on the cusp...
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, ‘Take out your pencils. Begin.’
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
- from “Praise Song for the Day,” Elizabeth Alexander
20 January 2009
7 comments:
I think these are my favorite lines. Other poets are ripping Alexander to shreds over this, but I like it.
I really like this part: We encounter each other in words. Words are just that powerful.
I think Elizabeth Alexander did a great job. I hate it that other poets are criticizing her. Like we've read to an audience that size. LOL
Awful poem. Mindlessly praising it does a disservice to poetry.
I posted part of the poem, Bruce. I didn't praise the piece - although I have to say that I like the poem.
Literature is such a relative and subjective area. We like what we like and don't like what we don't like.
I don't believe we could prove Alexander's piece to be a good or a bad poem. Nor should we try.
"A teacher says: Take out your pencils, begin."
Understated, subtle, and a reference to a (our, United States')brand-new day.
I loved it!
"What if the mightiest word is love?"
That's the line that won't let go of me.
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