Poetry Breaks: Stanley Kunitz Reads "The Layers"

The Poetry Breaks series is a series of videos filmed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by creator Leita Luchetti, who co-produced the series with the WGBH New Television Workshops. Poetry Breaks features short videos of internationally renowned poets reading their work, reading the work of other poets, and discussing their takes on poetry in a variety of locations. The Academy of American Poets has partnered with Luchetti to present these videos once again.

[@lawrencewray1663]

"How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses?" A stunningly beautiful question.

[@t.tokuyama869]

Agreed and agreed.

[@MelodyWainscott]

“Live in the layers
not on the litter.”
Glorious, nimbus-clouded voice!

[@louisasmith9388]

Finally, after decades, I understand this (I believe), my *favorite* poem for those many years.

[@BUKCOLLECTOR]

Enjoyed your poems. And your unique word choices enhanced the poems emotional impact and kept me engaged throughout.
I’m a poet specializing in Japanese forms: haiku, tanka, haibun, kyoka, senryu. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a tanka and my haiku, a tribute poem to Bashō’s frog with commentary by the late AHA founder and poet Jane Reichhold who considered my Basho haiku among her top 10 haiku of all time. What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem and commentary:
Bashō’s frog
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA
forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing
about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of the
sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us all that we are ripples and our lives ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
And my tanka:
returning home
from a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear my face with paint
and morph into art
~~
-All love in isolation
from Miami Beach,
Florida,
Al

[@trae1965]

S.K.-Master of the dramatic lyric. Interesting how his poems glow even brighter these many years after his passing...

[@josephperkovich28]

I'm really into Kunitz's poetry lately. The way he reads this reminds me a little of Dylan Thomas reading, of all people. Something to do with the cadence and falling tones. See "The force that through the green fuse" for example

[@PolkRidgeAesthete]

Fine observation! I think that partially explains why I fine Kunitz both so familiar and commanding here.

[@iasmimsilva5613]

lindo lindo lindo ❤

[@shumiatcher]

Brilliant

[@blaketheband]

I just set Kunitz's "Three Floors" to original music, you can check it out here: th-cam.com/video/Lxb3W-vkK44/w-d-xo.html

[@rojewolf1]

soon the translation