Earthly meditation practices and benefits

Robert Wrigley

News

There's a mountain and a hundred miles between me and the jazz station, but sometimes

I can live with the static, a kind of extra-tempo air-drum percussion, the dead singer's voice tanged by smokes and too much gin. Some days, all I want is no news, none of the time.

On the other hand, this afternoon it wasn't music pulled me up, but what the field guide calls the black-chinned hummingbird's "thin, excited chippering."

It had got itself trapped in the garage, and though the big door was open, it stayed in the window through which it could clearly see a world.

By the time I heard it, it was so exhausted it let itself be cupped in my slow man's hands, and emitted, as I closed it in, a single chip then silence.

At the edge of the woods I knelt and opened my hands.

Not even thumb-thick, its body pulsed with breath, its wings spread across my palm, its eyelash legs sprawled left and right, indecorously. I stroked it as lightly as I could, as I might not my lover's breast but the down made seemingly of air thereon, and twice.

Then it flew, a slow lilt into the distance. For a while, even peace seemed possible, in the background

Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit."

These days, whenever one turns on the radio or flips open a newspaper, it is more bad news. It almost as if the media relishes the killings, violence, rapes and murders. It is what sells. It is what tantalizes. Look at the movies today -- one more bloody like "Saw3" "Crank" and "Primeval" than the other. The TV shows, who knows where the reality stops and the drama starts, or the other way around? The news -- children being abducted, fires, shootings here and abroad. Is this indicative of present times? Or, is it sensationalism? Is it possible to escape from the barrage of negativity and find enjoyment in the simple and pleasure-filled? Despite the name of Wrigley's latest book Earthly Meditation, this is questionable. Even the man in the poem "News," who lives a distance from the nearest populated area, is not able to leave violence behind.

In an interview about his work, specifically Earthly Meditations, Robert Wrigley stated about writing his poems:

writer steeps himself or herself in the craft of the art, keeps extending the range of his/her abilities, keeps trying to write what he/she can't write, what he/she would rather not write, what he/she finds too difficult or frustrating to write. In so doing, the writer prepares him/herself, develops the writing muscle, learns the whole array of tools, and thus, when the process is underway and that metaphorical door opens, the writer walks in and makes new and unforeseen things happen.

When reading "News" silently or out loud these "unforeseen" things are what make the poem so special. The words just flow outward like music. One of the most interesting things about this poem is that it tells a story. Some poetry captures a certain moment or feeling in time. This poem, instead, tells a complete tale in four stanzas: The introduction of listening to the music, the action of the bird being entrapped, and the conclusion, of the bird's release and the music once again being played.

As I condense the theme of the poem this way, it sounds so bland and boring, but it is anything but. In a short story, one quickly learns about the personality of the main character. The author has to quickly introduce this individual, and within a few pages make the reader understand him/her for who he/she is. Here, Wrigley does the same in a few lines. The reader can easily imagine this man who enjoys listening and relaxing to jazz and is gentle enough to cup a bird in his hand and set it free. How much feeling there is in the third and fourth stanzas! -- the panicked and fearful bird, heart pumping, the calmness of the man, the soft, loving strokes and upward lifting of the bird.

However, behind this calm and ease, is another emotion that Wrigley portrays. It is subtle, yet winds through the poem, so the reader knows that there is some kind of problem, challenge of violence that the man (and the outside world) is facing. Just the title, itself, foreshadows this. Who wants to listen to "news" these days? Is there anything positive and uplifting on CNN or in the papers? The poem explains it as the bird's frantic chirping and the line "even peace seemed possible."

What makes this so effective is the juxtaposition. In one case, is mankind en masse waging war and killing one another. Yet, in another situation, one man, stands alone, helping free and save the life of a gentle bird. Is this supposed to be optimistic? That the power of one can perhaps undo the damage of many? Or is it pessimistic? No matter what one man does, as a group humans will destroy each other? Here is the paradox and irony: This man is living 100 miles from the nearest city to be part of nature and escape this negative news, but still cannot get away from the destruction.

Another aspect of this poem, its "inspiration," is the figurative language. The words fly off the page like the bird. The descriptions and corresponding images are so clear: "the dead singer's voice tanged by smokes and too much gin," "its body pulsed with breath, its wings spread across my palm, its eyelash legs," and "stroked it as lightly as I could, as I might not my lover's breast."

Rather than rhyme, Wrigley uses a natural rhythm that goes well with the jazz music by such blues singers as Billie Holiday. It is melodic with different paces, given the varying number syllables in the lines. Although there is not exact alliteration, the words move and wave together, such as the metaphors "the static, a kind of extra-tempo air-drum percussion," and "its eyelash / legs sprawled left and right, indecorously."