Linda Sue Grimes's Blog

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

Kooser’s Commentary

About the poem, Kooser comments: “This week’s poem is by a high school student, Michelle Bennett, who lives in Tukwila, Washington, and here she is taking a look at what comes next, Western Washington University in Bellingham, with everything new about it, including opportunity.

The Poem

Depending upon the reader’s own experience, this poem will ring happy or sad, melancholy or uplifting:

The first four lines of the poem:

You find yourself in a narrow bed you’ve never slept in,

on a tree-lined grassy field you’ve never walked upon,

on a cold toilet seat you have not sat on,

in a place you now call your home, your learning, your future

To read the rest of this verse, Column 234 .

Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry

While serving as the U. S. Poet Laureate 2004 to 2006, Nebraska poet Ted Kooser launched his series of weekly columns called American Life in Poetry. These columns are offered free to newspapers to dramatize the value and just plain fun of poetry and to demonstrate how poetry enhances life in America.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry

While serving as the U. S. Poet Laureate 2004 to 2006, Nebraska poet Ted Kooser launched his series of weekly columns called American Life in Poetry. These columns are offered free to newspapers to dramatize the value and just plain fun of poetry and to demonstrate how poetry enhances life in America.

Kooser’s Commentary

Kooser introduces the poem: “I don't often mention literary forms, but of this lovely poem by Cecilia Woloch I want to suggest that the form, a villanelle, which uses a pattern of repetition, adds to the enchantment I feel in reading it. It has a kind of layering, like memory itself. Woloch lives and teaches in southern California.”

The Poem

This poem has a disturbing, condescending tone, and says more about the speaker of the poem than it does about the subject, the speaker’s mother. It is a typical atheist/agnostic, postmodernist appraisal, easily forgotten, if ever read in the first place. I'm afraid Kooser's assessment of this poem is too kind and utterly simplistic.

The first two tercets of "My Mother's Pillow:

My mother sleeps with the Bible open on her pillow;

she reads herself to sleep and wakens startled.

She listens for her heart: each breath is shallow.

For years her hands were quick with thread and needle.

She used to sew all night when we were little;

now she sleeps with the Bible on her pillow

To read the rest of this verse, Column 228 .

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

In 1976, I entered Ball State University graduate school to pursue a M.A. in English. I was primarily interested in poetry writing, so I enrolled in a poetry writing workshop. We would hand in our poetic efforts, and the prof would make mimeograph copies to hand out to the class. We would read and react to the anonymous works during the workshop meetings.

One of the works that I found most memorable is titled, "The Woman Speaks Poetry." I had a copy of the original mimeographed sheet for a number of years but somehow eventually lost it. I had read it so many times, however, that I memorized most of it. The following is my rendering from memory:

THE WOMAN SPEAKS POETRY

And wonders along the Mississinawa

Crossing over through covered bridges

In the slow, green water of the river

Each word a milkweed in October

And clings to the cuff of my ear like cockleburs

Beneath the skins of grapes

Because this is merely a rendering from memory, there are, no doubt, many inaccuracies. I have left off all punctuation, because I cannot remember how or even if it was used.

If the poet who wrote this piece would just happen to see this blog entry, I would be delighted to have a corrected copy of this delightful piece.

Thank you for visiting Poetry at Suite101.com.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

"Lift Every Voice and Sing"

James Weldon Johnson's poem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," became the Negro National Anthem, and it was entered into the Congressional Record in 1990 as “The African American National Hymn.” With a theme not unlike that of the "Star Spangled Banner," the poem celebrates the struggle of a people for the freedom to which every human being is entitled as a birthright.

For an analysis and commentary about this poem/anthem, please see "June Poet - James Weldon Johnson: Analysis of 'Lift Every Voice and Sing'"

"Listen, Lord: A Prayer"

Born June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida, Johnson has served as my June poet-of-the-month for 2008 and 2009. His works are extraordinary; his lyric alone is musical and filled with devotional qualities. His metaphors are fresh and enliven the conversation that the devotee has with the Lord.

For an analysis of his poem/prayer, "Listen, Lord: A Prayer," please visit "Poet for June - James Weldon Johnson: "Listen, Lord: A Prayer." This article received the Editor's Choice Award.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

The Obamas seem to like a little hip-hop versification with their hip-hop. This misnamed event lacked even the pretense in featuring poetry, much less a pretense of diversity .

On May 12, 2009, in the East room, the White House supposedly hosted a poetry event—“an evening of poetry, music and the spoken word.” Introducing the affair, President Barack Obama announced, "We're here tonight not just to enjoy the works of these artists, but also to highlight the importance of the arts in our life and in our nation.” The president dabbled in some poetry writing in college. His poetic efforts include “Pop” and “Underground.” While failing to rise to the level of poetry, Obama’s efforts do rise above doggerel to the versification level.

And then First Lady Michelle Obama told the selected audience, "enjoy, have fun, and be loose.” She also added that she intends to make the White House "a place where all voices can be heard." Well, maybe not really “all voices.” According to the New York Times’ Mike Hale, “All of the performers were either of color or married to Michael Chabon or Michael Chabon himself.”

The forty-five minute event featured nine performers, of which only three fit, albeit uncomfortably, in the category of “poetry”—Chicago poetry slam champion Mayda del Valle, Joshua Brandon Bennett, Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, all of whose works represent hip-hop versifying. The remaining performances featured two jazz musicians, an actor, a novelist, an essayist, and a hip-hop musician.

Jamaica Orosio’s rap inspired, verse, no doubt, reminded the Obamas of sitting in church listening to their pastor for twenty years as the good reverend Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright pummeled the image of the country that the Obamas now serve as First Family.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

Paramahansa Yogananda’s poetry complements his teachings by dramatizing the plight of the devotee who has chosen to journey to the realization of his/her spiritual self.

The following articles offer commentaries on three of the great yogi’s poems from his seminal work, Songs of the Soul. Each of these three articles has received the Editor’s Choice Award.

Yogananda's "The Human Mind": Cities of Thoughts

January Poet - Paramahansa Yogananda: "The Screen of Life"

Yogananda’s "Vanishing Bubbles": Mayic Evanescence

I am in the process of composing a commentary for each poem in Paramahansa Yogananda’s Songs of the Soul. I have completed about forty commentaries, all of which have appeared here in Poetry at Suite. For a list of all the commentaries thus far completed, please visit Other Yogananda Articles.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

The event was much hyped; weeks before the name was announced, a buzz went up on the Web trying to predict on whom would be bestowed the honor of performing the inaugural poem at the most important inauguration of all time. Not since Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1997 had a poet read at the event.

Elizabeth Alexander, after being chosen by then President-Elect Obama, joined the ranks of the few: Robert Frost read at John F. Kennedy’s swearing in; Maya Angelou read at Clinton’s first inauguration, and Miller Williams at Clinton’s second. Thus, Alexander is only the fourth poet to serve as Inaugural Poet.

One might expect the poem offered to celebrate the first inauguration of an American of African descent to be remarkable, memorable, and profound. While Elizabeth Alexander’s poem is pleasant, it offers no true insight into the human condition. It primarily features a catalogue of ordinary daily possibilities that point nowhere beyond themselves.

The piece sounds prosaic, and on the page appears as lines broken to look like a poem. This form is typical for Alexander; most of her poems read like prose masquerading as poetry. It is sad that a truly substantive work of poetry did not grace this important event.

For an analysis of the poem, please visit Alexander's “Praise Song for the Day”.

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry

While serving as the U. S. Poet Laureate 2004 to 2006, Nebraska poet Ted Kooser launched his series of weekly columns called American Life in Poetry. These columns are offered free to newspapers to dramatize the value and just plain fun of poetry and to demonstrate how poetry enhances life in America.

Kooser’s Commentary

Kooser introduces the poem: “Memories have a way of attaching themselves to objects, to details, to physical tasks, and here, George Bilgere, an Ohio poet, happens upon mixed feelings about his mother while slicing a head of cabbage.”

The Poem

The first four lines:

I can see her in the kitchen,

Limited Midwestern repertoire.

To read the rest of this verse, please visit Column 205 .

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

Abraham Lincoln greatly admired poetry and poets. He once remarked that he would give anything, even incur debt to be able to write poetry. That Abe didn’t have much faith in poetic ability did not stop him from gracing posterity with a few poems.

Lincoln’s most widely disseminated verse, “My Childhood Home I See Again,” describes a visit to his childhood home. For an analysis of that poem, please visit “Abe Lincoln as Poet: 'My Childhood Home I See Again'.”

Now comes our new president, Barack Obama, who has two poems floating around the Internet. For an analysis of his effort, titled simply “Pop” please visit "Obama's Pop: President as Versifier."

Posted by Linda Sue Grimes

On January 9, 2009, Governor Rod Blagojevich, during one of his rambling diatribes, added a flourishing touch to his rhetoric by quoting a snippet from British poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “Ulysses.”

The governor quoted the last stanza consisting of the following six lines:

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though

For an analysis of the poem, please visit “Alfred, Lord Tennyson's ‘Ulysses’”: Life After Adventure.”