the poems in this collection incorporate ice and all its varieties. The first six poems immediately captivate the reader because of their architecture. Their zig and zag look like jagged juts and embryonic curves. Readers of Fink know that his poems live or die due his mastery of words and word plays. CLICK HERE FOR MORE!
Thursday, May 07, 2009
YOU ARE INVITED TO
Marsh Hawk Press Spring 2009 Book Launch
WHEN: May 14, 2009 from 6:00 - 9:00 PM
WHERE: Ceres Gallery, 547 W 27th St # 201
New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-947-6100
WHY: To celebrate the publication of new work by Patricia Carlin, Stephen Paul Miller, Harriet Zinnes, and Michael Rerick, Winner of the 2008 Marsh Hawk Press Prize.
More information at the Marsh Hawk Press website!
Marsh Hawk Press Spring 2009 Book Launch
WHEN: May 14, 2009 from 6:00 - 9:00 PM
WHERE: Ceres Gallery, 547 W 27th St # 201
New York, NY 10001 Phone: 212-947-6100
WHY: To celebrate the publication of new work by Patricia Carlin, Stephen Paul Miller, Harriet Zinnes, and Michael Rerick, Winner of the 2008 Marsh Hawk Press Prize.
More information at the Marsh Hawk Press website!
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
SELECTED STUDENT PAPERS ON "HELEN" BY EILEEN R. TABIOS
Among the poems in Eileen Tabios' I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved, is the poem "Helen." You can click on the prior link to see the poem.
"Helen" was among the poems taught this semester at CUNY-La Guardia by poet-professor Thomas Fink. We are delighted to reprint two of the student essays written on this poem, first by Athena Clarke and then Neliza Abad:
Athena Clarke on "Helen"
Today I will be analyzing and critiquing the poem “Helen” by Eileen R Tabios. I would say that this is a prose poem, which uses a lot of metaphors.
To be able to understand my interpretation of this poem, you may need some background information of Helen of Troy. According to one of the information sites
As you have read in the quote Helen has been abducted before because of her beauty. Therefore when Paris abducted her, the other suitors had already made a promise that if she was ever to be taken again that they will fight in order to bring her home. Now in my opinion I don’t know if one woman’s beauty can be so mesmerizing that it can start a whole war, but according to Greek mythology that is exactly what happened.
The first few lines of the poem may have to deal with way Helen felt about the war. According to the poem
From these first three lines, I gathered that the author was writing about the Trojan War. As you have read in paragraph two, the Trojan War began because of Helen of Troy. Therefore, Helen might feel that the main goal of life is to see war end. As human beings one sees that we are always at war. Now line two suggests that Helen no longer will water down her perfume. Which to me can is interpreted as now that the war is over she does not have to worry about attracting the opposite sex. Line three, can mean that she cannot sleep at night because the war started because of her, and a lot of innocent lives are at stake. The line about Ganymede may suggest that if this flower was available for everyone people would not have to lose their lives due to the war.
The next three lines goes on to explain how Helen have been tempted with mortality/immortality.
It looks as if Helen had a decision to make whether or not she should be immortal or not. By almost being tempted to be immortal would mean that she sinned. Therefore to put lines four and five together, Helen needed to be forgiven for the sin that she almost committed of being tempted. Now line six serves as a trope to describe the emotional destruction that her relationship with Paris might be going through, or even the fact that she might be missing Menelaus and she might feel guilty even though her abduction was not her fault.
In lines seven through nine the poet goes on in trying to explain that Helen is feeling like there is more to life than just beauty and war.
The seventh and eighth line is a metaphor that is stating how summer should be on its way soon. Also she makes a comparison between flowers and a newborn’s brow. So if you put it in connection to line seven it is as if she is saying her maternal instinct is calling, Helen is ready to become a mother. From my interpretation of this poem I feel that Helen feels as if her biological clock is ticking. Line nine expresses that if she gets the opportunity to give birth to a child, she will no longer feel anxiety.
The final lines in this poem it goes on to explain the willingness to sacrifice herself for everyone else.
Line ten suggests that she is tired of the war and she is ready for there to be a balance, where there is no war when the world can be at peace. The last two lines state that Helen thinks while up late at night, these thoughts control her in a sense which prevents her from having a child, maybe the thought of bringing a child into the world while there is so much chaos and turmoil frightens her. The last line Helen says that until everyone has received there chance at happiness then it will be Helen’s turn. She is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for everyone else’s but only for a matter of time.
In conclusion the poet used many metaphors to describe how she might’ve felt Helen was feeling. It does seem as if too much pressure was put on Helen of Troy, a whole war just because of her abduction.
++++++++++++++
Neliza Abad on "Helen"
Inside Helen’s Mind
The prose-poem titled “Helen” by Eileen R. Tabios takes us back to the Trojan War. We see Tabios in random thoughts as if she were impersonating the infamous “Helen of Troy.” Though critic Ron Silliman states that this poem is indeed a dramatic monologue, as so “The poem at heart is a dramatic monolog, although one written with such discipline that you can read it”, he is unclear about the meaning behind it. Is this poem about immortality? Or is it about nourishment? Or does this poem contain the ambiguity of achieving immortality through the nourishment of new life?
In order to fully comprehend this prose-poem, one must have knowledge about the Trojan War. Otherwise you won’t have a clue of what the poem is about. There are direct connections which tie the history of the war to the poem itself. Tabios states in the first line that “Part of mortality’s significance is that wars end” (Tabios 119). This is also found in a narrative of the war. For instance it states “Polyxena…was sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles and Astyanax…was also sacrificed signifying the end of the war” (Hard). In other words, this is giving her first trope validity: in order for wars to end, certain people must die. Only shed blood can quench the thirst of the cruel timber of humanity. The following line states, “yesterday I determined to stop watering down my perfumes” (Tabios 119). Here Tabios implies to us that now that the war has ended, Helen wants to be desired again by other men. She is in search of a new lover, since she no longer hides from her husband Menelaus. Helen will carry on with a more arousing aroma to attract new male lovers as if she doesn’t have enough already!
In the next three lines, Tabios exemplifies a set of emotions that Helen is undergoing. She writes: “Insomnia consistently leads me to a window overlooking silvery green foliage -- tanacetum argenteum -- whose species include the tansy which Ganymede drank to achieve immortality. Once, I could have been tempted. But to be human is to be forgiven” (Tabios 119). The first trope where Tabios speaks about insomnia gives off the impression that Helen’s lack of sleep is due to the war. Let’s face it who would be able to sleep knowing that you are the major cause of a war, then having it last ten years. As Helen continuously stays awake night after night, her thoughts tempt her towards immortality. Silliman also comments on this trope “… Tabios has already set up one schema (insomnia) as a metaphor for another (immortality) that may at first seem rather at odds with it…” I agree with Silliman that Tabios indeed set up a “schema” for insomnia/immortality. However I do not agree that she set it up as a metaphor for the other. Instead it’s more of a metonymy for one another. With Helen suffering from insomnia it makes perfect sense to feel or to even think about immortality. Insomnia patients cannot sleep and immortals will never rest in peace. In the next line Helen expresses that at some point in her life she would have been tempted, but then she feels a sense of redemption in the next line. Saying that being human is to be forgiven, meaning that she just wants to live and take what life hands to her. Helen would prefer to stay mortal so that she can repent.
Tabios uses imagery and metaphor to epitomize the awakening of Helen’s maternal instinct. She conveys it in these next four lines:
In the opening trope Tabios employs imagery. As you read that line, you can instantly picture in your mind Helen looking at Paris from a short distance awakening with a look of despair upon his face. And once he has noticed her he feels relived to know he did not lose her forever, since we know that Helen was “allegedly” abducted by Paris. Robin Hard states “…Paris abducted Helen (who perhaps went willingly) and also carried off much of Menelaus’ wealth.” This clearly explains Paris’ despair at the moment he awoke without her body laying next to his. The following trope signifies the change in season that Helen is witnessing. We can also infer that a new life will soon come about. Many people associated summer with new life and death with winter. Tabios could certainly be doing the same in that specific line. In the line that continues, Tabios uses a metaphor for new life when she compares the “white bloom” with a “newborn’s brow”. She uses the color white to signify purity, just as a newborn is also considered pure at birth. This trope also exposes the arousal of Helen’s maternal intuition. She yearns to have a child that she can create a pure bond with and love him/her unconditionally. The next line illustrates the fear Helen had at the time of the war when she mentions the trembling part. In order to hold a newborn baby, you must have steady and stable hands, because otherwise you will harm the baby if he/she is dropped.
In the last three tropes Tabios displays abstract and dramatic thoughts about conceiving: “I am nearly done with homesickness for Year Zero. This is my second-to-last pledge: insomniac thoughts understate my capacity for milk. This is my last pledge: I will not drink until all-of you-have quenched your thirst” (Tabios 119). The opening line reveals Helen’s nostalgia for the year that will soon end. Since this war lasted ten years she might have been homesick every year ever since the war began. The following line depicts Helen’s concern for conceiving. Helen lies awake each night thinking that she might not have the ability to bear a child or at least in her mind, and Tabios uses the words “thoughts” and “understate” to emphasize this point. The last trope of this prose-poem exposes Helen’s determination to fulfill her self-prophecy with the procreation of a child, once the war is done and all has settled.
All in all, I believe that this poem is about reaching a form of immortality through the nourishment of new life. Helen will reach some form of immortality by having a child. In other words her legacy or a piece of her will live on and she will always be remembered. In the end, I partially agree with Silliman that this poem is about nourishment, however there is still deeper procreative meaning to it.
Among the poems in Eileen Tabios' I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved, is the poem "Helen." You can click on the prior link to see the poem.
"Helen" was among the poems taught this semester at CUNY-La Guardia by poet-professor Thomas Fink. We are delighted to reprint two of the student essays written on this poem, first by Athena Clarke and then Neliza Abad:
Athena Clarke on "Helen"
Today I will be analyzing and critiquing the poem “Helen” by Eileen R Tabios. I would say that this is a prose poem, which uses a lot of metaphors.
To be able to understand my interpretation of this poem, you may need some background information of Helen of Troy. According to one of the information sites
“The beauty of Helen of Troy was so overwhelming that Theseus once abducted her. Before Helen married Menelaus all her other suitors swore to help bring Helen back should she be abducted again. When Paris of Troy abducted Helen, the suitors were obliged to honor their oath and so the Trojan War was fought to bring her back home. Helen of Troy is referred to as the face that launched a thousand ships.”(N.S. Gills).
As you have read in the quote Helen has been abducted before because of her beauty. Therefore when Paris abducted her, the other suitors had already made a promise that if she was ever to be taken again that they will fight in order to bring her home. Now in my opinion I don’t know if one woman’s beauty can be so mesmerizing that it can start a whole war, but according to Greek mythology that is exactly what happened.
The first few lines of the poem may have to deal with way Helen felt about the war. According to the poem
“Part of mortality’s significance is that wars end
Yesterday, I determined to stop watering down my perfumes.
Insomnia consistently leads me to a window overlooking silvery green
foliage tanacetum argenteum-whose species include the tansy which
Ganymede drank to achieve immortality.” (Tabios 119)
From these first three lines, I gathered that the author was writing about the Trojan War. As you have read in paragraph two, the Trojan War began because of Helen of Troy. Therefore, Helen might feel that the main goal of life is to see war end. As human beings one sees that we are always at war. Now line two suggests that Helen no longer will water down her perfume. Which to me can is interpreted as now that the war is over she does not have to worry about attracting the opposite sex. Line three, can mean that she cannot sleep at night because the war started because of her, and a lot of innocent lives are at stake. The line about Ganymede may suggest that if this flower was available for everyone people would not have to lose their lives due to the war.
The next three lines goes on to explain how Helen have been tempted with mortality/immortality.
“Once, I could have been tempted.
But to be human is to be forgiven.
The man in my bed shifts, flings an arm across the empty sheet- gladly,
I witness him avoid an encounter with desolation.” (Tabios 119)
It looks as if Helen had a decision to make whether or not she should be immortal or not. By almost being tempted to be immortal would mean that she sinned. Therefore to put lines four and five together, Helen needed to be forgiven for the sin that she almost committed of being tempted. Now line six serves as a trope to describe the emotional destruction that her relationship with Paris might be going through, or even the fact that she might be missing Menelaus and she might feel guilty even though her abduction was not her fault.
In lines seven through nine the poet goes on in trying to explain that Helen is feeling like there is more to life than just beauty and war.
“Soon, summer shall bring a snowfall of daisies across these leaves whose mottles under a brightening moonlight begin to twinkle like a saddhu’s eyes.
I can feel my hand reaching to stroke the white blooms as gently as I long to touch a newborn’s brow.
By then, I swear my hand shall lack trembling.”(Tabios 119)
The seventh and eighth line is a metaphor that is stating how summer should be on its way soon. Also she makes a comparison between flowers and a newborn’s brow. So if you put it in connection to line seven it is as if she is saying her maternal instinct is calling, Helen is ready to become a mother. From my interpretation of this poem I feel that Helen feels as if her biological clock is ticking. Line nine expresses that if she gets the opportunity to give birth to a child, she will no longer feel anxiety.
The final lines in this poem it goes on to explain the willingness to sacrifice herself for everyone else.
“I am nearly done with homesickness for Year Zero.
This is my second- to –last pledge: insomniac thoughts understate my capacity for milk.
This is my last pledge: I will not drink until all -- all of you -- have quenched your thirst.”(Tabios 119)
Line ten suggests that she is tired of the war and she is ready for there to be a balance, where there is no war when the world can be at peace. The last two lines state that Helen thinks while up late at night, these thoughts control her in a sense which prevents her from having a child, maybe the thought of bringing a child into the world while there is so much chaos and turmoil frightens her. The last line Helen says that until everyone has received there chance at happiness then it will be Helen’s turn. She is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for everyone else’s but only for a matter of time.
In conclusion the poet used many metaphors to describe how she might’ve felt Helen was feeling. It does seem as if too much pressure was put on Helen of Troy, a whole war just because of her abduction.
++++++++++++++
Neliza Abad on "Helen"
Inside Helen’s Mind
The prose-poem titled “Helen” by Eileen R. Tabios takes us back to the Trojan War. We see Tabios in random thoughts as if she were impersonating the infamous “Helen of Troy.” Though critic Ron Silliman states that this poem is indeed a dramatic monologue, as so “The poem at heart is a dramatic monolog, although one written with such discipline that you can read it”, he is unclear about the meaning behind it. Is this poem about immortality? Or is it about nourishment? Or does this poem contain the ambiguity of achieving immortality through the nourishment of new life?
In order to fully comprehend this prose-poem, one must have knowledge about the Trojan War. Otherwise you won’t have a clue of what the poem is about. There are direct connections which tie the history of the war to the poem itself. Tabios states in the first line that “Part of mortality’s significance is that wars end” (Tabios 119). This is also found in a narrative of the war. For instance it states “Polyxena…was sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles and Astyanax…was also sacrificed signifying the end of the war” (Hard). In other words, this is giving her first trope validity: in order for wars to end, certain people must die. Only shed blood can quench the thirst of the cruel timber of humanity. The following line states, “yesterday I determined to stop watering down my perfumes” (Tabios 119). Here Tabios implies to us that now that the war has ended, Helen wants to be desired again by other men. She is in search of a new lover, since she no longer hides from her husband Menelaus. Helen will carry on with a more arousing aroma to attract new male lovers as if she doesn’t have enough already!
In the next three lines, Tabios exemplifies a set of emotions that Helen is undergoing. She writes: “Insomnia consistently leads me to a window overlooking silvery green foliage -- tanacetum argenteum -- whose species include the tansy which Ganymede drank to achieve immortality. Once, I could have been tempted. But to be human is to be forgiven” (Tabios 119). The first trope where Tabios speaks about insomnia gives off the impression that Helen’s lack of sleep is due to the war. Let’s face it who would be able to sleep knowing that you are the major cause of a war, then having it last ten years. As Helen continuously stays awake night after night, her thoughts tempt her towards immortality. Silliman also comments on this trope “… Tabios has already set up one schema (insomnia) as a metaphor for another (immortality) that may at first seem rather at odds with it…” I agree with Silliman that Tabios indeed set up a “schema” for insomnia/immortality. However I do not agree that she set it up as a metaphor for the other. Instead it’s more of a metonymy for one another. With Helen suffering from insomnia it makes perfect sense to feel or to even think about immortality. Insomnia patients cannot sleep and immortals will never rest in peace. In the next line Helen expresses that at some point in her life she would have been tempted, but then she feels a sense of redemption in the next line. Saying that being human is to be forgiven, meaning that she just wants to live and take what life hands to her. Helen would prefer to stay mortal so that she can repent.
Tabios uses imagery and metaphor to epitomize the awakening of Helen’s maternal instinct. She conveys it in these next four lines:
The man in my bed shifts, flings an arm across the empty sheet- gladly, I witness him avoid an encounter with desolation.
Soon, summer shall bring a snowfall of daisies across these leaves whose mottles under a brightening moonlight begin to twinkle like saddhu’s eyes.
I can feel my hand reaching to stroke the white blooms as gently as I long to touch a newborn’s brow.
By then, I swear my hand shall lack trembling. (Tabios 119)
In the opening trope Tabios employs imagery. As you read that line, you can instantly picture in your mind Helen looking at Paris from a short distance awakening with a look of despair upon his face. And once he has noticed her he feels relived to know he did not lose her forever, since we know that Helen was “allegedly” abducted by Paris. Robin Hard states “…Paris abducted Helen (who perhaps went willingly) and also carried off much of Menelaus’ wealth.” This clearly explains Paris’ despair at the moment he awoke without her body laying next to his. The following trope signifies the change in season that Helen is witnessing. We can also infer that a new life will soon come about. Many people associated summer with new life and death with winter. Tabios could certainly be doing the same in that specific line. In the line that continues, Tabios uses a metaphor for new life when she compares the “white bloom” with a “newborn’s brow”. She uses the color white to signify purity, just as a newborn is also considered pure at birth. This trope also exposes the arousal of Helen’s maternal intuition. She yearns to have a child that she can create a pure bond with and love him/her unconditionally. The next line illustrates the fear Helen had at the time of the war when she mentions the trembling part. In order to hold a newborn baby, you must have steady and stable hands, because otherwise you will harm the baby if he/she is dropped.
In the last three tropes Tabios displays abstract and dramatic thoughts about conceiving: “I am nearly done with homesickness for Year Zero. This is my second-to-last pledge: insomniac thoughts understate my capacity for milk. This is my last pledge: I will not drink until all-of you-have quenched your thirst” (Tabios 119). The opening line reveals Helen’s nostalgia for the year that will soon end. Since this war lasted ten years she might have been homesick every year ever since the war began. The following line depicts Helen’s concern for conceiving. Helen lies awake each night thinking that she might not have the ability to bear a child or at least in her mind, and Tabios uses the words “thoughts” and “understate” to emphasize this point. The last trope of this prose-poem exposes Helen’s determination to fulfill her self-prophecy with the procreation of a child, once the war is done and all has settled.
All in all, I believe that this poem is about reaching a form of immortality through the nourishment of new life. Helen will reach some form of immortality by having a child. In other words her legacy or a piece of her will live on and she will always be remembered. In the end, I partially agree with Silliman that this poem is about nourishment, however there is still deeper procreative meaning to it.
