ROCKING THE BUTTONS BOX
THE BOOK
..........................-
TENDER
BUTTONS
THE SUBBOOK
...................-
OBJECTS
THE SUBPOEM
...................-
A
CHAIR: NUMBER 18
STANZAS..............................-
9
WORD
COUNT......................-
256
THE
LEADER........................-
THE STEINY ROAD POET
CO-LLABORATORS..............-
MODPO STUDENTS/THE BUTTONS
GENRE..................................-
VIRTUAL OPERA
LOCATION............................-
USA, UK, Australia,
Philippines, S. Africa, Canada.
TIME......................................-
ALL HOURS OF EARTH’S CLOCK
TONE.....................................-
CLANDESTINE & MOURNFUL
A CHAIR.
A widow in a wise veil and more
garments shows that shadows are even. It addresses no more, it shadows the
stage and learning. A regular arrangement, the severest and the most preserved
is that which has the arrangement not more than always authorised.
A suitable establishment, well housed,
practical, patient and staring, a suitable bedding, very suitable and not more
particularly than complaining, anything suitable is so necessary.
A fact is that when the direction is
just like that, no more, longer, sudden and at the same time not any sofa, the
main action is that without a blaming there is no custody.
Practice measurement, practice the sign
that means that really means a necessary betrayal, in showing that there is
wearing.
Hope, what is a spectacle, a spectacle
is the resemblance between the circular side place and nothing else, nothing
else.
To choose it is ended, it is actual and
more than that it has it certainly has the same treat, and a seat all that is
practiced and more easily much more easily ordinarily.
Pick a barn, a whole barn, and bend
more slender accents than have ever been necessary, shine in the darkness
necessarily.
Actually not aching, actually not
aching, a stubborn bloom is so artificial and even more than that, it is a
spectacle, it is a binding accident, it is animosity and accentuation.
If the chance to dirty diminishing is
necessary, if it is why is there no complexion, why is there no rubbing, why is
there no special protection.
Dear Reader,
if you have made through the entire nine stanzas, you will notice this is where
the chair transcends to the seat of authority, death or clandestine sexual
encounter. You might need sturdy boots for this one.
STANZA 9:
If the chance to dirty diminishing is
necessary, if it is why is there no complexion, why is there no rubbing, why is
there no special protection.
Nicola Quinn launched the
discussion of stanza 9 in partnership with Claudia Schumann.
“Four
phrases, 2 starting with 'if' and 2 with 'why', and phrases 2 and 4 rhyme.
(Plus 8/8/5/6 words in each.)
“Was
thinking of 'if' as chance but it's not, it's cause and effect, as in 'if this,
then that'.
“Chance -
possibility, coincidence, accidental, risk
To dirty -
to sully.
Diminish -
decrease, lessen.
Necessary -
obligatory, imperative, inexorable, inescapable or as a noun, the basics,
requirements of life.
Complexion -
skin colour/tone or perspective, angle, slant (!)
Rubbing -
impression of a design.
Special -
exceptional, noteworthy, outstanding.
Protection -
defence, preservation, sanctuary.”
Despite
Barbara Crary saying she had little to say and that was “why this poor little
stanza stood orphaned for so long—t's a toughie,” a few things occurred to
her. “I keep hearing dirty diminishing in the context of death,
with the phrase from Ecclesiastes 3:20 echoing in my mind: ‘All go to one
place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.’ Death is necessary
and we probably never fail to ask why is there no special protection,
even in the case of the death of a great man (if we want to come back to a
Lincoln connection.) Those middle sections continue to elude me, though.
Claudia
Schumann responded:
“If we make something dirty, we diminish
it. Maybe it has something to do with their [Gertrude and Alice’s] relationship—the prejudice and misinformation about two women enjoying a loving
relationship makes it look dirty in the eyes of some. And in Gertrude's eyes it
sullies the relationship. Sad.
“Why is there
no complexion (why don't they see what their love is really like)? Why is there
no rubbing (why is their no understanding or sympathy? or why does no one rub
them on the back and say you are appreciated?)
“Why is
there no protection (why is there no one to stand up for them and defend their
relationship)?
“Of course,
from reading the biography (Souhami, Gertrude and Alice), I'm not sure
this train of thought will work. The only one who really disapproved of
everything that Gertrude did was her brother, Leo. Maybe this was a way of
Gertrude saying how much it hurt her that her brother was so hateful,
especially when they were so close when they were growing up together.”
Steiny added
her two cents:
“I've been
thinking about your thoughts on Stanza 9 and all the opened ended questions.
Then I thought about the Civil War associations and the Lincoln assassination.
My flight of fantasy is that John Wilkes Booth had to steal way from
Ford's Theater and not be recognized so he blackened his white face with dirt
to diminish his complexion, which was a form of protection. He could not allow
himself to rub what itched on his face lest he blow his cover since there was
no others to provide special protection. He was on his own.”
Then Eleanor rolled up her
sleeves and added this commentary which also reflected back on stanza 8:
“DIRTY DIMINISHING
This phrase
is so evocative of death (oh, look, another 'D').
“The corpse is
buried in the dirt, is diminished - decomposed (yet another 'D'), and becomes
dirt itself --- the dirt from which a stubborn bloom might grow. But if this
stubborn bloom grows from dirt, which is, in fact, a decomposed human, then
that bloom is man-made and may therefore be classified as artificial.
“Stubborn
bloom grows from dirt that is, in fact, a decomposed human, then that bloom is
man-made and may therefore be classified as artificial.
“SPECIAL
PROTECTION
A body
offers special protection for all of the innards—blood, organs etc.
A body
offers special protection for the physical and spiritual integrity of the
individual.
“A corpse is
buried out in the elements, a gravestone is a marker...it offers no protection.
“Previously in
this poem there have been allusions to physical structures, which offer
protection, e.g. a veil, a suitable establishment, well housed, a whole barn.
“Mentioning
the barn, in the comment box above, has reminded me of cows. One of you mentioned
a while back that have a cow is GS's
code word for have an orgasm. Does a
barn offer the cow protection?
“There seems
to be a really strong connection being made in this poem between death and
orgasm. It would therefore be highly remiss of us not to highlight the fact
that the word RUBBING has sexual connotations, especially in (but certainly not
limited to) the world of lesbian love-making. Google lesbian rubbing and rubbing
on chairs at your own risk. GS was taking massive risks in this poem (in my
opinion), and the erotic imagery hidden behind her words in this poem is still
a somewhat taboo subject in 2013.”
Another
thought Steiny has after reflecting on what has already been said about this
difficult stanza is that complexion, coming
after that pair of speculative but cause-and-effect if’s, might point to something more philosophical, as in the nature or character of something. If the stanza was talking about the
aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination, during the Reconstruction period, there
was an underhanded (dirty) diminishing of some legislation to help the Black
population transition from slavery despite the moral nature (complexion) that
one would expect to continue in the wake of the extensive mourning for the
fallen leader. The questions remain as to why there was no further polishing
(rubbing) of the laws and why there was no special protection for these
liberated people.
However,
Steiny also thinks this same kind of discussion could be derived for the
lesbian lovers. Again here is Stein reaching in various dimensions of poetic
thought.
IN CASE YOU
WERE ASKING, ARE WE THERE YET?
In his book Appreciation: Painting, Poetry and Prose
(published in 1947), Leo Stein wrote:
“It is better to read a
difficult poem a dozen times, than to read it once and then have it explained
to you. In the one case the process of re-creation takes place and in the other
it does not. To get to know what a poem is about is not a matter of importance…
It’s best to take poetry for its poetic value, if one can.”
Therefore, Dear Reader, the
study process of the Button Collective is a re-creation of Gertrude Stein’s
poem Tender Buttons. That the Steiny
Road Poet has chosen to give you a long inside look at how this process of
discovery works here in “A Chair.” with six parts to the discussion is only odd
because Steiny quotes Leo Stein, the brother of Gertrude Stein who stated many
times that what his sister wrote was nonsense. At the end of Leo’s life (he
died in 1947, almost one year to the day of Gertrude’s death), he said there
was no contention between his sister and himself. While this is not true, his Appreciation book shows how close they
were in their approach to art.
Maybe Steiny will give a
glimpse on another occasion about Leo’s views on the importance of sex in a
work of art. Meanwhile, Dear Reader, read “A Chair.” again and get into the
SloPo method used by the Button Collective to read Tender Buttons.