THE POETRY SLOW DOWN
KRXA 540AM
Dr. Barbara Mossberg
Produced by Sara Hughes
January 19, 2014
© Barbara Mossberg 2014
VOICES OF FIERCE MODESTY AND MAJESTY: “A MAN’S A MAN FOR A’ THAT;†“THIS MESSAGE WE SMUGGLE OUT IN ITS PLAIN COVER, TO BE OPENED QUIETYLY: FRIENDS EVERYWHERE—WE ARE ALIVE!‗Bobby Burns; William Stafford (“An Oregon Messageâ€)
. . . “ALIVE AGAIN TODAY†(e.e. cummings)
FRIENDS! ARE YOU READY TO PARTY? IT’S THAT HAGGIS TIME OF YEAR, AND WE’RE CELEBRATING BOBBY BURNS AND THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF BILL STAFFORD, ALONG WITH THRONGS GLOBALLY AND LOCALLY. WE’LL GET YOU SET FOR EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO POETIC JUSTICE TO THESE BIRTHDAYS AND DO IT UP IN STYLE, WITH OUR POETRY SLOW DOWN, KRXA 540AM, THE NEWS YOU NEED, THE NEWS YOU HEED, “WITHOUT WHICH MEN DIE MISERABLY EVERY DAY†(William Carlos Williams)
And we don’t want to die miserably today or any other day, so we’re in, you and me, I’m your host, Professor Barbara Mossberg, in our studios today with Producer Sara Hughes, and we’re getting ready to par-tee, January 25, next Saturday, is his birthday, your haggis day, so we’ll get started on that, we don’t have a minute to spare, it’s a whole ritual shenanigans, and the 17th two days ago William Stafford is 100, and we want to celebrate his immortality on today’s and next week’s show. We have an opportunity here to explore the juxtaposition of Bobby Burns and Bill Stafford, the connection between these two poets besides the coincidence of their shared January birthday month. There is something phenomenal and rather unique to start with: how their writing creates community. Both have devoted clubs dedicated to their memories, with activities ranging from river walkways and forest roads with poetry interpretive signs to generative –and generous–literacy projects to raucous enjoyment, and honestly, hadn’t we better drink life to the lees and enYOY as my Swedish inlaws said, and, thinking of what about a Scots nationalist and Kansas born conscientious objector gets people on the same page, writing and singing and sharing? Through the lens of John Muir’s interpretation of Bobby Burns’ life, we see a link, how something in each proud and humble life invokes a profound sense of kinship. We will hear in the next two weeks about how Burns and Stafford inspire people to write and share and be generous–a generative generosity of spirit. And so we explore together this question, O Poetry Slow Down, how it is that any one life, out of all the seeming false starts and steps, fumbles and stumbles and falls and longings and strayings and yet belief in doing something no one asks you to do, how does this life become something of such magnitude, that afterwards, it becomes inextricable with the way other people live and understand and value their and each other’s lives? That is what we are pondering with these two birthdays, and bringing in some ringers, the prominent poets Ingrid Wendt and Ralph Salisbury, speaking of generous, reaching us today from Mexico . . . starting with Bobby Burns, this poor man, talk about miserable: he lives this short life, 37 years only, dying terribly from a tooth procedure gone wrong—wreaking havoc on his heart–and we’ll talk about his various misadventures, but in this short time, he wrote poetry and developed songs to become not only the person considered the greatest Scotsman who ever lived—by a national vote– and other epithets—just a beloved cherished national icon for Scotland—yet he’s a screw up big time—ask the women in his life—a sufferer—yet proud, fiercely independent, on the side of the poor and oppressed and liberty . . . poor and worn and never at ease, but a person who after Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus, has more statues dedicated to him than any other non religious figure—(although John Muir would say, who are you calling non religious? But we’ll get to that) and whose birthday is celebrated in community after community—maybe yours—check it out—as we consider their poetry and responses to it in the next few weeks, we slow down to savor how we as humans perhaps express our deepest humanity in how we remember, and do not let get lost, those who lived here on earth with us, with such dedication, and devotion, sharing their own experience as residents on earth, trusting in “Friends everywhere—we are alive!â€â€”Alive again today, on our Poetry Slow Down, KRXA 540AM, Join Us!
© Barbara Mossberg 2014
