Poet of the Month

February's Featured Poet
Elizabeth Alexander (1962-), chosen to write and read a poem for President Obama’s Inauguration last month, earned her B.A. at Yale, M.A. at Boston U., and Ph.D. at U-Penn. Her books of poems include American Sublime (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), Antebellum Dream Book, Body of Life, and Venus Hottentot. Her honors and awards are numerous. She has taught at Haverford College, U-Chicago, U-Penn, and Smith College. She is currently Yale Professor of African American Studies and English Literature. The following poem is from American Sublime.

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?

Further Reading: Venus Hottentot, and Body of Life, available at the library.

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson