Lighter and Darker Tones in Poems of George Bilgere

George Bilgere, his tone jovial and ironic, continues the motif of encroaching technology that was prompted last week by Stephen Burt. In "Bridal Shower," Bilgere draws us in with the title--where will the bridal shower show up in the poem? He was prompted to write this poem by the sight of people walking across campus or in restaurants talking on cell phones.  He longs for someone, phoneless in a distant cafe,  with whom he can have genuine communication. But what is not stated--and came out in an excellent observation in our discussion: everyone else, albeit via cell phone, is communicating with someone, and the narrator is left with the apostrophe that is both funny and sad: "O person like me..."

With the title  "At the Vietnam Memorial" Bilgere gives us essential information without telling us too much. The poem begins and ends with writing on a wall. The year 1968 hints at what is going on. The tragedy of Paul Castle's life is evident; less so, the outcome for the narrator and others "who trail/obscurely, in the wake of the swift." In rereading the poem, I was particularly struck by the words: "I don't recall his time."

We enjoyed Martha Golensky's "The Color of Loss," with the inherited friend and the spectrum of colors. Congratulations to Martha on winning first place in the Light Verse category of the Burlington Writers Club contest. I have asked her to read "The Tinkerer" tomorrow.