Poetry Meetup

 
 
 

Tonight we will continue discussing the life and poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. We will jump right into a live reading of Brooks poetry starting with the remainder of the poem 'The Womanhood' from her poetry book Annie Allen which can be found on pdf here;
https://www.poetrypedagogy.com/uploads/8/9/3/8/89385582/brooks_annie_allen.pdf

It is a long poem in many parts, so we will break it down into several readings. We have covered through part IV and will be picking up at that point.

Attendees are encouraged to read aloud, but it is entirely optional. We will also be covering 'a song in the front yard', 'Boy Breaking Glass', and 'The Bean Eaters' as time allows. I will be sharing poems on screen, so no book is required but these poems are provided in the link and on poetryfoundation.org

We also may discuss some of her essays in another meeting if we run out of time. I do highly recommend reading the book 'The Whiskey of Our Discontent' which is a book of Gwendolyn Brooks essays that give a great insight into the power or her voice as an agent of change.

From Poetry Foundation.org;
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks’s works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later, with several of her poems reflecting the civil rights activism of that period. Her body of work gave her, according to critic George E. Kent, “a unique position in American letters. Not only has she combined a strong commitment to racial identity and equality with a mastery of poetic techniques, but she has also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young Black militant writers of the 1960s.”

Links for Gwendolyn Brooks;
Gwendolyn Brooks - Advice for Writers
Poetry Foundation - Gwendolyn Brooks

 
 
 

Ono no Komachi (833 - 857) is an ancient Japanese poetess. She wrote in tanka form, her poetry is lyrical, often erotic, and imbued with Zen mindset. For this meeting, please read the poems and the NOH play about Komachi.

It is believed that she came from a literary family and was an attendant to Emperor Nimmei. Despite a small literary output (based on the poems that survived), the quality of her writing gained her much fame and she was later named one of Japan's 'Six Immortals of Poetry'.

Within a century after her death, Ono no Komachi became the source of many legends. All are based on her unparalleled beauty and erotically charged poetry. Five modern Noh plays are based on her life. Many stories tell of her amorous adventures and how she often broke the hearts of her suitors. It is said that she fell from grace and was reduced to the life of a beggar, eventually dying on a highway dressed in rags. She was buried at that spot and a shrine exists today where she was interred.

POEMS link - Ono no Komachi - Poems by the Famous Poet - All Poetry
you are welcome to use any collection you like, this link above is just of convenience in case you do not own any collections that contain her work
NOH PLAY link - Sotoba Komachi (virginia.edu)