Wisdom is in the air. It is 2020, our year of wisdom at Tweetspeak Poetry. Our guide for this journey is William Stafford, through his poem A Ritual to Read to Each Other.
Let’s start with the title, which invokes the ritual of reading to someone. Consider this a scene from a book in which one person reads to another … creature.
The dormitory doors flew open, making them all jump: Hagrid came striding toward them, his hair rain-flecked, his bearskin coat flapping behind him, a crossbow in his hand, leaving a trail of muddy, dolphin-sized footprints all over the floor.
‘Bin in the forest all day! he panted. ‘Aragog’s worse. I bin readin’ to him—’”
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
Hagrid has been reading to someone. Because he’s Hagrid, the someone is not a child or a beloved dog but an elephant-sized spider, named Aragog. It is this creature who is the object of Hagrid’s tender affection. What do you suppose Hagrid read to his poor, dying, flesh-eating spider?
What do you read to someone who has hurt you? Who has hurt those you love?
Aragog is almost like a child to Hagrid, who raised him from the time he was still in an egg. Hagrid has a soft spot in his half-giant heart for magical creatures, especially those that everyone else would prefer to see eradicated.
When the spider is accused of mayhem, Hagrid hides it and takes blame he doesn’t deserve, earning a lifelong ban on doing magic. So he could resent Aragog for that. But he reads to him.
Years later Aragog almost kills Harry Potter and his friends. Hagrid could reject Aragog for that. But he reads to him.
Eventually Aragog dies and receives a proper funeral with a eulogy, and a bit of his venom is saved for its magical properties. Perhaps he deserved to be read to after all.
He’s not all bad. No one is.
Who in your life resembles a giant dangerous spider? Who has hurt you?
For myself, I picture someone who embodies this line from Stafford’s poem: a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break. This person shrugs when I mention my problems, be they as small as a flat tire or as large as a loved one’s diagnosis. I don’t know why this person’s inclination is to shrug, but I don’t understand a lot about Aragog either. I do know it is up to me whether I allow the shrug to let “the fragile sequence” break.
If my shrugging friend were dying, what would I read? Would I choose something that underscored my point of view? Would I introduce the world of Harry Potter, hoping that would bring about deathbed repentance? Or would I pick whatever book was lying on the friend’s bedside table, open to the bookmark, and begin to read aloud?
_______________
December Pages
Finished
Poetry
The Boat of Quiet Hours, Jane Kenyon
Adults
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel, Jasper Fforde
Simply Surrender, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, edited by John Kirvan
Children
Curious George, H.A. Rey (Children’s Book Club meets next Friday, January 10!)
Made Progress
Sense & Sensibility, Jane Austen
The Cricket in Times Square, George Selden, illus. Garth Williams (middle grade)
Your turn
1. Did you make time to read to someone this month? Who might you read to?
2. What does the phrase “a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break” mean to you?
3. Share your December pages. Sliced, started, and abandoned are all fair game.
Photo by Larry Lamsa, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome.
Browse more A Ritual to Read to Each Other
“Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry is not a long book, but it took me longer to read than I expected, because I kept stopping to savor poems and passages, to make note of books mentioned, and to compare Willome’s journey into poetry to my own. The book is many things. An unpretentious, funny, and poignant memoir. A defense of poetry, a response to literature that has touched her life, and a manual on how to write poetry. It’s also the story of a daughter who loses her mother to cancer. The author links these things into a narrative much like that of a novel. I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”
—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro
- Perspective: The Two, The Only: Calvin and Hobbes - December 16, 2022
- Children’s Book Club: A Very Haunted Christmas - December 9, 2022
- By Heart: ‘The night is darkening round me’ by Emily Brontë - December 2, 2022
Glynn says
I went back and read Stafford’s poem, except I considered it in the context of today’s political environment. The line might be “a scream that lets the fragile sequence shatter.” I’m tired of the screaming, I think.
Read in December (I had two weeks of features on Christmas and romance at my blog, which explains my reading):
Mystery
The Poker Game Mystery by Peter Bartram
The Diamond Murder by Roy Lewis
A Crime for All Seasons by Scott Hunter
Historical fiction
The Highlanders – four novellas by various authors
Tavish by Jane Stain
A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs
Mrs. Potts and the Christmas Visitation by B.T. Gage
The Ghost of Madison Avenue by Nancy Bilyeau
Romance fiction
Love, Snow & Mistletoe – four novellas by various authors
His Mountain Wish by Melissa McClone
A Christmas Homecoming by Melissa McClone
A Christmas Wish by Leanne Morgan
Christmas Like this by Carina Taylor
Comfort Crossing Holiday Collection by Kay Correll
The Christmas Cookie House by Jennifer Griffith
Meet Me at Christmas by Lucinda Whitney
The Christmas Baby Bundle by Barbara Rohr
The Best Friend’s Billionaire Brother
Savanna’s Gift by Camille Eide
A Christmas Homecoming by MaryAnn Diorio
Everybody Loves Mickey by Therese Travis
One Christmas Eve by Robin Patchen
Not Until Christmas Morning by Valerie Boded
Non-fiction
Beyond Tenebrae by Bradley Birzer
Sherman’s March to the Sea by John Marszalek
Poetry
The Cultivation of Christmas Trees by T.S. Eliot (a host poem published as book in 1956)
Signposts to Elsewhere by Yahia Lababidi (second reading)
Megan Willome says
Yes, I think the word “scream” applies to today’s discourse.
I’m curious: What did you learn from diving into romances this holiday?
Glynn says
I will have a post about it on my blog Monday. 🙂
Megan Willome says
Just read it. It’s interesting for me to read a take from a man who admits to not having read many stories in this genre until recently. But you obviously get the appeal.
I’m reminded of a wonderful writing teacher I had in college, who often brought it real non-academic writers to speak to us, and I remember the romance novelist to this day.
Will Willingham says
So, the Cricket in Times Square was one of my favorite books as a kid. And ever since my heart melts at the sight of a matchbox.
The right (wrong?) kind of shrug absolutely lets the fragile sequence break. (Often in ways that screaming never could, curiously enough.) There’s the shrug that indicates indifference. And there is the shrug that says, “See?” Both are a measure of the other’s unwillingness to engage in a way that allows one to be seen, can move a conversation or circumstance forward, are a failure to recognize the inticracy of the line when really, holding it together can actually be the simplest thing in the world.
Anyway. I had forgotten about Hagrid reading to Aragog. Such a simple little thing and such a great gift as well. It is part of my overall view of the state of the world that everyone needs a friend they can read to, and a friend to read to them. It could be the same person, or it could not. But if we did this, the world would be different. (Fewer shrugs and less screaming, I imagine.)
This month I’m continuing to read Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding. It’s a very interesting look at data showing that certain of our heuristics and cognitive biases contribute (and this is on a global scale, not just us here in the US, and in fact the author is based in the UK) to a kind of delusion about any number of topics from our own health and wellness to the political to the climate. I also started the YA fantasy Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi (the second in the Legacy of Orisha series), and How We Fight for Our Lives, the memoir by Saeed Jones.
Megan Willome says
Will, I can see why you loved that book. Somehow I’d never read it until now.
I’ve heard great things about the Saeed Jones memoir. Thanks for bringing your list.
Fewer shrugs + less screaming + more reading to each other = a better world.
Bethany R. says
Thank you for highlighting this charming idea of reading to each other, Megan. I enjoyed reading this and the thoughtful comments. 🙂 Happy New Year to each of you.
Megan Willome says
Happy New Year to you too, Bethany. And if you have a tale of reading to each other, please share with us, Bethany.
L.L. Barkat says
“What do you read to someone who has hurt you? Who has hurt those you love?”
That is such a great question, as are the followup questions you pose at the end of this piece. Poetry, maybe, since it seems to leave more space than prose for the other person to bring themselves to it… and for the reader and read-to to ultimately “meet,” which is something I’m thinking on now that I’m reading books again (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started reading on Jan 1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
I’m thinking on “meeting” because the epigraph to the first book I opened was: “All real living is meeting.” (—Martin Buber as quoted in Taking Our Places, which was recommended to me by one of our patrons, as a wisdom title to consider for 2020)
I think it’s important to ask ourselves what tends to tempt us to shrug and also for us to ask ourselves what societal dynamics are causing people to shrug. It’s a deep-down question, and the answers might surprise us. But it does seem a critical question to both ask and then work to answer with shifts within ourselves. I do hope our TSP Year of Wisdom will contribute to some shifts. Already it is doing that for me as I’ve opened up 3 wisdom titles to break my year-long reading sabbath.
In December, I did not read any books. I did, however, when my daughter got excited about the prospect of me approaching the world of reading again as 2020 neared, get *read to.* I had bought her the annotated Dracula for Christmas. She loves it and asked if she could read me the story. I said it would be a great way to lay down the red carpet for my impending re-entry to bookland. I look forward to the story with her every night. Reading together is a bond, when there’s the joy of sharing rather than the agenda to change.
Megan Willome says
I look forward to reaping some of the fruits of your reading sabbath.
Meeting people over poetry is one of my favorite things. I wish I could do it with everyone, but sadly, too many people are still afraid and shrug it off.
L.L. Barkat says
My fruits might end up being more philosophical than I thought they would be. We’ll see. 🙂
Do they tell you what they are afraid of?
Megan Willome says
Of Poetry. Sadly I can’t make everyone read “The Joy of Poetry” and get converted to said joy.
L.L. Barkat says
Yes, of poetry. 🙂 I was thinking… what is it about poetry they feel afraid of?
Maureen says
I’ve read in the last month:
‘The Ungrateful Refugee’ (Dina Nayeri)
‘Born a Crime’ (Trevor Noah) That title!
‘Last Witnesses’ (Svetlana Alexievich)
‘A Happy Truth: Last Dogs Aren’t Always Last’ (D.A. Hickman)
‘The Truffle Underground’ (Ryan Jacobs)
‘The Yellow House’ (Sarah M. Broom) I was a bit disappointed in this, as I found the writing to be uneven.
‘An American Sunrise’ (Joy Harjo) I highly recommend Harjo’s work.
And before these: ‘Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, Radical Poet’ (Terese Svoboda) and Carolyn Forche’s ‘What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance’.
Am reading:
‘To the Wren: Collected & New Poems 1991-2019’ (Jane Mead) Massive collection of work
Waiting to be Read:
‘Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy’ (Eric Metaxas)
‘Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland’ (Patrick Radden Keefe’
‘Deaf Republic’ (Ilya Kaminsky)
‘Felon’ (Reginald Dwayne Betts) I’ve been following his work since first learning his story years ago.
Perhaps one of the most impressive books I read is 2019 is ‘On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous’ by Ocean Vuong.
Your column brings to mind reading to my son (he sometimes reads to me now, over the phone), and my poem ‘Goodnight Moon’.
What else the column brings to mind: students work-shopping their writing in college, poetry (or other kinds of) readings in bookstores, etc.; reading with children in after-school programs (I did this in November); readings during church services (and listening intently vs reading along), watching people being read to while watching a film or some other kind of show….
Megan Willome says
Maureen, I love that you shared so many associations with reading to others and being read to. I hope your reading to children in November brought you joy.
Tweetspeak is planning to do a book club on “Deaf Republic,” and I plan to read it then. I second your commendation of Joy Harjo. What an inspired choice for poet laureate.
Terese Svoboda says
Thank you.
Megan Willome says
Thank you for visiting, Terese.