When I was a teenager, Sharon Olds made me want to be become a poet. My first encounter with her work was when I was sixteen or seventeen--a tiny little poem titled "The Pope's Penis." It dazzled me with its audacity and made me realize I could write about anything at all.
Around 20 years ago, I had the great fortune of being a part of a weeklong poetry workshop that Olds led in Big Sur, California. It was amazing to climb the hill to her cabin every day and sit in a room with her while she shared her poetic advice and wisdom. I sort of felt like Moses on Mount Sinai, getting the Ten Commandments.
So, be prepared to be challenged and surprised this year. Because that's what Sharon Olds does.
Tonight, Olds meditates on suffering . . .
Ideographs
by: Sharon Olds
(a photograph of China, 1905)
The small scaffolds, boards in the form of
ideographs, the size of a person,
lean against a steep wall of
dressed stone. One is the simple
shape of a man. The man on it
is asleep, his arms nailed to the wood.
No timber is wasted; his fingertips
curl in at the very end of the plank
as a child's hands open in sleep.
The other man is awake--he looks
directly at us. He is fixed to a more
complex scaffold, a diagonal cross-piece
pointing one arm up, one down,
and his legs are bent, the spikes through his ankles
holding them up off the ground,
his knees cocked, the folds of his robe flowing
sideways as if he were suspended in the air
in flight, his naked leg bared.
They are awaiting execution, tilted against the wall
as you'd prop up a tool until you needed it.
They'll be shouldered up over the crowd and
carried through the screaming. The sleeper will wake.
The twisted one will fly above the faces, his
garment rippling.
Here there is still the backstage quiet,
the dark bottom of the wall, the props
leaning in the grainy half-dusk.
He looks at us in the silence. He says
Save me, there is still time.
As I said above, Sharon Olds doesn't shy away from difficult, controversial, or painful topics. Rather, she embraces them. This poem, from her collection The Dead and the Living, is all about the nature of suffering and violence. The two condemned men are described in physically explicit terms, and their impending executions really call into question the nature of humanity.
I know, I know. That's pretty serious shit for the first day of a new year. However, I think it's appropriate to examine the barbarity of state-sanctioned murder at this particular moment in history when hatred/wars are rampant while empathy/understanding are in short supply. The final line--a plea for mercy and salvation--is heartbreaking.
For me, and hopefully for you, too, dear disciple, Olds' words are powerful reminders of the need for forgiveness and the possibility of redemption. People should never be defined by their worst actions. I know I wouldn't want to be defined by my biggest mistakes.
Perhaps that's a New Year's resolution we should all make: to erase violence and hatred with love and understanding.
Another thing I plan to do in each post this year is write a new poem. I'm using a really wonderful book called The Daily Poet by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano to accomplish this. In it, there are 365 poetry prompts, one for each day of the year.
Tonight's challenge was pretty simple: write a poem containing a list of New Year's resolutions that are ridiculously hard, if not impossible.
Saint Marty wishes all of his faithful disciples love and understanding this coming year.
I Resolve
by: Martin Achatz
January 1, 2025
to stop global warming by standing with the refrigerator door open while deciding what to have for dinner
to end world hunger by always leaving food on my plate to send to the starving children of Africa, as my mother taught me
to combat institutional racism by making everyone read Charlotte's Web and imagine Charlotte is Aretha Franklin or Morgan Freeman
to save the Amazon rain forest by changing it's name to something friendlier--the Eugene or Patty or Willy rain forest
to save polar bears from extinction by creating an International Polar Bear Preserve somewhere. How about Greenland?
to bring about world peace by sending homemade chocolate chip cookies to every leader with a note attached: Please play nice
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
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