William Carlos Williams: The Red Wheelbarrow

[Steven]

Hi,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIl3oX_44s

Many of W.C. Williams' poems were written on his prescription pads. He was a physician. Have to wonder how small size
paper/busy schedule influenced him in creating poems of concision.

[Cate]

That's great Steven, thank you!
One of my all time favourite poems.

Many of W.C. Williams' poems were written on his prescription pads. He was a physician. Have to wonder how small size
paper/busy schedule influenced him in creating poems of concision.

I wonder. Perhaps a poets tool box should come with post-it notes.

[Steven]

Hi Cate,

More happy to have posted it knowing now that it's one of your all time favorites. Thanks for saying so.
Re: post it notes, there's a metaphor arising from, and certainly practical toolbox value in that. The metaphor is
that limitations, constraints, have opportunities. I'm certainly guilty of not recognizing/utilizing those
kinds of opportunities. Everyone is, to lesser or greater degree. Raymond Carver wrote in an essay that
the demands of family life made the short story format (as opposed to longer novel format) more conducive
for him to pursue, as I remember. What people can't do, or don't have, provides opportunites to develop
what they can do and can acquire. I think of the inordinate number of blind blues legends. They found what
they could do, in a time of massive racial prejudice, very limited employment opportunities, a sensory
handicap, and achieved legendary status in their their art. So much depends upon recognizing what we
can do given what we don't have.

[Diane]

Steven and Cate,

yep, fabulous poem.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.

so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow

everything depends
upon
how near you sleep
to me

from an LC poem I had not seen 'til recently:

I want to depend on your eyes
and your lips
I don’t want to feel anything
but your hand
on the old raw bumper
http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/china2.html

[Diane]

The poem has a distinct pattern, with alternating lines of two and one stressed syllables. The work seems to attempt to reach a specific combination of stresses, but purposely misses each time...This relates to Williams' basic doctrine that by examining an object in all of its immediacy, we can come into contact with something universal. There is a universal order to be found in the poem, but the individual lines never reach it. Rather, the particularity of each line gestures toward the underlying universal pattern.

there is a crack in everything...

Someone once said a photo I took reminded them of this poem, and that's how I first discovered and loved it:



thanks for posting the recital, Steven.

[Cate]

Steven - I think that what you've said about opportunities found within limitations feels very true. I like how you've said it. Friday morning on the CBC a man was talking about his patty business (Jamaican patties) and during the interview he said something very close to 'the opportunity presented itself as a problem'.

Diane - I love the wiki quote about the poem. I love this poem because it creates a certain feeling and a very specific visual image/story but I've never thought very deeply about that - I shall now look at it differently.

and
Wow to the Leonard references - what an eye/ear you have Diane!

[DBCohen]

Steven and Diane, thank you both very much for all this. Real pleasure.

[Steven]

Hi Diane,

Thanks for the wiki quote. Never viewed the poem as containing "intentional misses," but it's interesting to
consider now. I like the statement's including "immediacy" as a vehicle for the "universal." Have considered that the literary capturing of authentic individual experience necessarily has a universal resonance. Probably the same territory with immediacy of an object. The lines you quoted from Leonard Cohen fit in nicely with the wiki quote and the poem. Your photo appears powerful on my laptop screen. There's much constrast between light and dark, giving power to the scene, thematically (as in the Williams poem) and visually.

[lonndubh]

April

If you had come away with me
into another state
we had been quiet together.
But there the sun coming up
out of the nothing beyond the lake was
too low in the sky,
there was too great a pushing
against him,
too much of sumac buds, pink
in the head
with the clear gum upon them,
too many opening hearts of lilac leaves,
too many, too many swollen
limp poplar tassels on the
bare branches!
It was too strong in the air.
I had no rest against that
springtime!
The pounding of the hoofs on the
raw sods
stayed with me half through the night.
I awoke smiling but tired.

[Diane]

Hello L. Sounds like Spring was all too much for him. TS Eliot did not like it either, and LC called it a "painful rededication"!

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead earth, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

Never mind - I'll see you in early Autumn on your isle, and all will be well:-)

[Steven]

Hi Diane,

When life bursts about in creation and recreation in Spring and all seems to be engaged within this,
except for an individual feeling apart from the glory of it all, it is painful for that person. Been there done that.
Seasons change. People can and often do as well.

[Joe Way]

Hi All,
Just seeing this now. Williams is one of my favorites, and as you have pointed out, I think he has had a tremendous influence on Leonard's work. One of my other favorite poems by Williams:

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

[lonndubh]

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

I love this poem Joe and it inspired this note on my fridge today


I have found
the Turkish Delight
That was hidden
Under the cabbage

and which
you were probably
saving
for a treat

So So sorry
It was scrumptious .

[Joe Way]

I have found
the Turkish Delight
That was hidden
Under the cabbage

and which
you were probably
saving
for a treat

So So sorry
It was scrumptious .
lonndubh

Dear lonndubh,

I've never been able to look at a plum without thinking of WCW, now, once you tell me what is in "Turkish Delight" I'll never think of that without thinking of you!

Warm regards,

Joe

[lonndubh]

sweet sweet sugar
cool corn flour
a pinch of cream of tartar
water and rose water
lemon lime and drizzled oil
any color you like