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The Michigan Daily-Friday, October 21, 1977-Page 5
Von Duyn's domestic verse
Oh,
God!'
By MICHAEL BROIDY
God is about 75 years old, sports a toupee and fishing cap, wears plastic
black-framed glasses, and looks a lot like George-Burns. A modern-day
Moses is a boyish 30-year old, has a wife and two kids, and closely resembles
John Denver.
George Burns as the Almighty? John Denver, a latter-day Moses?
Strange as it seems, this oddest of couples achieves a surprising degree of
believability in the new film, Oh, God!
What could have been an exercise in foolishness, bad taste and/or
blasphemy thankfully turns out as a warm, immensely funny tale of a visit
by the Lord to this troubled planet of ours, ii order to straighten a few things
out. To accomplish this, though, he needs help, and help he gets through the
prophecies of one Jerry Landers, an assistant manager of a Burbank super-
market.
Our hero, needless to say, is a bit uncomfortable with this formidable
task. "Why me?" is the inevitable question; Why not?" is God's just as
inevitable and sensible answer. For Jerry is better than some, less than
See;'OH, GOD!', Page 9
*u ui
By CONSTANCE ENNIS
Few poets are able to confront do-
mesticity with quite the honesty,
force, and grace of Mona Von Duyn.
At a poetry reading Tuesday after-
noon in the Pendleton room, the voice
of Mona Von Duyn, winner of the
National Book Award, demonstrated
a poet mature both in craft and
perception. The r ead i ng was
straightforward and pointedly signi-
ficant, and her oral delivery was
soothing and clear.
amp
Beginning in a "light vein", Von
Duyn demonstrated her ability to
play with language in a poem entitled
Open Letter From a Constant Read-
er, about the relief of loneliness
through graffitti on walls.
Moving into a more serious tone,
which is certainly her best, she read
a surrealistic social protest poem en-
titled Causes, winner of the Bore-
stone Mountain Poetry Award. De-
scribing the poem first, she said "in
an enormous amount of life we exper-
ience, one is losing cause and effect,
and life is becoming more unreal."
Causes, therefore, is a series of
fragmented images which occur
simultaneously but cannot be related
logically:
"... the fear of death comes over
us in vacant places .. .
and there's never enough surprise
as the killer in the self,
nor enough differeqce between the
shooter and the shot,
nor enough melting down of sticks
to make new candles
as the earth rolls over, inverting
billions of houses."
Her poetry is brave and is contin-
ually establishing new ground both
lyrically and analytically. "I find,"
she says, "my richest hunting ground
for poems (are) in that place where
the undomesticated feelings, snap-
ping and snarling, run round the
domestic ring." In Relationships, a
poem about famous literary men who
made horrible fathers to their own
children while making perfect fath-
ers for other children, Von Duyn
expresses her keen domestic percep-
tion:
"The legal children of a literary
man remember the ugly words to
their mother,
...HIS STINK IN THE BATH
ROOM SICKENED THEIR NOSES*
. .. he fattened on fame and raised
them thin ...
But the secret sons of the same
man spring up like weeds from .the
seed of his world.. .
They unravel his sweater and
swing from his beard,. ..
and swell in his sight and suck him
thin.
! Her poetry covers a wide range of
subjects and the forms which she
uses are both ornate and bare. But
Mona Von Duyn's work is unique in
that it is a direct confrontition with
the self. She is continually working
toward a self-definition "which oc-
curs in the "home-base" from which
we go out to work, war, politics, and.
the conquest of nature, and to which,,
from those manipulative concerns,
we inevitably and constantly re-
turn."
In one of the later poems she read
titled A View, Von Duyn leaves us
with a statement on the surge of self-
realization:
Far ahead something definite is
about to occur,
The way goes flat, dusty,
way ahead a god is looming.
DR. DAVID NOEL FREEDMAN
Director of the Program on Studies in Religion
will present a lecture on -
"EBL A AN D THE BIBLE"
Friday, October-21-8 p.m.
at the
Ecumenical Campus Center
921 Church
By CINDY RHODES
and DAVID VICTOR
The Power Center's advertise-
ments in September read, "From
Sills to Shearing." Beverly Sills
performed last. month, and the'
George Shearing Jazz Quintet ap-
peared Wednesday evening. The
quintet, with a- rhythm section that
-
George Shearing Quintet
Rower Center
October 191977
Selections by: Benson, MacDermot-Ragny-Rado,
Sondheim, Webb-Rice, Newley
composed of various pieces from
Bowman, Wood, and Raye-DePaul-
Johnston. With a backdrop of lights
which progressedfrom red to rose, it
was the first focus on the guitarist,
Ron Whitsitt. The piece was especial-'
ly difficult for Shearing, who was
backed by the vibraphone. Shearing
followed this by soloing on the
See QUINTET, Page 9
as the first program in the 1977
Distinguished Faculty Series
All interested persons are welcome
included a vibraphone and guitar,
performed a variety of selections,
ranging from the traditional Green-
sleeves to .Aquarius. While this
program is good in :a nightclub sets
ting, it did not work as a concert.
The first half opened with what was
termed Rhapsody "on Paganini. Al-
most classical in nature, the song
allowed Shearing to show his ability
to produce clear and crisp notes on
the piano. The next selection, Care-
ful, was also dominated by piano and
drums. Here the "Shearing sound"
could be heard a t its best, as he broke
away from the structure of the song,
and began improvising with the
drummer, Rusty Jones. Unfortunate-,
ly, this was the only improvisation in
the entire show. Interspersed be-
tween songs, Shearing related a
variety of anecdotes about fellow
musicians, stories about his blind-
ness, and poor jokes.
One of the highlights of the show
was a selection called Melody,
The UM Black Graduate Alliance will
hold a forum for all black grad &
professional students at the U of M
entitled,
I "How To Survive I
i* Cat Michigan," .
on FRIDAY, OCT. 21, from 4-6 in the
East lecture room of the RACKHAM ,
BUIlDING.
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