Frank Sinatra, Natalie Cole, Radio Jones sing of it, Shakespeare bards it, Dickinson escoffiers it:
the topic is dust. Yes, dust. Glorious dust. I cannot get away from this theme of sweeping and cleaning. I am like Monica on Friends.
EXTREMELY CHARGED DUST, VALIANT DUST:
QUINTESSENTIAL DUST UP AT THE POETRY SLOW DOWN, A HOE DOWN OF ASTROCHEM MIXING IT UP –THE SCIENTISTS’ DOWN LOW, POETS’ LOW DOWN SECRETS OF STARDUST IN POETRY DUST RAGS, from
Shakespeare’s kings and princes and nieces to the Maxwell-Einstein equation and stellar science, Book of Common Prayer to Einstein, Whitman to Feynman, Mary Oliver, Wallace Stevens, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Gerald Stern, Mark Doty, Shelley, Linda Gregg, Julie Stuckey, Rubert Brooke, to Peggy Parrish’s Amelia Bedelia. . .
Kiss the dust, bite the dust, we humans have a pretty intimate relationship with dust in the ways we speak of it– it’s life and death. Perhaps to say when we die and kiss the dust, not diss the dust, that we are kissing the joy as it flies, Blake’s lines, kiss the joy as it flies, and you will live in eternity’s sunrise . . . Well maybe this is true, maybe this is quantum physics, the Truth and Beauty of the Universe known by scientists, old hat news by the time Aristotle got around to telling us what’s what, but I’ll tell you what.
The us in dâ€usâ€t: Engaging cosmic dust.
I am so excited about this topic of dust, which we have arrived at—as all things, Shakespeare tells us, come to, after all– because first, for our January 1st show we were talking about the poetry of sweeping, a clean sweep of things, and also ironing, and house-cleaning, which shook up the dust, so to speak, because it seemed that so many wonderful poems when the dust settled were about dusting—who knew? We read Marilyn Nelson’s “Dusting†and Rita Dove’s “Dusting,†and so then on the next shows (“HOME-MAKING†–FALLING TO OUR KNEES TO KISS THE COSMIC DUST, WILD AND DOMESTIC:
MORE DUST UP ON POETRY’S PHILSOPHERS OF SWEEPS AND SACRED SWEEPINGS, FROM RUMI, KABIR, HAFIZ, TO WENDELL BERRY TO WILLIAM CRONON, TO EMILY DICKINSON TO RITA DOVE TO JULIANNA BAGGOTT TO GINGER ANDREWS TO ELEANOR LERMAN, TO DOROTHY BARRESI AND JAN BEATTY, A SWEEP OF POETRY FROM STARDUST TO METEORS, January 29, 2012) we took this farther, got swept away on our brooms and beheld polishing poetry and letters of domestic arts, including that little housekeeper Emily Dickinson, and then I realized beyond sweeping and housecleaning the elephant in the room, the equivalent of Universe’s dark matter, was dust, shining and revelatory. The most philosophical poems, of rhetorical eloquence and dignity, center on dust as a metaphor for fate, human fate, earthly fate, earthy fate, universal fate. Poet after poet started pulling at my sleeve, I write about dust, I write about dust, don’t leave me out! That was William The Bard Shakespeare, and Robert Frost, AND well, so many of your faves and mine . . . and then the science of it all, enthralling . . . so we’re going to hear what Shakespeare has to say about dust, and poets and scientists, and let’s NOT forget Amelia Bedelia, one of the great minds, speaking of house-cleaners, so let’s get this party going, I know, today is Superbowl Sunday, and we’re having our own pre-game dust-up, so, dust off your Shakespeare, and hear we go–slowly!
Thank you for listening.
Write me atbmossberg@csumb.edu, I love to hear from you–and let me know if you’ve made haggis yet!
Coming up next week, speaking of recipes, poetry on cake and other forms of delight in time for Valentine’s. So we’ll still be in the kitchen, stirring the dust, so to speak.
Music:
Stardust, ‘course; This World Feels Dusty, by Aaron Copeland [Emily Dickinson]; Dust in the Wind, by Kansas; Sunny Day Real Estate: Rodeo Jones; Pick Yourself Up
Shakespeare sang err on err, so i sang
Shakespeare turned dust to dust so too my love
Pick youself up, take a deep breath,dust yourself off
© Barbara Mossberg 2012
