After Sappho's Fragments
Poems by Betsy Warland
Each summer the island wrung out by the sun
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groves
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scented touch
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crowns
violets and roses
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vibration of skins
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want
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want
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groves
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scented touch
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crowns
violets and roses
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vibration of skins
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want
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want
Tips for Natural Disasters
t's natural. Natural. It's (a) natural (disaster). TSUNAMI:
(inside)
Go to highest level in building, stay close to escape route but away from windows;
(outside)
run to high ground, resist staying on beach to see wave – when you see it, it's too late.
BLIZZARD:
(inside)
Gather in warmest room, ration food, water, heat;
(outside)
take shelter in culvert opposite of wind, stay in car with window slightly open for oxygen, if care of livestock imperative – tie rope head-level between house and barn to prevent losing your way.
TORNADO:
(inside)
Go to basement or ground floor, remain in centre of room away from windows, take cover beneath strong table adjacent furniture, cover head & neck with arms;
(outside)
do not go outside, remain in car, lie in ditch, culvert, or low-lying land.
VOLCANO:
(inside)
If possible = evacuate;
(outside)
hold damp cloth over face, avoid low-lying areas, bridges if mud-flow approaching.
AVALANCHE:
(inside)
– ;
(outside)
roll sideways with swimming motions, if buried clear breathing space, conserve oxygen by not shouting or weeping.
LIGHTNING:
(inside)
Stay away from electronics including telephone, all metal objects including water taps;
(outside)
lie flat on ground, ditch, remove all metal objects, avoid high ground, open, tall objects.
FLOOD:
(inside)
Collect supplies, move to upper level or roof, tie self & others to stable structures;
(outside)
abandon vehicles, flee to high ground, grab on to floating objects.
HURRICANE:
(inside)
Go lowest level, avoid windows, roof, stay once eye of storm has passed – other opposite direction soon;
(outside)
ditch, behind rocks, do not drive.
FIRE:
(inside)
Use wet cloth over face, stay low, crawl smoke rises;
(outside)
cover face wet cloth, soak clothes, run 180 from wind.
MUDSLIDES:
(inside)
If cracks suddenly building, rumbling, under sturdy, adjacent;
(outside)
cracks suddenly in ground, pavement, trees move, water appears normally not – run 90 from.
QUAKE:
(inside)
Take cover sturdy between sturdy, doorway, wall, keep away tall, mirrors, windows, kitchen;
(outside)
stay clear trees, buildings, telephone, electric, lamp, shelter car, underpass, cover head & neck.
cover head & neck with arms. . .
ROMANTIC LOVE:
(inside)
– ;
(outside)
– .
(inside)
Go to highest level in building, stay close to escape route but away from windows;
(outside)
run to high ground, resist staying on beach to see wave – when you see it, it's too late.
BLIZZARD:
(inside)
Gather in warmest room, ration food, water, heat;
(outside)
take shelter in culvert opposite of wind, stay in car with window slightly open for oxygen, if care of livestock imperative – tie rope head-level between house and barn to prevent losing your way.
TORNADO:
(inside)
Go to basement or ground floor, remain in centre of room away from windows, take cover beneath strong table adjacent furniture, cover head & neck with arms;
(outside)
do not go outside, remain in car, lie in ditch, culvert, or low-lying land.
VOLCANO:
(inside)
If possible = evacuate;
(outside)
hold damp cloth over face, avoid low-lying areas, bridges if mud-flow approaching.
AVALANCHE:
(inside)
– ;
(outside)
roll sideways with swimming motions, if buried clear breathing space, conserve oxygen by not shouting or weeping.
LIGHTNING:
(inside)
Stay away from electronics including telephone, all metal objects including water taps;
(outside)
lie flat on ground, ditch, remove all metal objects, avoid high ground, open, tall objects.
FLOOD:
(inside)
Collect supplies, move to upper level or roof, tie self & others to stable structures;
(outside)
abandon vehicles, flee to high ground, grab on to floating objects.
HURRICANE:
(inside)
Go lowest level, avoid windows, roof, stay once eye of storm has passed – other opposite direction soon;
(outside)
ditch, behind rocks, do not drive.
FIRE:
(inside)
Use wet cloth over face, stay low, crawl smoke rises;
(outside)
cover face wet cloth, soak clothes, run 180 from wind.
MUDSLIDES:
(inside)
If cracks suddenly building, rumbling, under sturdy, adjacent;
(outside)
cracks suddenly in ground, pavement, trees move, water appears normally not – run 90 from.
QUAKE:
(inside)
Take cover sturdy between sturdy, doorway, wall, keep away tall, mirrors, windows, kitchen;
(outside)
stay clear trees, buildings, telephone, electric, lamp, shelter car, underpass, cover head & neck.
cover head & neck with arms. . .
ROMANTIC LOVE:
(inside)
– ;
(outside)
– .
Said Before
Words excerpted and reconfigured from
Warland's What Holds Us Here, and
Messiaen's thoughts about “Preludes pour piano”
sparkling ache hushed flood gloved glance hooded language
diagonally trembling
“Prussian blue at the beginning and end”
shameless spaciousness expectant gentleness contour relish
pulsing light
“orange veined with violet”
mesmerizing immersion slanted somewhere vertiginous unsaid
arousal against
“velvety gray with mauve and green reflections”
purposefulness push diagonally touch hooded silence shifting ache
shameless against
'Prussian blue at the beginning and end'
Warland's What Holds Us Here, and
Messiaen's thoughts about “Preludes pour piano”
sparkling ache hushed flood gloved glance hooded language
diagonally trembling
“Prussian blue at the beginning and end”
shameless spaciousness expectant gentleness contour relish
pulsing light
“orange veined with violet”
mesmerizing immersion slanted somewhere vertiginous unsaid
arousal against
“velvety gray with mauve and green reflections”
purposefulness push diagonally touch hooded silence shifting ache
shameless against
'Prussian blue at the beginning and end'
Working notes
My new manuscript, Solo Piano, is a narrative of inter-linked, formally diverse poems that explore my disenchantment with the ideal of romantic love. Writing from a very different perspective than I have in my previous books, I am asking such questions as: What happens when the poet falls out of love with romance, does the poem change – empty out the language, cadence, imagery, intonations of desire and rapture?
As a lesbian feminist, I am curious about the possibility that we may be more seduced by the notion of romantic love. Might the meager representation of lesbian love and desire combined with our socialization as women – and corresponding restricted access to subliminal libidinal options in the public realm – make lesbians particularly mesmerized by this ideal?
At this new intersection in my perception, I find I am very drawn to solo piano recordings. One has been Messiaen's preludes. He composed each of these eight preludes with a specific colour field in mind. In “Said Before,” I combine his descriptions of several of these colour fields with reconfigured “word-ruins” (my term) from five love poems in my collection What Holds Us Here (1998).
“Tips for Natural Disasters” may be a poem attempting to empty out lyric love poems' sensibilities. It is a poem that seeks to face into our illusory tactics for self-protection. “After Sappho’s Fragments” emulates Sappho’s poems and mimics translator Anne Carson’s use of brackets indicating lost sections of a poem. In my poem, however, I use the brackets as a formal strategy to suggest how rashly we lovers fill in the blanks.
About the author
Vancouver writer Betsy Warland has published 10 books of poetry and prose.Her most recent books are: Only This Blue and Bloodroot - The Untelling of Motherloss. She is the director of The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University and has taught creative writing at various writing schools and led writing workshops across Canada. A critical essayist for art catalogues, Warland has also pursued her fascination with the essay in her current manuscript Breathing the Page: the Ecosystems of Narratives. Her website address is www.scoredspace.ca.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.
For an updated list of works published in TRIVIA, please see this author's contributor page.