Proust Questionnaire Redux/Breakfast/Ed Coletti Radio Broadcast/Emily's "Funeral"/3 Poems by Ed Coletti (Triolets)

Do The Interactive Proust Questionnaire click here/now!

Answer questions about your favorite historical figure, your hero, your greatest fear, etc, etc.  Then you can compare yourself with other respondents!  I came out closest to Jane Goodall!  Go figure!

click here/now!

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Ed Coletti On KRCB Word Temple Show Reading of February 20, 2013. Click Here to listen. 

(Photo of Ed Coletti and Charles Wolski in NYC Dec. 2013)

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Example of a Spontaneous Emily Dickinson "Big Read" Event

During early March, Poet Larry Robinson circulated the Emily Dickinson poem "I felt a Funeral in my Brain," and I, in turn asked Larry a question about it.  The following enlightening email conversation ensued among Larry Robinson, Ed Coletti, David Beckman, and Katherine 
Hastings.  I hope that you find it as interesting, fun, and joy-provoking as we did.

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then -

 - Emily Dickinson

Thanks, Larry.  I'd forgotten - what a remarkably great poem!  I have some difficulty at the line "-till it seemed that Sense was breaking through-"

What do you make of it?  I'd never really studied the poem much.  I'll also pass this along to Beckman, Hastings, and Joyce.

Ed

I share your struggle with that line; it's like a koan, isn't it?

Larry

Yes, great poem. Thanks for the query, Ed. A quick check yields many meanings for “sense,” including “apprehension” and “discernment.” I suspect Dickinson had one of these, or another, such meaning in mind (It’d be fun to see which meaning was most current in her time).

I don’t use my OED a lot these days (micrographic, and getting really heard to read even with the provided magnifying glass).
I used to subscribe to it online...does anyone? It would probably give good answers.

David

This poem isn't addressing the funeral of a person, it is addressing the decreasing mental capacity in the speaker's brain — a mental breakdown, a descent into madness.  That's why reason, or "Sense was breaking through".  Re-read the poem with this in mind and all the metaphors start clicking.  

Thanks for sending Emily out, Larry!

k

Yes, indeed that works for me!

This has been fun!

Thanks,

Ed

Yep, ditto. Nice insight, Katherine.

D.

Thanks for sending the question around, Ed.  It's always good to take a deeper look at deeper, more complex poetry!  ;-)

k
 
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3 More Ed Coletti Triolets

Triolet On Stockton

The bankrupted City of Stockton, “C” “A”
Lies dying in San Joaquin’s Delta.
Each Fat City house turned empty crate
The bankrupted City of Stockton, “C” “A”
Where mortgages domino day by day
No one benefits as all the wealth of
The bankrupted City of Stockton, “C” “A”
Lies dying in San Joaquin’s Delta.


Triolet On a Partial Line
From “Norwegian Wood”
By The Beatles

Or should I say “she once had me”?
Possession is nine-tenths of law.
Almost nothing accrues for free.
Or should I say “she once had me”?
Today, tomorrow, yesterday,
Continuum both once and yore.
Or should I say “she once had me?”
Possession is nine-tenths of law.


Triolet From a Line Within “Ohio” By
   Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

Should have been done long ago,
Delay proves always fatal.
No excuse for status quo,
Should have been done long ago.
Vain war impacts Ohio.
Kids now scarce years post natal.
Should have been done long ago,
Delay proves always fatal. 

Comment or Read Comments Here on any of the above or below. If you do not have a Google account, log in under "Name/URL," (it's easy). Just the name (don't worry about the URL). Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net, and I can post it.

Also, take a look at my 5 New Jazz Poems at the valuable Jerry Jazz Musician site.  Once you find the poems, please comment on the poems at the site