[Critique Group 2] Leonard's comments on streiters sub

[leonard tuchyner]

Sandra sub for May 23



This poem starts with describing how  stoicism has taught you well how
to survive. You accepted the dry, unrelenting heat and dryness.

But you ask the question, “What about thriving?

In your middle years you have sampled  heart earned trust

and it has brought you closer to thriving.

But hard times brings tests

and you wonder if thriving can stand up to the trials and tribulations.

They last so long,

but they seem to be helping

in learning how to  do both survival and thriving.

Can you learn the lessons of softness, acceptance, and tears.

Is it too late to yield and still feel safe?

Can you continue to grow?



Climate Change



A family of desert flowers,

Survival guaranteed—we are nothing

If not sturdy,

Trained up in unending sun and sand,

Where no waves bring

Conciliatory tide.

We espouse so-called “pragmatics”.

What of thriving—have I always wondered.

In my reach through middle years,

I seem the closest to that objective,

Via hard-proven trust,

Gentler hands have tended.



Sudden now intrudes shock and sorrow,

Hurricanic gusts, deluge clouds

Move inexorably slow.

Can this arid region--

Stolid as Dickinson’s bee--

Now absorb a rain?



Land mass metamorphosing …

We must respond in kind.

We support pragmatics,

Each—the old, the younger,

Learning … instructing … by turns.

Sounding necessary echoes

Meant for navigation …



Tears are good,

We just begin to apprehend:

Nourishment for fruits to come.

Hearts more open than before,

We master recitative.

Is it too late for me

to so yield my spastic will

Into long-foregone  release?







The Merriam/Webster dictionary defines recitative as:

a rhythmically free vocal style that imitates the natural inflections
of speech and that is used for dialogue and narrative in operas and
oratorios