Intro
Welcome to the Poetry Professor Podcast with Stephen Cavitt, where every week I read you an original poem and then we talk about its key technique. This season you’ll hear poems from my book Noctis Terrores. In today’s episode, you’ll hear “Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean”, you’ll hear me try to talk in Spanish, and then we’ll talk about including quotes in poems.
Here’s…
Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean
Lorca’s lines have always haunted me,
but tonight, reading Cancion del naranjo seco to you
at a taco stand by a beachfront road, the dog sniffing
the asphalt, the Gulf of Mexico sniffing the sand
Leñador. Córtame la sombra.
Librame del suplicio de verme sin toronjas.
I lean toward you, and our knees touch,
and there’s something so alive under your jeans
that something inside me takes its first breath
¿Por qué nací entre espejos? El día me da vueltas.
Y la noche me copia en todas sus estrellas.
because this is your language. Your parents carried it nine days
on a raft made of inner tubes and split boards. They carried it
in their bodies, under their saltwater sundried jeans.
Quiero vivir sin verme. Y hormigas y vilanos,
soñaré que son mis hojas y mis pájaros.
Discuss:
If you’ve been listening to other episodes this season, first of all, thank you and second of all, you’ve heard me weave in quotes from songs or poems before. I do it a lot in Noctis Terrores, the book I’m reading from this season.
In poem number seven, I have a quote from Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s amazing song “Hallelujah”. It goes, Jeff Buckley’s on the radio: And every breath we took was hallelujah. He’s right, and the lightning knows it. Its brilliant fingers hold onto the earth for as long as they can.
In poem number 14, “Nocte Visita”, it’s Robert Frost’s poem “Acquainted with the Night”: I have been one acquainted with the night, Frost wrote. I have walked out in the rain and back in rain. I have out walked the furthest city light.
I’ve also got [00:03:00] dialogue quotes from real or imagined speakers. The book opens with the poem one scream, where after the speaker wakes, everybody else in the camp up screaming in his sleep, Old Man Bill says: I would’ve come to check on you, but you only screamed once. The army taught me if there’s only one scream, it’s either a false alarm or it’s too late to help.
Poem number two, “Purgatory is a Greyhound Bus Across America”, has remembered dialogue from the speaker’s lost love: It’s a big world, she said, the linoleum tile peeling in one corner of our tiny kitchen. If you’re so stuck with me, just go.
In these examples, the quote that’s being used is a kind of evidence. It’s like when you’re writing an academic essay, and you bring in a specific example or a specific quote from some scholar to back up what you’re saying. The poem could function without it; it would still be a whole argument, but the quote adds something to it.
In this one, “Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean”, there’s a conversation happening between the two poems; we’re going back and forth in each stanza between my lines and Lorca’s.
In episode 16, “Understanding English Poetry”, we talked about response poems: poems that are a conversation across the poetic canon. This one is a response poem too; it lives alongside Lorca’s. Technically, you could have this poem without Lorca’s quotes in it. If we did that, here’s what it would sound like:
Lorca’s lines have always haunted me,
but tonight, reading Cancion del naranjo seco to you
at a taco stand by a beachfront road, the dog sniffing
the asphalt, the Gulf of Mexico sniffing the sand
I lean toward you, and our knees touch,
and there’s something so alive under your jeans
that something inside me takes its first breath
because this is your language. Your parents carried it nine days
on a raft made of inner tubes and split boards. They carried it
in their bodies, under their saltwater sundried jeans.
Later, we’ll walk the water’s edge. When you step too deep,
I’ll lift you out of the seafoam, the hem of your jeans dripping.
Your hand on the crook of my elbow. Miles of quiet sea.
So, in terms of the logic of the poem or the flow of the poem, it works well without Lorca. It’s a whole poem. I could have just titled it, “Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean”, and then we’re kind of secondhand audience members, right? We’re over on the other side of the restaurant seeing what’s happening between the couple, but not really immersed in it. The inclusion of Lorca’s actual lines scoots us a bit closer. So, now we’re right there sitting at the table with them, and we’re getting to hear it the way the lover hears as he reads to her.
Let’s listen to “Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean” one more time, and I’ll read it with both the English and Spanish, and see what it feels like. How does it immerse you in the experience? Here’s…
Reading Lorca Beside the Ocean
Lorca’s lines have always haunted me,
but tonight, reading Cancion del naranjo seco to you
at a taco stand by a beachfront road, the dog sniffing
the asphalt, the Gulf of Mexico sniffing the sand
Leñador. Córtame la sombra.
Librame del suplicio de verme sin toronjas.
I lean toward you, and our knees touch,
and there’s something so alive under your jeans
that something inside me takes its first breath
¿Por qué nací entre espejos? El día me da vueltas.
Y la noche me copia en todas sus estrellas.
because this is your language. Your parents carried it nine days
on a raft made of inner tubes and split boards. They carried it
in their bodies, under their saltwater sundried jeans.
Quiero vivir sin verme. Y hormigas y vilanos,
soñaré que son mis hojas y mis pájaros.
Later, we’ll walk the water’s edge. When you step too deep,
I’ll lift you out of the seafoam, the hem of your jeans dripping.
Your hand on the crook of my elbow. Miles of quiet sea.
Prompt:
If you’re writing along with me, write a poem in which you weave in one or more quotes. I’ll give you a couple options:
Option A: use a quote from a work of literature or music. Be careful with copyright. If you’re putting in a few lines, I think you’ll probably be all right. If you’re quoting the entirety of a poem, make sure it’s old enough that it’s in the public domain. I’m not your lawyer; I’m just an English teacher, and I’m not entirely sure what’s legal in terms of fair use. So, look into that if you’re using more than just a few lines.
Option B: Use a quote from a person real or imagined. It can be somebody that you know, somebody you make up, a public figure, or a quote from yourself–something you’ve muttered to yourself; a line from past, or present, or future. See how the quote or quotes breathe life into the poem.
Outro
Thanks so much for listening to the Poetry Professor Podcast with Stephen Cavitt. This season, I’m reading poems from my book Noctis Terrores. It’s available now on Kindle Unlimited and in print at major online booksellers, and there’s a link in the episode description. You can support the show by picking up a copy.
I’ll see you next week.