Vox Populi
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Chana Bloch: Happiness Research
Rain over Berkeley! The birds are all out
delivering the news.
The evening is wet and happy tonight.
“Is there more to happiness than feeling happy?”
the moral philosophers inquire.
Research has shown
if you spot a dime on the sidewalk
you’re more likely to tell the professor your life
is fine, thank you. The effect
generally lasts about twenty minutes.
Scientists are closing in on
the crowded quarter of the brain
where happiness lives. They like to think
it’s hunkered down in the left prefrontal cortex.
“Even in the slums of Calcutta
people on the street describe themselves
as reasonably happy.” Why not be
reasonable? why not in Berkeley? why not
right now, sweetheart, while the rain
is stroking the roof?
The split-leaf philodendron is happy
to be watered and fed.
The dress I unbuttoned is more than glad
to be draped on the chair.
~~~~
From Swimming in the Rain: Selected Poems 1980-2015 (Autumn House Press, 2016)
Chana Bloch (1940-2017) was a poet, translator, scholar, and teacher. During her lifetime she authored six books of poems and six books of translations of Hebrew poetry both ancient and contemporary. She also authored a critical study on George Herbert. Bloch was professor emerita of English literature and creative writing at Mills College, where she directed the creative writing program.
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I miss Chana Bloch. Such a wise and lovely poet.
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She really was wise and beautiful.
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“…people on the street describe themselves
as reasonably happy.” Why not be
reasonable? why not in Berkeley? why not
right now, sweetheart, while the rain
is stroking the roof?” ah, ……as ever, Chana Bloch reminds the human in me to remember to be human even in an inhuman world. As ever, my thanks.
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Thanks for this happy intrusion into a dark winter day in Minnesota.
We had an ice storm last night, following the ICE storm here that continues. Yet, for most of us, happiness continues, though sometimes in dribs and drabs. Wish I could have had Chana Bloch for a teacher.
Mills College, mentioned in another comment as where Bloch taught, was a “Sister School” to my Saint Catherine University, back in those days. We knew it as a beacon…for women’s education. Not sure now.
But, Bloch’s poem is headed for my printer, and the “life-giving anthology” of key poems, many first read on Vox Pop.
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Yes. Poetry heals us.
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“why not right now, sweetheart”
I just might have to say this to myself with a hand over my heart.
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Hahahaha!
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Thank you. Me, too!
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Ahh. Such wonderful morning fare. I’ve been happy and unhappy in many places, Berkeley not least, but where I’ve lately been the happiest despite the cancer squatting in my lungs like gnomes. I’ve indeed just, Bloch-like, happily completed another semester teaching writing. But I’ve also been happy at FCI Terminal Island, a federal prison on the Port of Los Angeles, where I would walk the yard and admire my view of an ocean plied with endless ships surfing in and out, carrying millions of cargoes of potential happiness ripe for the giving, even if their cavernous but oh so delectably-welded husks are bereft of certain A,B,Cs.
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Thanks, Matt. Your comments here are always so inspired.
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thanks. I wish I had the time to comment more often, although I fo read the poetry at least every day.
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Seeing Chana Bloch’s name first thing this morning was like having a much-loved ghost appear–she was my professor during a number of student years at Mills College (decades ago, when it was a fine liberal arts institution) and after I graduated she became a friend and mentor. This is one of my favorites of her poems, and I can easily summon memories of hearing HER read it … I think it must have been one of her favorites as well, because she read it often. I always smile at these lines in particular: “Scientists are closing in on / the crowded quarter of the brain / where happiness lives. They like to think / it’s hunkered down in the left prefrontal cortex.” Absolutely echt Chana. Thank you, Vox Populi, for this wonderful visitation. And timely reminder.
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Thanks, Annie. I published three of Chana’s collections when I was running Autumn House. She was a great poet and a beautiful person.
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This made me think of Jack Gilbert’s Brief for the Defense which always moves me. “There is laughter
every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta,
and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay.” Why not be ‘reasonably happy’ indeed, even for twenty minutes!
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Yes, thank you, Jan. Gilbert’s poem is one of my all time favorites!
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Ah, Chana! Thanks for this poem, Michael, wishing you and all of your readers at least twenty minutes of happiness whether or not they’ve found a dime in the sidewalk.
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Thank you, Luray. I’m very grateful for your presence on these pages.
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‘At times we (both) contain “Calcutta,” At times Elysium.’
You are so brilliant, Sean. I’m so glad you are here on these pages everyday. I am always inspired by what you say.
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She is so wise and fluent in her musings, what a fine poet! When she spoke about the “reasonably happy,” in the streets of Calcutta. I reflect on marriage, the luxury, in fact, safety of being “unreasonable” with someone in this befuddling inner world of the psyche and outer world (especially now,) of human event where its a challenge to be happy about anything. At times we (both) contain “Calcutta,” At times Elysium.
We’ve been at this 45 years!
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‘At times we (both) contain “Calcutta,” At times Elysium.’
You are so brilliant, Sean. I’m so glad you are here on these pages everyday. I am always inspired by what you say.
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