Ars Poetica #100: I Believe
Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry
is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said
“Every ‘I’ is a dramatic ‘I’”)
digging in the clam flats
for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)
is not all love, love, love,
and I’m sorry the dog died.
Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,
and are we not of interest to each other?
Elizabeth Alexander. African-American professor at Yale, whose work is truly inspiring will speak at Barack Obama’s inauguration, the Guardian interviewed her an excerpt below:
I’m just so honoured to have been asked to present and to compose a poem for this momentous occasion.. What we have seen is a man who understands that words bring power, who understands the power of language, the integrity of language, that it’s not just idle…
