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I have added a number of poems from Linda Hogan’s collection The Book of Medicines to my personal poetry anthology. I’ve kept a commonplace book for years that often included pieces of poems or entire poems but it was Robert Pinsky and his book Singing School that suggested creating a personal poetry anthology. The idea is to have a notebook full of poems that speak to me in one way or another. It is a lovely thing to be able to browse through now and then.
I am very careful about what gets added to my anthology. It can’t be just any poem. It has to be something special, something that goes beyond the initial moment of, “oh that’s a really good poem!” It has to be a poem I will read in a year, five years, ten years and still find resonance. Most of the time I add only one poem from a collection, sometimes two, occasionally none. Adding several from one collection is infrequent and indicates just how deeply the poems spoke to me.
The book is broken up into three sections. The first consists of only one poem, “The History of Red.” Red is many things from blood to land to fear, birth and death. Red is also a house and fire.
The second section called “Hunger” comprises about half of the book. Here we have poems about hunger in its various forms. Hunger is not only for food but for life, power, love, warmth, survival. It can be subtle and slow or fast and overwhelming. Hunger is a driving force to be reckoned with. Hunger is only ever temporarily sated, always it returns.
In “Harvesters of Night and Water” we have conflicting hungers. The hunger of the humans to capture the octopus for food and the hunger of the octopus to live and escape. It is a long poem in which a battle of life and death takes place. When I finished it I broke down in sobs.
I look inside the dark cold ocean.
Inside is the octopus that shone like sun
in a changing skin of water.
It turned red with fear, then paled before
climbing down the boat.
It was naked,
it was beautiful
like an angel
with other wings,
its arms were those of four mothers
desperate for life.
Hogan is Chickasaw, a Native American nation that used to live in what is now Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. Today, most Chickasaw live in Oklahoma. Much of Hogan’s poetry is infused with her Native culture and beliefs as well as a feminist sensibility. All things are connected and some poems are filled with grief while others are filled with a determination to survive and heal.
There is a place at the center of the earth
where one ocean dissolves inside the other
in a black and holy love;
It’s why the whales of one sea
know songs of the other,
why one thing becomes something else
and sand falls down the hourglass
into another time.
”Crossings’
The third section of the book is “The Book of Medicines” and it is here where most of the poems about connection and healing reside. While “Hunger” seems to be about a constant battle, a give and take, an unceasing motion, “The Book of Medicines” is about healing, gathering, a bringing the things that were scattered back together to be reborn. The final poem of the collection, “The Origins of Corn,” ends on a hopeful note:
the corn song,
the hot barefoot dance
that burns your feet
but you can’t stop
trading gifts
with the land,
putting your love in the ground
so that after the long sleep of seeds
all things will grow
and the plants who climb into the world
will find it green and alive.
As a gardener I love that line, “putting your love into the ground.” Such a beautiful image.
This is the first time I have read Hogan’s poetry. I had read a few of her essays back in college but never got around to more than that. After this collection I will definitely be reading more of her poetry.
A personal poetry anthology: what a good idea Stefanie, a derivative of my commonplace book. And it suggests other themes for commonplace anthologies too.
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Richard, while I would like to take credit for it, I got the idea from Robert Pinsky. but yes, you could totally have themed versions for you commonplace book if you tend to pull passages on certain themes. Could be something fun to try 🙂
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I love the idea of a personal poetry anthology. I am not a huge fan of poetry, but there are some poems that have resonated with me over the years. I wish I had kept them all in one place.
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AMB, it’s great to have and I don’t know why I never thought of it before Pinsky suggested it in his book. It’s never too late for you to start one of you own!
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I have a journal were I collect poems as well and I tend to add poems more at whim but I have noticed that I’ll go back and for the most part I still love the poems I have added. I would love to hear more about some of the poems/poets that are in your personal poetry anthology, Stefanie – maybe in another post? 🙂
I haven’t read any poetry by Linda Hogan but I like the excerpts you have here. Another one to check out!
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Iliana, I’ve not been keeping the anthology for very long but perhaps I will post about it some time anyway 🙂 I think you would like Hogan if the mood to try her ever strikes 🙂
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Yes. I have a personal poetry anthology too. It’s just a little book of printed pages with brad fasteners and hard covers. I have occasionally over the years removed poems that no longer spoke to me, but most of the time I undo the brads to add one or two. It is nice to read through them now and again.
I do like the last two lines of the one you shared- “and the plants who climb into the world/ will find it green and alive”
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Jeane, your anthology sounds wonderful! I like that line too very much. I like how she calls the plants “who” instant of “that” because it recognized them as living creatures that deserve respect instead of inanimate furniture.
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I have something akin to a personal poetry anthology…its a mixed bag of quotes and poems or prose and I have had it since I was 17 so, that is quite a few notebooks! But it is a wonderful exercise and very interesting to go back and understand how you read and interpreted something at 23 versus at 33. I love Hogan’s poetry…I will try to find her works! There is something magnificent about her imagery and word pictures she draws…very mesmerizing!
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I had a habit of scrawling additional poems or passages onto books I owned – rather wish I still did that. I hadn’t heard of Linda Hogan, she seems very quotable indeed. That Hungers section does sound fascinating.
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Ian, that’s really cool! Hogan is quite quotable, it was hard to choose what to provide as examples!
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cirtnecce, sounds like you have a lovely commonplace book, a place to keep all sorts of passages from your various reading adventures! And how wonderful that you have had it for so long! Must be fun to go through it from time to time. Since you are broadening your poetry horizons, if you get a chance to read Hogan she is great. Very accessible.
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I like the bits you quote, and will have to look for this poet.
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Jeanne, glad you liked the quotes. If you give her a try I hope you liked her!
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Beautiful – added to my reading list.
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Sue, I hope you enjoy it if you get the chance to read it!
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I’m sure I will, I’ll seek it out eventually!
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Your poetry reviews have a special place in my heart. Adressing plants with ‘who’ is so right.
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Ah Cath, thanks! Imagine what a difference it could make if languages used “people” pronouns for all living creatures.
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I love the idea of a commonplace book. I will definitely have to read Linda Hogan too. Thanks for this great post.
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Valorie, commonplace books are really wonderful things! I hope you enjoy Hogan should you get the chance to read her!
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Ive never been one to have a scrapbook or keep a journal of any kind but a poetry anthology does sound appealing. But of course first of all I would need to actually start reading some poetry
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BookerTalk, here’s a chance you could start reading poetry and keeping a notebook all at the same time 🙂
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off to find a nice looking notebook to inspire me to get started
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Love the idea of a personal poetry anthology, and I really enjoyed Linda Hogan’s Collected Poems, which I read a year or two ago.
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Carolyn, ooh, Hogan has a collected? I am going to have to look for that!
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Sorry, it’s new and selected — but it’s a big book. Title is Dark. Sweet.
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http://coffeehousepress.org/shop/dark-sweet-2/
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Awesome! Thank you!
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I think that having a personal book of poems is a great idea. I can see how you would want to be selective as to what gets added.
I have had never heard of Linda Hogan before. I like the verse that you posted.
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Brian Joseph, Pinsky’s suggestion for a poetry anthology was one of those ah-ha moments. One wouldn’t have to be selective but I’ve always tended to be careful about what I put in my commonplace book and it carried over to the poetry anthology. Hogan is really wonderful. If you are looking for some nature-centric poetry she’s a good choice 🙂
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A personal poetry anthology, what a wonderful idea!! It must be wonderful to browse through it years later. haven’t read much indigenous poetry, I need to look out for that! This collection sounds great, will have to see of I can get my hands on a copy.
I guess maybe the term is unceded Chickasaw territory? To refer to the region. I often see this in a Canadian context.
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Bina, I have only been keeping it for a couple years but what I do have is lovely to browse through from time to time. In the U.S. Native lands are generally referred to as reservations.
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I just started getting into poetry a couple years ago. I am making an effort. Already I can tell how my tastes have changed…. it would be fun to see that change through collected poems. I might need to try making a commonplace book too!
Loved this review.
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