another round of poems

April is National Poetry Month. Poets and poetry-lovers alike are celebrating in a myriad of ways. There are conferences and festivals, slams and open mics, contests and challenges, like  NaPoWriMo.

Over here at Zafatista, I know the least I can do to celebrate is post another list of some of my favorite poems. I created the first list back in September, and it is certainly time for another. I dug up many of these pieces in my Norton Anthology of Poetry, which I read in a high school English class. The book is a treasure, although it does not represent nearly enough women poets or poets of color or women poets of color.

Each poem tells a unique story. Read and comment as you see fit. Preferably, before NPM is over. :) 

The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop 

Dream Variations by Langston Hughes

El Chicle by Ana Castillo

Ars Politica by Julia Alvarez

When I Have Fears by John Keats

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud by William Wordsworth

This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams

The Wrong Kitchen by Nikki Giovanni

Mirror by Sylvia Plath

Crazy Bunch Barbecue by Willie Perdomo

The Promise by Sharon Olds

Poets from bottom to top: Ana Castillo, Nikki Giovanni, William Carlos Williams.

dancing in the streets

I don't have much to say about this video besides, "Huzzah! I love it!"

"Thinking 'Bout Somethin'" is the first single from Hanson's forthcoming LP, Shout It Out!, and it is irresistible. The Hanson brothers are no strangers to the process of writing excellent pop songs and this track is a cheery, infectious, big-band pop-soul gem. 

The video is delightful, too, with choreographed dance numbers in the streets of Hanson's hometown Tulsa, Oklahoma. Isaac, Taylor, and Zac aren't shy at all in this clip --- they join the masses at the very end of the song to shake their tailfeathers in solidarity. As if that wasn't enough to make you smile, there's a cameo by Weird Al, who appears gyrating and playing a mean tambourine. 

The concept for the video was inspired by the Ray Charles scene in the 1980 cult film The Blues Brothers. "Thinking 'Bout Somethin'" isn't the first time Hanson has played tribute to The Blues Brothers and Ray Charles. On their first world tour over a decade ago, Hanson covered several Blues Brother songs, and their song "Georgia" from the 2007 release The Walk is an obvious nod to Ray Charles's "Georgia On My Mind." 

Hanson has always had a knack for writing good pop music. For over a decade now, they have been the only band that can put me in a better mood, no matter what. Their music does not rely on the shallow, artificial peppiness of bubblegum pop. There's a much deeper, dynamic joyfulness to a Hanson song. Taylor Hanson has called Shout It Out! an "unapologetic, bright, melodic thing" --- that sounds like a pretty accurate description of much of the boys' oeuvre. 

Watch "Thinking 'Bout Somethin'" --- I dare you not to tap your foot or smile. You will. 

You can file this video under one more reason to love Hanson despite what naysayers and the ill-informed may have to say about these young men. If you need further proof, check out Hanson's work to fight HIV/AIDS and poverty over at Take The Walk.  

See? They're the best.

love's philosophy

Nothing calls for a love poem quite like spring! Here's one by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The photographs above were taken by yours truly last year in Fort Greene Park. 

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY

by P.B. Shelley 

The fountains mingle with the river

And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle - 

Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea - 

What are all these kissings worth

If thou kiss not me?

As far as the Romantics go, Keats has always been my favorite, but Shelley ain't bad here. Not bad at all! 

Although I studied Shelley in college, I did not discover this poem until years later in the wrapper of a chocolate bar. Needless to say, I fell in love with this poem instantly. 

I am not so crazy about the line, "No sister-flower would be forgiven/If it disdained its brother" for the clearly antiquated anti-feminist message it conveys (Ain't nothing romantic about the absence of consent!). However, overall, the poem is beautiful and its images do speak to the harmony and union possible in love and physicality. 

Just look at the use of the word "clasp"! The waves clasp one another! The sunlight clasps the earth! Oh! Love it!

And then there is the final couplet! Who could ever forget these lines? "What are all these kissings worth/If thou kiss not me?"

The poem seems especially appropriate for springtime. The pear tree blossoms outside my window are kissing each other! The sunlight clasps the pavement! The bus kisses the curb and nearly runs us over! I will be walking around Brooklyn, identifying all the things that are kissing and clasping each other all season long. 

the pura principle

Junot Diaz has a new short story out in The New Yorker. It's called "The Pura Principle." The narrator is the familiar Yunior, a character whose voice Junot has used before in his fiction. Yunior is one of my favorite voices in fiction, as well as one of the characters whose beliefs and choices tend to break my heart/make me flinch most often (see: Yunior's relationship with the character Lola in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao).

"The Pura Principle" is about Yunior's relationship with his older brother, Rafa, who is dying from leukemia, but still won't repent of his tigueraje, mistreatment of his mother, and general selfishness. Although Junot's depictions of a weakening Rafa are moving, Yunior is the one we love. His Dominican York vernacular rings true and his funny-as-hell observations cut right to the soul of Dominican family life. Read it for yourself and decide what you think of Yunior. One thing is for sure: you won't easily forget the world(s) he narrates or the people who move through his narrative --- from Pura, who is briefly married to Rafa, to the old church ladies Yunior christens "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

There is also the character Tammy Franco, a female figure I wanted to know more about. The misogynist gazes of Junot's protagonists sometimes render women characters in flat terms (this is deliberate --- I'm not saying Junot is a misogynist, merely that he sometimes writes from the perspective of male characters who are). And although women are certainly important in Junot's stories, they are not usually at the center. Tammy is an ex-girlfriend of Rafa's who into and out of the story. Her friendship with Rafa is enigmatic and she acts as somewhat of a hero, briefly, in the piece. At every apparition, I found myself thinking, "She's the one. She's the one I want to know more about." We never quite get what Tammy is all about, and the story is just fine that way, but I do secretly wish that Tammy will show up again in another piece by Junot. 

I'm endlessly fascinated by gender politics in Junot's work and "The Pura Principle" is not different. In this story, Junot depicts a world with complicated, problematic gender dynamics, language, and characters that in all their messiness evoke real life. 

 If anyone wants to talk gender in "The Pura Principle," please send me an e-mail or hit me up on Twitter. 

That's all for now. Enjoy the story. Keep reading!