Comments on: I Speak of the City: Amiri Baraka http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/ The online poetics journal of Oscar Bermeo Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:25:49 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: scottwoods http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-652 scottwoods Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:39:00 +0000 http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-652 Can I also point out that while Baraka's poem is pedestrian, it is a different strain of pedestrian. There is "Here is what I see" and there is "here is a list of things I see." The difference between the two is that the first, when done poetically, funnels through a lens of the poet's voice and imagination. The second is a grocery list. I'd agree that Alexander's poem was pedestrian in tone, if not wholly as device. Can I also point out that while Baraka’s poem is pedestrian, it is a different strain of pedestrian. There is “Here is what I see” and there is “here is a list of things I see.” The difference between the two is that the first, when done poetically, funnels through a lens of the poet’s voice and imagination. The second is a grocery list. I’d agree that Alexander’s poem was pedestrian in tone, if not wholly as device.

]]> By: scottwoods http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-651 scottwoods Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:24:00 +0000 http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-651 You can probably guess what my column will say about it, but I didn't like the poem or the delivery. Understand that I am not dogmatically equating "delivery" with full-bore "performance" (though by definition, delivery is performance), so I'm not suggesting Obama should have picked a performance poet. I don't think anything was wrong with the idea of picking her. I do maintain that, while a personal choice, there's a lot of weight on a poet in that position to represent and she didn't. Or rather, she did, but in all the wrong ways.<br/><br/>It also bears noting that PLENTY of people didn't like Maya Angelou before she even read her inaugural effort and used her effort to suggest why she was wack. It was mostly poetry-centric jabs, but it was jabs. Elizabeth is different in that she is taking a lot of non-poetry jabs; non-poets just thought, "she's boring" and moved on (if they weren't part of the masses of peopel who moved on literally and figuratively after Obama's speech anyway). No one thought Angelou was boring, and I felt that even her inaugural poem, while not her best, was certainly valid and compellingly delivered. You can probably guess what my column will say about it, but I didn’t like the poem or the delivery. Understand that I am not dogmatically equating “delivery” with full-bore “performance” (though by definition, delivery is performance), so I’m not suggesting Obama should have picked a performance poet. I don’t think anything was wrong with the idea of picking her. I do maintain that, while a personal choice, there’s a lot of weight on a poet in that position to represent and she didn’t. Or rather, she did, but in all the wrong ways.

It also bears noting that PLENTY of people didn’t like Maya Angelou before she even read her inaugural effort and used her effort to suggest why she was wack. It was mostly poetry-centric jabs, but it was jabs. Elizabeth is different in that she is taking a lot of non-poetry jabs; non-poets just thought, “she’s boring” and moved on (if they weren’t part of the masses of peopel who moved on literally and figuratively after Obama’s speech anyway). No one thought Angelou was boring, and I felt that even her inaugural poem, while not her best, was certainly valid and compellingly delivered.

]]> By: Rich http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-650 Rich Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:53:00 +0000 http://www.oscarbermeo.com/2009/01/i-speak-of-the-city-amiri-baraka/#comment-650 PEDESTRIAN: The two-dollar vocabulary work picked up by the blog critics who can't invent their own shit.<br/><br/>Luckily, I CAN invent some new language. Check it:<br/><br/>BLOGODEMIA: The new pseudo-intellectual class of blog critics and "literary professionals" who now claim hold over American poetry. i.e. Punk mofos who can't say some something to someone's face. See also: Cabrones.<br/><br/><br/><br/>I didn't like EA's poem, but so what. She doesn't write the kind of stuff I always dig. But she's the one Barack wanted. Life goes on, haters hate, and pa'l carajo with the rest. PEDESTRIAN: The two-dollar vocabulary work picked up by the blog critics who can’t invent their own shit.

Luckily, I CAN invent some new language. Check it:

BLOGODEMIA: The new pseudo-intellectual class of blog critics and “literary professionals” who now claim hold over American poetry. i.e. Punk mofos who can’t say some something to someone’s face. See also: Cabrones.

I didn’t like EA’s poem, but so what. She doesn’t write the kind of stuff I always dig. But she’s the one Barack wanted. Life goes on, haters hate, and pa’l carajo with the rest.

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