Post by moira on May 16, 2008 19:41:52 GMT 2
Duties of the Spirit
Patricia Fargnoli[/b]
Duties of the Spirit comprises deeply moving, lyrical and unforgettable explorations of the joys and fears that come with growing older in America.
Patricia Fargnoli, a retired psychotherapist, is a Macdowell fellow and associate editor of The Worcester Review. Her first book, Necessary Light, was selected by Mary Oliver for the May Swenson Poetry Award, Utah State University Press, 1999.
Sample poem:
Poetry Foundation: tinyurl.com/4y38x4
Duties of the Spirit
one of the duties of the spirit is joy,
and another is serenity... (Thorton Wilder in
a letter to Paul Stephanson, 1930)
If the first is joy--
the rhumba at sunrise,
a three-note whistle in the sugar maple--
and the second is serenity--
a chair by a quiet window,
the adagio fading down the hill at sleep--
then the third must be grief--
rock-tight, then loosening like scarves the wind takes
across the ocean while on the shore
the shells’ empty houses lie scattered.
And if the first is in the brief seconds
which are all we can keep of happiness--
and if the second waits alone in the hour
where the pond smooths out, its surface
unbroken and the moon in it--
then the third which is grief comes again and again
longer and more than we wanted
or ever wished for
to wash us clean with its salthingyer,
to empty our throats, and fill them
again with bloodroot song,
And if the first
duty of the spirit is leaping joy,
and the second
the slow stroll of serenity,
then grief, the third, comes bending on his walking stick,
holding a trowel to dig where the loves have gone,
and he weighs down your shoulders, ties a rawhide necklace
hung with a stone around your neck, and hangs on and on.
But the first is slippery joy.
Review for Duties of the Spirit:
"Readers will discover many facets of Fargnoli's voice, but two attributes that will most impress readers are, first, the almost shimmering gladness with which Ms. Fargnoli replies to the gifts of beauty and of human love; and, second, the compassion with which she addresses whatever is beyond her own intimate surroundings."
-- Mary Oliver
"With majority of poets of her generation being employed as college professors, Patricia Fargnoli’s position of an ageing woman writing about life at the near poverty-level in America, is unique and special. Let me correct myself right away: it is special, first of all, not for its subjects but for the lyricism and passion of its language. And yet, it is the subject matter that so clearly drives her poetry, empowers it. There are two poets in America who have been justly celebrated for writing about the same subjects for years: Phillip Levine (poverty, working class) and Stanley Kunitz (ageing). And, yet, while she has clearly learned for both, Patricia Fargnili has found her own, very distinct place, and from there she speaks with a very moving—and, at its best, deeply spiritual, wise—voice that tells us about what it means to live in our time."
-- Ilya Kaminsky, Web Del Sol's Review of Books
tinyurl.com/46q2ht
"Fargnoli concludes the poem not with a final note of sadness, but with another small wisdom that reaffirms the value of living despite the temporality of life or happiness and the eventual stage of grief, reminding readers: “the first is slippery joy.” Consequently, Fargnoli’s mature poetry provides readers with another source of just such a spirit of joy in living and a small wisdom of the ages that appears to advise grasping life to the fullest extent while we can with an awareness of the natural beauty around us, and she presents readers with poems that counsel a total appreciation for the people and places we experience in the brief time we are granted."
-- Edward Byrne, from Valparaiso Poetry Review
tinyurl.com/4xnxn2
"Pat Fargnoli’s poems ache and yearn; they bring desire to a high pitch of intensity that lasts long after the book is closed. They return at odd moments, by line, by title, by image, after the reader goes back to his or her own life."
-- Janet McCann, author of Looking for Buddha in the Barbed Wire Garden
tinyurl.com/4mu4yn
About the Author:
Patricia Fargnoli is the author of five collections of poetry. Her first book, Necessary Light (Utah State University Press, 1999) was awarded the 1999 May Swenson Poetry Award judged by Mary Oliver. Her latest book is Small Songs of Pain (Pecan Grove Press, 2003). She has also been honored by a MacDowell Fellowship and the Robert Frost Foundation Literary Award.
Website: www.patriciafargnoli.com/
Listen to a reading of "Fun" at Rattle: tinyurl.com/49khp9
ISBN: 1-932195-21-1, 80 pages, $16.95
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Tupelo: www.tupelopress.org/
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