{"id":4270,"date":"2023-03-23T09:14:24","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T13:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/?p=4270"},"modified":"2023-03-23T09:14:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T13:14:26","slug":"a-poem-for-a-thursday-219","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/23\/a-poem-for-a-thursday-219\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for a Thursday #219"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Howard Nemerov served as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. He also won the National Book Award for Poetry, The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and the Bollingen Prize. Joyce Carol Oates said of him, “Romantic, realist, comedian, satirist, relentless and indefatigable brooder upon the most ancient mysteries\u2014Nemerov is not to be classified.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before you can learn the trees, you have to learn\nThe language of the trees. That's done indoors,\nOut of a book, which now you think of it\nIs one of the transformations of a tree.\n\nThe words themselves are a delight to learn,\nYou might be in a foreign land of terms\nLike samara, capsule, drupe, legume and pome,\nWhere bark is papery, plated, warty or smooth.\n\nBut best of all are the words that shape the leaves\u2014.\nOrbicular, cordate, cleft and reniform\u2014\nAnd their venation\u2014palmate and parallel\u2014\nAnd tips\u2014acute, truncate, auriculate.\n\nSufficiently provided, you may now\nGo forth to the forests and the shady streets\nTo see how the chaos of experience\nAnswers to catalogue and category.\n\nConfusedly. The leaves of a single tree\nMay differ among themselves more than they do\nFrom other species, so you have to find,\nAll blandly says the book, \"an average leaf.\"\n\nExample, the catalpa in the book \nSprays out its leaves in whorls of three\nAround the stem; the one in front of you\nBut rarely does, or somewhat, or almost;\n\nMaybe it's not catalpa? Dreadful doubt.\nIt may be weeks before you see an elm\nFanlike in form, a spruce that pyramids,\nA sweetgum spiring up in steeple shape.\n\nStill, pedetemptim<\/em> as Lucretius says,\nLittle by little, you do start to learn;\nAnd learn as well, maybe, what language does\nAnd how it does it, cutting across the world\n\nNot always at the joints, competing with \nExperience while cooperating with\nExperience, and keeping an obstinate\nIntransigence, uncanny, of its own.\n\nThink finally about the secret will\nPretending obedience to Nature, but \nInvidiously distinguishing everywhere,\nDividing up the world to conquer it,\n\nAnd think also how funny knowledge is:\nYou may succeed in learning many trees\nAnd calling off their names as you go by,\nBut their comprehensive silence stays the same.\n\nLearning the Trees\nHoward Nemerov<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Nemerov served as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1963 to 1964 and again from 1988 to 1990. He also won the National Book Award for Poetry, The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and the Bollingen Prize. Joyce Carol Oates said of him, “Romantic, realist, comedian, satirist, relentless and indefatigable brooder upon the most ancient mysteries\u2014Nemerov is not to be classified.” Before you can learn the trees, you have to learn The language of the trees. That’s done indoors, Out of a book, which now you think of it Is one of the transformations of a tree. The words themselves are a delight to learn, You might be in a foreign land of terms Like samara, capsule, drupe, legume and pome, Where bark is papery, plated, warty or smooth. But best of all are the words that shape the leaves\u2014. Orbicular, cordate, cleft and reniform\u2014 And their venation\u2014palmate and parallel\u2014 And tips\u2014acute, truncate, auriculate. Sufficiently provided, you may now Go forth to the forests and the shady streets To see how the chaos of experience Answers to catalogue and category. Confusedly. The leaves of a single tree May differ among themselves more than they do From other species, so you have to find, All blandly says the book, “an average leaf.” Example, the catalpa in the book Sprays out its leaves in whorls of three Around the stem; the one in front of you But rarely does, or somewhat, or almost; Maybe it’s not catalpa? Dreadful doubt. It may be weeks before you see an elm Fanlike in form, a spruce that pyramids, A sweetgum spiring up in steeple shape. Still, pedetemptim as Lucretius says, Little by little, you do start to learn; And learn as well, maybe, what language does And how it does it, cutting across the world Not always at the joints, competing with Experience while cooperating with Experience, and keeping an obstinate Intransigence, uncanny, of its own. Think finally about the secret will Pretending obedience to Nature, but Invidiously distinguishing everywhere, Dividing up the world to conquer it, And think also how funny knowledge is: You may succeed in learning many trees And calling off their names as you go by, But their comprehensive silence stays the same. Learning the Trees Howard Nemerov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poem-for-a-thursday"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4273,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}