A radio show that ponders and bounces rating systems as we traverse our world. What do we bring to the table of life? And if marvelosity is “not a word†then how do we know what it means? Because you know what it means, and that’s why this show is for you, dear listener, dedicated to your appetite for what is grand in the day, and how do I know this? Because you are taking your time, your “one wild and precious life,†as Mary Oliver calls it, to listen to a show about poetry, the way in which we humans have always made something out of what there is to see, and messed with language and ways to express our world to do justice to this gift of consciousness and vision. You join me in slowing down for our PoetrySlowDown, when we “make the morning last,†in Simon and Garfunkle’s “59 St Bridge Song,†where the Muse is everywhere they look: “hello lamppost, whatcha knowin? I’ve come to watch your flowers growin, aint ya got no rhymes for me, doot-in doo-doo, feeling groovy.â€
Hello lamppost, What cha knowing?
I’ve come to watch your flowers growing.
Ain’t cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in’ doo-doo, Feelin’ groovy.
Got no deeds to do, No promises to keep.
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you, All is groovy.
Our theme today is just that: our human ability to love life, even an aimless morning walk in a city . . . where the architecture is a lamppost . . . inspired by a story in The High Country News, an edition of the High Country Journal, “for people who care about the West,†and it could be “for people who care about the environment,†whether it was created by unseen forces or by us. They report on visitor ratings of various national iconic places considered grand, whether national parks or wonders of the world, and our show brings up sayings, jokes, stories, and above all, poetry, as the Muse sings in us and “lifts that great story once again,†as Homer has it (trans. Robert Fitzgerald). We’ll see what minds bring to the table of life—we’ve just discovered water on Mars (which poets knew all along): if we lead a horse to water, can it drink? This show is for your thirst, dear listener, for water, wherever and however it is, for what is grand, what merits our attention in our hurtling, hurtled lives of crushing news: this is the “news†of “difficult†and “despised†poetry “without which men die miserably every day†(Rx by Dr. Williams Carlos Williams). We’re on radiomonterey.com, Magic-4-Life, produced by Zappa Johns, and I’m your grateful host, Professor Barbara Mossberg, thank you for joining me today. Stay tuned for great music, poetry, and a grand old time.
THE POETRY SLOW DOWN
With Professor Barbara Mossberg
Produced by Zappa Johns
Radiomonterey.com
October 4, 2015
© Barbara Mossberg
Dear Professor Mossberg:
Are you the Barbara Mossberg whose letters in the Register Guard’s editor’s mailbag lauded the sounds of trains in the distance and the power of the lunar eclipse to forge community connections? I cut out those two letters and posted them on my refrigerator to read and reread. Many thanks for these lovely interludes that soothed my morning newspaper read.
Wow! Thank you for the time you spent creating this wonderful, thoughtful discussion.