The Death of Poetry? Again?

So it seems a recent NEA report finds fiction reading on the rise, while poetry readership has taken a nosedive. Here's an inevitable "is the art form dying?" piece from Newsweek.

Read it here.

Critics have been signaling the end of poetry for years: Edmund Wilson said so in his 1928 essay "Is Verse a Dying Technique?", sixty years later Joseph Epstein said it was murdered in his essay "Who Killed Poetry?", and most recently Dana Gioia wrote a piece in 1991 entitled "Can Poetry Matter?" All of them seemed to rail on their contemporary poems being written by academics, elitists, and specialists.

While poetry is a niche market and will always be a niche market like the way opera and many other arts are, people from all walks of life continue to read poetry just as all different kinds of poets continue to write poetry.

Don't believe me? Check out The Favorite Poem Project. It was founded by former US Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, who set out to document and celebrate American's love for poetry. During a one-year open call for submissions, he was overwhelmed by responses from 18,000 Americans from ages 5-97, from every state, with diverse occupations, education and backgrounds who wrote to Pinsky and shared their favorite poems and personal stories of why those poems were so meaningful in their lives.

This year during the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, a Connecticut branch of The Favorite Poem Project is going to mirror Pinksy's original concept and the whole state of Connecticut will be versified. I'll be involved in this year's Favorite Poem Project in New Haven, too, so stay tuned...

For more info on the Connecticut Favorite Poem Project, click here.

Regardless of all the gloom and doom, poetry just keeps on truckin'. I'm not worried. It's a gorgeous spring day, I think I'm going to go make myself a cheese sandwich and down some orange juice. Maybe that'll inspire a poem. Maybe not. But so long as poets keep on scribbling, there will still be folks out there reading.

For an uplifting read, check out Donald Hall's essay "Death to the Death of Poetry".

Odes for Obama by American Poets

The Associated Press invited 10 American poets to write their thoughts on the Obama inauguration and put the results up on an interactive website. There's a cowboy poet, digital animation/poetry, and some vids of the poets performing their work. What's nice about the selection is the wide-range of styles, voices, and opinions. Some of the participating poets include Yusef Komunyakaa, Billy Collins, David Lehman, Amiri Baraka, Alice Walker, and others.

View Odes for Obama.

Elizabeth Alexander on The Colbert Report

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Elizabeth Alexander

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Elizabeth Alexander discusses her inaugural poem "Praise Song for the Day," and explains the difference between a metaphor and a lie. Funny stuff from Colbert as always. Glad to see him bringing poetry to the masses by including folks like Alexander and Robert Pinsky on his show.

Inaugural Poem Reaction

President Barack Obama's inauguration has come and gone. And as I watched the sweeping camera shots of the epic crowd on the Mall, one couldn't help but feel humbled by the sheer spectacle of it all.

There were certainly a lot of high points during the inauguration ceremonies: Aretha Franklin's stirring rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", Dr. Joseph E. Lowery's benediction ("When black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yella' will be mella', when the red man can get ahead man, and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy, say amen!", and of course, much of Obama's inaugural address.

There were a few low points, too: John G. Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States stumbling over the words of the oath of office, the inauguration running behind schedule, and, unfortunately, Elizabeth Alexander's poetry reading.

I don't mean to say that the poem was a failure. I think Alexander did the best she could under the circumstances. But the decision to place her reading directly after Obama's speech was an unfortunate one. How does one follow one of the most stirring orators in modern times? That's a tough act to follow, people. Did anyone else notice the cameras cutting away to droves of people leaving as Alexander was taking the stage? Ouch.

The media has also been pretty unforgiving of Elizabeth Alexander's poem. Some have been critical of the poem's content, calling it "bureaucratic" and "too prosy". Others complained about Alexander's "flat delivery" and sounding as if "she were ordering pizza on the phone" - I blame nerves. However, the media has also had a hand in butchering the poem by providing transcripts of it as if it were a piece of prose.

I think much of the criticism comes from people who either have no background or investment in poetry or from those who had high expectations for Alexander to elevate the art of verse on the national stage.

Was "Praise Song for the Day" a bad poem. Absolutely not. Is it a great poem? No. But Alexander had the daunting task of writing an accessible poem designed for the widest audience imaginable. I think very few poets would have been able to come out of this unscathed.

There are some lovely moments, particularly the sound and imagery of lines like "All about us is/noise and bramble, thorn and din, each/one of our ancestors on our tongues" and in the rhythm and call for optimism that echoes Obama's message of hope and change at the conclusion of the poem: "In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,/ any thing can be made, any sentence begun./ On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,/ praise song for walking forward in that light."

Mark Doty, who recently won the 2008 National Book Award for poetry, posted Elizabeth Alexander's poem in its entirety on his blog, complete with its lines and stanzas as she intended it.

Read "Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration" by Elizabeth Alexander here. You can also read the poem here.

Regardless of the bad press, it is heartening to read that a chapbook of Alexander's poem being published by Graywolf Press on February 6th is already the best-selling book on Amazon.com.

Inauguration Day Miscellaneous

After a battery-charging Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, I'm starting off the day (attempting) to get some work done. I say attempting because I'm currently glued to CNN's coverage of Barack Obama's inauguration.

I have a few links of interest in honor of this historical day:

The New York Times talks to inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander.

A new book called Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country from McSweeney's compiles advice and letters from children to Barack Obama with such nuggets of advice as "If I were president, I would help all nations, even Hawaii" (Chad, age 9, Los Angeles) and "I really hope you put America back together. No pressure, though." (Sheenie, age 13, Seattle).

David Lehman, on The Best American Poetry blog shares some insight on a poem Obama wrote when he was 19 years old. Read about it here. And read Obama's poem in its entirety here.

Happy Inaugauration Day!

Obama Picks His Poet!

The much-anticipated decision is over: Obama chooses Elizabeth Alexander to be his inaugural poet. Congrats to Alexander who becomes the fourth poet in American history to read at a swearing-in.

On a completely different note, Alexander is currently a professor of African American studies at Yale University. Nice to hear about someone in the neighborhood getting the nod!

Read more from The Washington Post.

Also, you can hear my prof, David Lehman, being interviewed by the BBC on the importance and significance of the inaugural poet. Listen to the complete interview (3:53) here: Download Poetry Lehman interview.

Poets Abuzz About Obama's Inauguration

John F. Kennedy had Robert Frost read at his inauguration, Bill Clinton teamed up with Maya Angelou. Will there be a poet joining Barack Obama at his inauguration, too? Nice to see David Lehman and The Best American Poetry Series Website get a shout out in this article. Way to represent poetry guys!

From the Herald Tribune:

"Speculation is rife in the poetry world," says Tree Swenson, executive director of the Academy of American Poets. "Given that he is so eloquent himself and so tuned to words, the assumption is that, of course, he will have a poet at the inauguration."

An "inaugural ode" contest sponsored by the Best American Poetry series Web site drew about 40 entries. Series editor David Lehman, himself a poet, said he came away "impressed by how serious people were" about the challenge. The entries "confirmed my idea that poetry is much more popular in the United States than people realize," he said.

More here.

Obama Poetry Ephemera

It must be a slow news day to have these stories up but better a slow news day than a bad news day, right?

Obama spotted carrying poetry book.

Greensboro Baker finds lost Obama poems.

Poets Write New York Times Op-Ed

With the election over, the people at The New York Times must have been pretty pooped so they went and got in touch with some poets to write the post-election analysis in verse.

Strange? I don't think so. After all, as Shelley once said, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

Read and listen to some post-election poems by John Ashbery, August Kleinzahler, Joshua Mehigan, Mary Jo Bang, and J. D. McClatchy here.

Two Poems for Election Day '08

Barack Obama

Obama Bama

Bo Bama

Bomama Fama

Fo Fama

Fee Fi

Fo Fama,

Obama!

by Greg Santos, August 13th, 2008


Many years later, as he faced the press junket, McCain was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover bubblegum ice-cream

John McCain was born on the same day as Michael Jackson.

As a boy, McCain frolicked amid the fragrant hollyhock.

At a Sunday School picnic, McCain was chagrined over the charring of his marshmallow.

On his 13th birthday, McCain was knocked unconscious by a rogue pinata.

Before long, McCain supped upon bowl after bowl of Lucky Charms. Alone.

Sometimes, when no one was looking, McCain cheated at Mad Libs.

Whilst sipping on a mimosa, McCain experienced a frisson before his mother's china hutch.

The next day, McCain leapt across a manhole with marked coolness.

Over time, McCain discovered his hidden talent for shadow puppetry.

At age twenty-eight, McCain eyed his mailbox with unbridled malice.

One evening, McCain awoke in a panic, unsure whether to use Head & Shoulders or Pert Plus.

On Wednesday, McCain was full of woe.

Behind the curtain, McCain gnawed introspectively upon a baby-back rib.

Two days ago, McCain strode confidently towards his expired medication.

At day break, McCain was especially amused at the sight of the Weather Network.

At 11:47 am, McCain recovered his self-possession via Overeaters Anonymous.

At high noon, McCain consumed his penultimate shawarma.

On this fateful day, McCain stood athwart the cheese aisle.

by Greg Santos, August 5th, 2008

The Poetry of Sarah Palin

We've seen The Collected Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld in Slate Magazine. Now the folks at Slate have posted The Poetry of Sarah Palin. Oh, goody! The "poems" were compiled verbatim from only three brief Palin interviews.

From Slate:

"On Reporters"

It's funny that
A comment like that
Was kinda made to,
I don't know,
You know ...

Reporters.

(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)

Read more of Palin's poems here.

Dana Gioia Leaving the NEA

Dana Gioia, the controversial chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts is stepping down from his position so he can get back to writing poems. Well, good for him.

People didn't always agree with his politics and policies but under Gioia's watch, the NEA introduced a wide array of programs that brought arts, literacy, and culture to the forefront of the general public.

Great programs like Shakespeare in American Communities, The Big Read - encouraging urban communities to read classic works of literature, and the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest - a contest that gets high school students to memorize and perform poems out loud, and much, much more.

In a time when the US was ready to cut down costs on arts and culture, Gioia and the NEA convinced everyone that the arts were a vital part of America.

Now if only someone like Gioia could convince Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the rest of the folks cutting all the arts funding in Canada that they're making a big mistake...

Gioia, I know you want to get back to writing poems again, but how about taking a trip to the Great White North?

More from The New York Times, and a funny piece from The Onion (I think THIS is the real reason Gioia's stepping down...)

Charles Simic stepping aside as poet laureate

Has it been a year already? It seems Charles Simic doesn't plan on serving another year as U.S. poet laureate, instead he plans on spending more time on his writing. Good for him.

More here.

More on the Mixed Race Dialogue

The notions of an "authentic" race, identity, and ethnicity are becoming a lot more slippery these days now that a lot of these "either/or" categories are blurring into each other more and more. I, for one, think this is a good thing.

From The New York Times:

Americans of mixed race say that questions about whether Mr. Obama, with a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, is “too black” or “not black enough,” as the candidate himself brought up in his speech on March 18, show the extent to which the nation is still fixated on old categories.

“There’s this notion that there’s an authentic race and you must fit it,” said Ms. Bratter, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University in Houston who researches interracial families. “We’re confronted with the lack of fit.”

In interviews, people of mixed race said their decision about how to identify themselves was deeply personal, not political; it is influenced by how and where they were reared, how others perceive them, what they look like and how they themselves come to embrace their identity.

More here.

Identity Check

Since, I too, have a complex, multi-ethnic identity and background, I can definitely relate to this article.

Depending on whether I have a tan, on my hair length, if I have facial hair, and so on, I've looked Mexican, Indian, Spanish, Filipino, Asian (too many variations to name here), etc.

It seems like Barack Obama's recent speech on race is forcing a lot of people in America to give themselves a long overdue identity check.

From The Boston Globe:

ONE NIGHT SOME years ago, I tried to explain to my husband why it was that our future kids would be black kids. No matter how light or dark their skin turned out, no matter how coarse or cooperative their hair, chances were they would be black in the eyes of this racialized world, and I needed him to be prepared for that. So that they could be prepared for it.

He looked at me like I was crazy. Then he shot back, "They're going to be half-white too, you know." And as occasionally happens in our mixed-race marriage, I saw the canyon of America's race divide open up between us, right there on the sofa. "There is no such thing as half-white," I said, and I suddenly felt exhausted.

Now, however, it is becoming increasingly clear that color labels are fast losing their usefulness. Our kids have Haitian, French, German, and Irish blood running through their veins. In any given season, our 3-year-old can look Mayan or Polynesian or Native-American or Alaskan. Or he could look like a white kid with Mediterranean parents who tans well. If the early years are any indication, our kids are going to grow up eating Haitian plantain and meat pies and singing the French songs that have been passed down in my family, and building the punishing work ethic and thick skin that are legendary in my husband's family.

More here.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

I'm not here to endorse any of the presidential hopefuls since I'm not American but you have to admit that this music video is pretty powerful.

It was inspired by Obama's "Yes We Can" speech that he gave after the New Hampshire primary and was produced by The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am. and directed by Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan's son.

It make you wonder if videos like this will have any influence on the presidential campaign. I guess only time will tell.

View Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video.

View Obama's actual speech.

Is the term "Canadian" a new racial slur?

Wow, I can't tell you how shocked and disturbed I was to read about how supposedly, "Canadian" has become a code word for blacks among some American racists. I've never heard of anything like this before but would be interested to find out if there is any truth to these allegations. I mean, wtf?

From The National Post:

Last August, a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. "She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn't understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else," the blogger wrote.

"After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian' was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]"

A similar case in Kansas City was reported last year on a Listserv, or electronic mailing list, used by linguistics experts. A University of Kansas linguist said that a waitress friend reported that "fellow workers used to use a name for inner-city families that were known to not leave a tip: Canadians. ‘Hey, we have a table of Canadians.... They're all yours.' "

More here.

Art Movements Inspired by 2008 Presidential Hopefuls

The closer the US gets to electing a new president, the more I appreciate folks who don't mind poking fun at it all. Thank goodness for McSweeney's...

Read "Art Movements Inspired by 2008 Presidential Hopefuls by Eric Feezell."

Rage against the CanLit machine

There's an interesting article in The Toronto Star about the lack of recognition exciting young Canadian writers are getting from the "established" Canadian literary community, prompting many of them to find success outside of the country or by simply moving to New York/Brooklyn.

I think many of the young Canuck writers Marche mentions in his article are doing some great things, particularly Sheila Heti and Heather O'Neill (I haven't had a chance to read Bezmogis and Martel hasn't published anything since Life of Pi) but it's a shame their contributions to CanLit are seemingly being ignored by the so-called big fish (with the exception of O'Neill whose book Lullabies for Little Criminals was chosen for Canada Reads 2007 and is currently one of the finalists for the Governor General's Awards).

From The Toronto Star:

Brooklyn's books are like toys, meant to excite and give pleasure and challenge a little bit. In Canada, we are the oatmeal of world literature. We are on the cutting edge of blandness.

If you think I'm being extreme, just look at recent comments by Ellen Seligman, the publisher of McClelland and Stewart, one of the most powerful people in Canadian publishing. Her response to the Giller list this year struck me as a devastating assessment of where we stand: "I don't think prizes are necessarily for young writers," she said in The Globe.

It is a remarkable sentence. There are two ways to read it. 1) Young writers don't write well enough to deserve prizes. 2) Even if they do write well enough, only old writers deserve attention. Because that is what the Giller is, a massive dollop of attention. Seligman says it openly: Only books written by old people are worth serious attention.

There are young writers in Canada, lots of them, but they tend to be Brooklynish. They, too, write about kids: Heather O'Neill in Lullabies for Little Children, David Bezmogis in Natasha, Sheila Heti in The Middle Stories, Yann Martel in Life of Pi. These are the exciting books that have come out of Canada in the last little while. All of them were written by young people. All of them found their success outside of Canada: Heti at McSweeneys, Bezmogis at The New Yorker, O'Neill through a friend at The New York Times Magazine, Martel through the Booker. None of them was nominated for the Giller.

More here.

9/11

Here is a moving piece by Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska, in honor of those who lost their lives six years ago during the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Read "Photograph from September 11" and listen to an audio reading of the poem here.