15
September 24, 1979
CARNIVAL
Sam McMillan
hot arc of neon in rainbow night-town
a wind machine roaring down the mirrored midway.
Would he go? See the girl so ugly
they locked her out of school?
Would he go to the carnival,
from a distance watch the ride boys flex tatoos
gearing up the screaming highschool girls
into circles through night sky, swaying
on a single rust pitted cotter pin above
the odor of cottoncandypopcorn&ponyshit where
the children of anxious parents trot
around bored corrals that smell
vaguely of farms. Would he go
and idiotically fall in love with the plump
laughing concession girl at the Krazzee Ladder
who swung her bluejeaned hips over each rung
easy, high and level up the ropes, rang
the buzzer twice, jumped down and challenged
anyone to do the same
for fifty cents.
Of course he would; as a child
he had heard the sound of roaring wind
and would follow until the wind spread wide around him
until she smiled for him.
Wendy Belden's'B'rucha''(Blessed) has been criticized for her use of
Hebrew lines in her poem. Such criticism comes from either one of three
motives: jealousy, laziness, or habit (since, with our de-emphasis on class
ical learning and language, we are conditioned to think that foreign phrases
in modern poems are deliberately obtuse and therefore affected postures.
I don't believe this is the case here. So to Wendy's critic who asked,"What
would a Georgia boy from the South know about Hebrew?", I reply,
"Not much, but you said it, I didn't."
Her poem, contains, primarily, control, complexity and clear imagery.
Since I referred to Bill Herron's poem as impressionistic, I equally say here
that the Hebrew Lines here achieve an impressionistic quality also, but in
a different vyay. This is about a woman's visit to a synagogue, and while
the poet describes, on the surface level, what her eyes see at the service,
she also hears Hebrew phrases there while her mind wanders. Thus,
Wendy "paints" a visual as well as an audible picture, giving to us a stream-
of-consciousness realism, a credible realism, in'B'ruchaf^ She even states
this at the beginning of the poem, telling us in fact what her format will
be: "I came to hear the blessing but I could not hear." She then describes
Naomi as well as the Bat Mitzvah taking place. We have, therefore, an
interplay of the poet's audio and visual perceptions. Because of this format
I object to her objectors who disapprove of her use of Hebrew lines.
The persona is not pretending to understand them, but she is hearing them'
as anyone would hear those lines if they visited a synagogue whether they
understood the service or not. Wendy takes us through a sequence of
time that is easy to follow, but she deepens the poem with extraneous
thoughts that she thinks about during the service. Such thoughts permit
her to make time shifts which she does, for example, in the parenthe
sized line "(Or God will hear you she had said)." Here, the parentheses
are not mere clever typography. They are a deliberate shift in time dis
tinguished from the immediate setting of the service.
As she describes things, she remains within the Jewish context, as
when she talks about Naomi's "shiny challah hair" and the "gate-like
sign around her neck which was black and full of feasting," and "turning
like a cautious dradle.' These are but three examples of her consistency
to maintain the Jewishness of the poem, thus confirming her control of
it. The persona has been affected by the service. She is not certain how,
but she describes this, again, remaining with the Hebrew context. "Naomi
set me turning like a cautious dradle/and 1 left before the feast." I consider
this a sophisticated poem because of the layers that Wendy has worked
with; the imagery, the stream-of-consciousness technique, her consistency,
her specificity, and her flow with the languages, both English and Hebrew.
This is a poem to be re-read.
B'rucha
Wendy Belden
I came to hear the blessing but I could not hear;
I saw my same Naomi
and her shiny challah hair
Baruch Ata Adonai
dripped its braid in egg-like prayer
Elohenu Melech ha-Olam
Adoshem!
(Or God will hear you she had said.)
Adoshem, I followed, and she led me
with her shiny challah hair,
which was black and full of feasting
as the month of Adar,
to her Bat Mitzvah.
Adoshem of God would hear me
I would not let her leave me
in the salmon-laden room.
The band booming hava nagila
reflected cockeyed off my Sunday shoes.
Home again Mama
was yanking at my hurricaned hair
1 could not say what wind had blown through there,
but showed where the tongue goes
forle-chiam.
Friday at temple
I could not hear the blessing
by the same wind
Naomi set me turning like a cautious dreidel
and I left before the feast.
»/
LES PLUMES EN FLEURS/CHAGALL
Bill Herron
feathers made of leaves ■
blue donkey moon man
turning in the beast
man turning in the beast
chicken donkey Jew
feather leaf beast blue
now run for your life
run there's the beast
now run for your life
run there's the beast
eye eye blue
turning in the blue
as the head hangs yellow
from the leaf beast's ass
eye eye blue
chicken donkey Jew
feather leaf beast blue
now run for your life-
run there's the beast
now run for your life
run there's the beast
chicken donkey Jew
feather leaf beast blue
eye eye blue
feather leaf beast blue
chicken donkey Jew
yellow beak
beast blue