{"id":5548,"date":"2010-12-24T09:55:57","date_gmt":"2010-12-24T13:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=5548"},"modified":"2010-12-25T15:36:26","modified_gmt":"2010-12-25T19:36:26","slug":"janine-pommy-vega-1942-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/janine-pommy-vega-1942-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Janine Pommy-Vega (1942-2010)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The poet, teacher & activist Janine Pommy-Vega<\/strong> passed away yesterday, 23 December. More information here<\/a> and here<\/a>. And below, the opening poem of her first book, Poems to Fernando<\/strong><\/em> (City Lights Books, 1968):<\/p>\n

\n
The Last Watch<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe monk's prayer sung bowed down in the dome\r\ncomes around ascending sound\r\ncalling far as the land reaches\r\nWakefulness now in the last watch \u2014\r\nLord near us!\r\n& churchbells toll no hour thrice\u2026.\r\n\r\ndogs barking endlessly nightlong, a sign\r\nof the ending of days, are lain down in stillness;\r\nFrom my threshold of silence candlelighted I listen\r\nalone, the flourish of wind through the trees \u2014\r\n\r\ndawn of grey rose, expansion of morning.\r\n\r\nAwake! lone bird at my window exulting\r\neach morning   just now   pure voice of clear water\r\nover scales sings his varying plainchant,\r\nOccasional cock\u2019s crow of distance immersed\r\nin his heraldry clear as the altitude of bells\r\n\r\n: Delight of the First Day sings Origin\u2019s creature\r\nJoy blessed with creation, and the reigning of light!\r\nA shower of thistlefall tongue could not tell\r\nof this river I listen to, silver and lilting\r\nand Swiftly Gone; merged beneath morning\r\nhe returns to his home unseen among fountains.\r\n\r\nFrom flickering room, grey shades of the window\r\nI come into clarity, deep blue beginning\r\nthe sky again round in the East, and extending\r\nthe breadth of horizon\/ scarlet Ariel hearth until sunrise.\r\n\r\nDawn waiting under the branches,\r\nMorning leaps out of my eye!\r\nCelestial candles coinciding at sunrise!\r\nRed-Golden the tolling of bells rolls over me!\r\nSounds falling in one enormous voice, foretelling\r\nthe day by its chorus, expanding horizons onto\r\nheaven: for empty of thee the psalm perishes.\r\n<\/pre>\n
Jerusalem, \u201963<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
25\/12\/2010: Valery Oisteanu just sent me his homage-poem for Janine, which I’ll add:<\/p>\n
\n
The Drum Circle for Janine Pommy Vega<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Beat the drums slowly, like a wave of pebbles
\nFor the Bearsville medicine woman of Willow
\nBeat the drums quietly, for the beat poetess of Woodstock
\nBeat the drums, till the snakes gather round the fire
\nThe witches\u2019 brew fills the air with vapors of lizards
\nAs the guitars play for the freedom of memory
\nIn a trance, shaking shakers, improvising, reading
\nFrom Europe to Naropa, from Colorado to El Dorado
\nThe woman-warrior of the Beats, from Napoli to Tripoli
\nRadical, instinctual, climbing the highest mountains
\nA Wind has blown out her candles
\nDisappearing deep in the dark forest
\nThe blossoms remain floating in your garden,
\nDown the steep slopes into your creek
\nSleep Janine, with all the birds exulting at your window
\nThey cannot wake you up anymore, only your memory
\nBeat the drums till we are out of breath
\nJanine walks freely through the Eternal city<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The poet, teacher & activist Janine Pommy-Vega passed away yesterday, 23 December. More information here and here. And below, the opening poem of her first book, Poems to Fernando (City Lights Books, 1968): The...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,91],"tags":[907],"class_list":["post-5548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituaries","category-poetry","tag-janine-pommy-vega"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5548"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5556,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5548\/revisions\/5556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}