Natasha Trethewey
U. S. Poet Laureate
According to The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, “Poet Laureate” is a noun (plural Poets Laureate...), “an EMINENT [emphasis added] poet appointed by the British royal household to write poems for royal and official occasions.” [© Oxford University Press, 2004.]
Generally speaking, according to Wikipedia, it is “a poet officially appointed by a government, or conferring agency, who is often expected to compose poems for special events and occasions.” Furthermore, “The United States Library of Congress has since 1937 appointed an official Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress until 1984. An Act of Congress changed the name of the position in 1985 to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.” On June 7, 2012, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington … announced the appointment of Natasha Trethewey as the Library’s Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2012-2013.
On January 10th of this year, on this blog, I posted an entry titled, “Inauguration Hypocrisy” in which I discussed the fact that President Barack Obama had appointed as his inauguration poet a little known (I had personally never heard of him) gay, Hispanic civil engineer living in Maine (where I live). Now that the inauguration is over and we have heard the aptly named Mr. Blanco read the “poem” he wrote for the occasion, I have a question to ask:
Why was the official “Poet Laureate” of the United States, Natasha Trethewey, not given the assignment to write and deliver the President’s Inauguration Poem?
In response to my original posting I received this message from a writer in Montana:
“’Gay, Hispanic-American’ hits enough political buttons to make his [Obama’s] point with all but people who think that the poetry might be the best reason for choosing the poet. Maybe choosing a gay, Hispanic-American policemen would be the right choice if you wanted to dress up the balcony to salute the blue states.” J. H.
I think that response answers my question. The consequence? Today I received this email message from California:
OY OY OY “THE PLUM BLUSH OF DUSK”
Blanco was
Another
Blank
In the Great
Blank
Tradition
Of Inaugural
Poets
A lotta
Corn
In "One"
Really
Bad
Poem
Jack Foley
I replied, “It didn't come close to being a poem, Jack. It was as bad and lengthy a speech as any we heard today, including the interminable Invocation. The full text is on-line in several places; here is one of them:
http://www.denverpost.com/nationalpolitics/ci_22419123/inaugural-poem-text?source=pkg. And Stephen Colbert took a shot with a limerick at Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco on “The Colbert Report”: "Of course, folks, being Democrats, there legally had to be a liberal, gay Latino poet from Maine." After showing a clip of the poem, Colbert said, "Would it kill you to throw a rhyme in there? It's a poem. It's not that hard. Here:
BACK TO BARACK
There once was a man named Barack
Whose re-election came as a shock
He raised taxes I pay
And turned marriage gay
And now he's coming after your Glock."
Stephen Colbert
I figured that, if Colbert could do it, so could I:
BLANCO VERSE
A poet named Blanco wrote verse
That wasn't quite, but, what was worse,
As everyone knows,
Was rather like prose
That never approached being terse.
Lewis Turco
And apparently, so did Jack Foley:
OBAMA DREW A BLANK
Obama, alas, drew a Blank.
He’d heard from his famous think tank,
“We need a poem
To serve as a proem.”
He got one but, honey, it stank.
Jack Foley
I am considering a new term to be included in The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and Invented Forms, Revised and Expanded Fourth Edition: "Blanco verse," non-verse; prose, an ode without metrical form or linguistic interest.
On Jan 22, 2013, at 12:05 PM, jforjames@aol.com took umbrage with my Blanco send-up of Sir W. S. Gilbert's "I am the very model of a modern major general":
I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A POET ORATORICAL
With apologies to the shade of Sir W. S. Gilbert
I am the very model of a poet oratorical.
Although I have no store of clever pictures metaphorical,
I know the presidents of the United States historical
And I can name them in an order that is quite rhetorical.
I am a civil engineer, but I can wax poetical
To some degree – I’ve written now and then, I think, a versicle
That, though it may not strictly be what some might call prosodical
At least, perhaps, it’s prose put down in documents methodical.
CHORUS: At least, perhaps, it’s prose put down in documents methodical -
At least, perhaps, it’s prose put down in documents methodical --
At least, perhaps, it’s prose put down in documents methodical.
I’m very good at writing town reports that are quite legible,
Unlike my fellow townsmen’s that are rather inaccessible.
They did not know my talents are in no way antithetical
To writing odes for Presidents in masks that are poetical.
CHORUS: In short, although he has no clever pictures metaphorical
He is the very model of a poet oratorical.
In matters of my gender I am gaily interchangeable
And not at all what Baptists might believe to be derangeable
Which counts in politics these days almost as much as ethnical,
But I have that as well because my genes are called “Hispanical.”
I’m middle-aged at forty—five, but I am adolescent-ish
In people’s minds because when I perform I’ll still be youngest-ish,
Compared with Robert Frost who was the first to read for Kennedy
A famous verse which he applied to Russia as a threnody.
CHORUS: That famous verse which was applied to Russia as a threnody.
That famous verse which was applied to Russia as a threnody.
That famous verse which was applied to Russia as a threnody.
Oh, I can write a parking ban in Babble-on cuneiform
And tell you every detail of a housing codex uniform.
In short, although I have no store of pictures metaphorical.
I am the very model of a poet oratorical.
CHORUS: In short, although he has no store of pictures metaphorical
He is the very model of a poet oratorical.
Athough I don’t know what is meant by "anapest" or "triolet"
I’m Puerto-Rican, born in Spain, I understand the word “Ole!”
And that, no doubt, is nothing short of something more than wonderful,
For I can tell the difference ‘twixt “chattels” and a lotta bull,
And I hope soon to learn what progress has been made in punnery
Though I suspect that nonesuch will be found in any nunnery;
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental poesy
I’m sure Obama will agree I’ve done him proud in poetry.
CHORUS: You’ll say he’s done Obama proud in what must pass as poetry!
You’ll say he’s done Obama proud in what must pass as poetry!
You’ll say he’s done Obama proud in what must pass as poetry!
In versifying practice, though I'm plucky and adventurous
I’m sure you’ll find there’s nothing found that’s rhyming or censorious,
But still, although I have no store of pictures metaphorical.
I am the very model of a poet oratorical.
CHORUS: But still, although he has no store of pictures metaphorical.
He is the very model of a poet oratorical.
Lewis Turco
He wrote:
Lew,
Not as much charm and wit as I remember in G&S and too much mocking of Blanco's heritage and homosexuality for my taste. Blanco did a stand up job, I thought. Just because he doesn't do poetry in meter and rime doesn't mean he couldn't if he chose to. You presume a lot (unless you know Blanco more than you're letting on.)
Jim
I replied,
I've looked his work up on-line and read as much as I care to; however, the point is that he was chosen, not as a poet primarily, but as a politically correct symbol because he is gay, Hispanic, and the son of a Cuban immigrant, all target demographics for the Obama administration. Natasha Trethewey is the official Poet Laureate of the US, and it ought to have been her job to deliver the Inaugural Poem, no?
As to your remarks about Blanko's metrical abilities: he has none that I can discover. I have always felt that an artist ought, at the very least, to be able to draw. Likewise, any poet ought at least to be able to hear the music of the language and to demonstrate it in verse. Ignorance is not bliss, Jim, it is simply ignorance.
Lew
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