SONOMA COUNTY STUMP
Dynamic poetry at Garbo's
Each thing moves its own way
By Maureen Hurley and Alene Balsé
On August 17, Garbo's Monday Nite Poetry and Prose Series hosted Robert Hass and Suzanne Maxson. The performance was well attended and the audience captivated by the poets' personable prose style and universal appeal.
Hass began his reading with work by the exiled Polish poet Czeslaw Miloz, the 1981 Nobel Prize winner in poetry.
On all fours they crawl out of the dugout.
Dawn. In the distance,
On August 17, Garbo's Monday Nite Poetry and Prose Series hosted Robert Hass and Suzanne Maxson. The performance was well attended and the audience captivated by the poets' personable prose style and universal appeal.
Hass began his reading with work by the exiled Polish poet Czeslaw Miloz, the 1981 Nobel Prize winner in poetry.
On all fours they crawl out of the dugout.
Dawn. In the distance,
Under a cold aurora,
A slow blind train.
Hass, who also translates haiku, has been referred to as "one of the best kept secrets of well known American poets"; won the Yale Younger Series Poets Award in 1973 for his book, Field Guide. Also highly acclaimed most recent book, Praise, which does poetic justice to the English language. "Ideas and emotions are inseparably interwoven, and the pull of their ramifications steer the poem toward universality. "
Hass, who also translates haiku, has been referred to as "one of the best kept secrets of well known American poets"; won the Yale Younger Series Poets Award in 1973 for his book, Field Guide. Also highly acclaimed most recent book, Praise, which does poetic justice to the English language. "Ideas and emotions are inseparably interwoven, and the pull of their ramifications steer the poem toward universality. "
Each thing moves its own way
in the wind. Bamboo flickers,
the plum tree waves,
the plum tree waves,
and the loquat
is shaken.
—from The Beginning of September
Maxson's tiny and unassuming presence made the impact of her socially conscious poetry all the more dynamic. From her first book, Our Lady of Names, she read poems of war-stricken El Salvador and Lebanon where 'bowls were filled with whitest yogurt" and beggars cried "bak- sheesh, baksheesh." She then read a poem about her son, "Gabriel on a Sunday," (See poem, this page) and we embark on a journey back to the gentleness of our experiences from that of the jolting reality of the world's harsh existence.
Hass's and Maxson's easy manner and casual humor made their appeal both genuine and personal and made for a wonderful evening of poetry on the River. As Hass commented, "how calm people's faces get when they hear poetry, how the lines smooth out on their faces.
is shaken.
—from The Beginning of September
Maxson's tiny and unassuming presence made the impact of her socially conscious poetry all the more dynamic. From her first book, Our Lady of Names, she read poems of war-stricken El Salvador and Lebanon where 'bowls were filled with whitest yogurt" and beggars cried "bak- sheesh, baksheesh." She then read a poem about her son, "Gabriel on a Sunday," (See poem, this page) and we embark on a journey back to the gentleness of our experiences from that of the jolting reality of the world's harsh existence.
Hass's and Maxson's easy manner and casual humor made their appeal both genuine and personal and made for a wonderful evening of poetry on the River. As Hass commented, "how calm people's faces get when they hear poetry, how the lines smooth out on their faces.
