On Elizabeth Alexander's reading of her poem

Reb Livingston has once again thrown water on the fire of pettiness that burns through contemporary American poetry, this time in connection with criticisms of Elizabeth Alexander's poem for the inauguration and her reading of it. I recommend her post highly.

Here was my comment:

Thanks, Reb, for pointing out the absurdity of the criticisms of EA and her poem. I enjoyed the poem, myself, both as she read it and when I saw it with its correct lineation on Mark Doty's blog.

As you correctly point out, contemporary poets don't stand a chance when reading their work before or after politicians or preachers. But I also noticed that both Obama and Lowery are not shy of being *orators*, while EA (like just about any contemporary poet who might have accepted the gig) completely avoids anything "oratorical" in her presentation.

It made me wonder how the poem might have sounded if read by someone experienced in public oratory. I think it would have held its ground much better then.

That's not EA's fault, of course; the miniscule audience for contemporary poetry is quite shy of oratory.

Fourth Daily Poem Project, Week Six Call for Votes

THE FOURTH DAILY POEM PROJECT, WEEK SIX

Here are the poems to vote for in week six of my fourth Daily Poem Project (the poems on Poetry Daily from Monday, March 24, to Sunday, March 30):

36. The Chardin Exhibition, by Edward Hirsch
37. Strangers Buried Him, by Pat Boran (vote only on the first poem)
38. Genesis: Primeval Rivers and Forests, by Pattiann Rogers
39. Theory of Incompletion, by Mark Doty (vote only on the first poem)
40. Little God Origami, by Stefi Weisburd
41. A Witch's Dictionary (M-N), by Sarah Kennedy
42. Ode to the Maker of Odes, by Bill Zavatsky

This is the sixth week of twelve weeks, at the end of which the twelve winners will be put together for a final vote.

HOW TO VOTE: You can send your vote to me by email or as a comment on the blog. If you want to vote by commenting but do not want your vote to appear on the blog, you just have to say so in your comment (I moderate all comments). (If you read this on Facebook, please vote on my blog and not as a comment on Facebook.) I will post comments as they come in (unless you tell me not to post the comment, of course).

You may vote by the title, the author's name, or the number of the poem in the list above. Please make a final decision and vote for only one poem (although it is always interesting to see people's lists).

Please VOTE BY SATURDAY, April 4! But I will still accept votes as long as I have not posted the final results, which I will do on April 5. If you would like to receive an email announcing the posting of the results, make sure to get me your email address somehow (if it is not available through your blogger profile or the like, say).

The winner of week 1 was Alison Brackenbury's "Edward Thomas's daughter."
The winner of week 2 was Martha Zweig's "Overturn."
The winner of week 3 was B. T. Shaw's "We End, Like Galileo."
The winner of week 4 was Damian Walford Davies's "Plague."
The winner of week 5 was Mary Jo Salter's "Point of View."