Poetry Passion: The Legacy of Maya Angelou

RIP to a "Phenomenal Woman" - and one of the great poets of the 20th Century!

NPR Obituary of Maya Angelou, May 28, 2014

Poet, performer and political activist Maya Angelou has died after a long illness at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. She was 86. Born in St. Louis in 1928, Angelou grew up in a segregated society that she worked to change during the civil rights era. Angelou, who refused to speak for much of her childhood, revealed the scars of her past in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the first of a series of memoirs.
Growing up in St. Louis, Mo., and Stamps, Ark., she was Marguerite Johnson. It was her brother who first called her Maya, and the name stuck. Later she added the Angelou, a version of her first husband's name.

. . . Joanne Braxton, a professor at the College of William and Mary, says Angelou's willingness to reveal the sexual abuse she suffered as a child in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was unprecedented at the time. The critical acclaim and popularity of the book opened doors for both African-American and female writers.
"Maya Angelou brought about a paradigm shift in American literature and culture," Braxton says, "so that the works, the gifts, the talents of women writers, including women writers of color, could be brought to the foreground and appreciated. She created an audience by her stunning example."

Michelle Obama's tribute to Maya Angelou http://t.co/96QxtG4UMy pic.twitter.com/AOrrpwE03U

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) June 8, 2014

Reading the Inaugural Poem for President Bill Clinton
"On the Pulse of Morning"

Remembering the life of Dr. Maya Angelou, an American icon: http://t.co/joBeDqcapg pic.twitter.com/EDrPIkHrhP
— ABC News (@ABC) May 29, 2014

From the New York Times Obituary

In a statement, President Obama said, “Today, Michelle and I join millions around the world in remembering one of the brightest lights of our time — a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman,” adding, “She inspired my own mother to name my sister Maya.”

. . . she had already been a dancer, calypso singer, streetcar conductor, single mother, magazine editor in Cairo, administrative assistant in Ghana, official of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and friend or associate of some of the most eminent black Americans of the mid-20th century, including James Baldwin, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

Afterward (her six-volume memoir takes her only to age 40), Ms. Angelou was a Tony-nominated stage actress; college professor (she was for many years the Reynolds professor of American studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem); ubiquitous presence on the lecture circuit; frequent guest on television shows from “Oprah” to “Sesame Street”; and subject of a string of scholarly studies.

In February 2011, Mr. Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

I'm speechless with awe and amazement: 15 other jobs of Maya Angleou http://t.co/X6gwR17bWH
— Chernynkaya (@Chernynkaya) May 28, 2014

The most poetic interview in history:



On Sesame Street with Elmo:



With Oprah Going Down Memory Lane:

Yesterday, the caged bird sang the blues. RIP #MayaAngelou.
— Paul Lander (@paul_lander) May 29, 2014

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
~ Maya Angelou

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

~ Maya Angelou

When Great Trees Fall

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

~ Maya Angelou


Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size

But when I start to tell them,

They think I’m telling lies.

I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,

The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.

Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.

I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand

Just why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump about

Or have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing,

It ought to make you proud.

I say,

It’s in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair,

the palm of my hand,

The need for my care.

’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

 ~ Maya Angelou

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!

April 23rd is the birthday of the Bard, William Shakespeare!

Happy 450th birthday, William Shakespeare! Join the celebration: http://t.co/VKocR6ETO5 pic.twitter.com/rpqqHi4l4d

— CNN (@CNN) April 23, 2014

Happy 450th birthday William Shakespeare! Here are 50 of his phrases we still use everyday http://t.co/C1CqPRTrC8 pic.twitter.com/nY2UAvBjuH

— IndyArts (@IndyArts) April 23, 2014

Happy 450th Birthday, William Shakespeare! (Infographic provided by @cbcbooks) pic.twitter.com/a8AYHwXu0w

— Robert Mitchell (@RLM_3) April 23, 2014

#Shakespeare450th pic.twitter.com/kyNJZi0Ohc

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) April 23, 2014

Next time you're in a war of words, why not throw in some Shakespeare? You mouldy rogues! #HappyBirthdayShakespeare pic.twitter.com/g6vQTA1lHh

— VisitBritain (@VisitBritain) April 23, 2014

R.I.P. Peter Matthiessen

And only the enlightened can recall their former lives; for the rest of us, the memories of past existences are but glints of light, twinges of longing, passing shadows, disturbingly familiar, that are gone before they can be grasped, like the passage of that silver bird on Dhaulagiri.”
― Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard

The most "Zen" of authors has left this world for a new adventure: Peter Matthiessen, author of The Snow Leopard, Far Tortugas, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, and many more. His love of the earth and his philosophical musings on our place here had a major influence on all of us growing up in the 70s and 80s.

Obituary in the LA Times

Matthiessen, the only writer to win the National Book Award in both fiction and nonfiction, was both an elegant novelist and a rugged naturalist, a traveler known for his graceful yet spare descriptions of the wildest places on Earth.
Over six decades, he produced acclaimed volumes of natural history based on his treks through East Africa, New Guinea and the Amazon. He chronicled the plight of disappearing tribes. He wrote books about Cesar Chavez and Native American activist Leonard Peltier. He became a Zen devotee and wrote of a painful spiritual journey as he hiked through the Himalayas in "The Snow Leopard." At the same time, he wrote fiction; four of his novels centered on a respected and reviled sugar-cane planter who was killed by his neighbors in the Everglades.
He also helped found the Paris Review, the renowned literary magazine, which he used as a cover during his brief career as a spy for the CIA.

. . . Matthiessen traveled to remote corners of Alaska, Siberia, Peru, East Africa, Nepal and elsewhere. In central New Guinea, he was part of the 1961 Harvard-Peabody expedition that chronicled a Stone Age tribe, the Kurelu. Michael Rockefeller, the son of then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, disappeared on the same expedition.
Matthiessen's most controversial work was "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," a critical look at the conviction of Leonard Peltier in the 1975 murders of two FBI agents. Lawsuits filed by an FBI agent and South Dakota's former governor, Bill Janklow, were dismissed in 1990.

Jane Austen Graces the British 10 Pound Note

NBC News: Pounds and Prejudice

The writer of classics such as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Emma" will replace naturalist Charles Darwin on the reverse of Britain's most popular banknote.

Britain's central bank sparked an outcry in April when it announced former prime minister Winston Churchill would replace social reformer Elizabeth Fry on the reverse side of the five pound note, depriving the currency of its only female historical figure.

Mark Carney, the first foreigner to head the bank in its 319-year history, praised Austen as "one of the greatest writers in English literature" and said the choice of future banknote characters would be reviewed to ensure a row of this sort did not erupt again.

"We believe that our notes should celebrate the full diversity of great British historical figures and their contributions in a wide range of fields," he told a gathering at the Jane Austen House Museum in Chawton, the 17th century house where the author wrote some of her best-known novels.

The Austen notes are likely to come into circulation in 2017 and will feature a portrait adapted from an original sketch by Jane's sister together with the quote 'I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!' from Pride and Prejudice. ('A thousand times yes' does not appear in the book. That's a Keira Knightley special from the 2005 film based on the book.)
MORE AT LINK . . .

When Fonts Go Bad

In the modern world anyone who uses a computer, even children, have to face the question of which typeface to use for any particular project, whether it's a powerpoint for school, a poster for the PTA, an art graphic for Pinterest, or even a published work. Most computers are loaded with fonts, and you can download hundreds more for free on DaFont, 1001FreeFonts or FontSquirrel. As you can see from those collections, there is a world of typography beyond the usual (and rather boring) Times New Roman.

This blog, for instance is written in Georgia font, an easy-to-read font that has a roundness to it that I find pleasing. And it's a "serif font" that has little "tails" on the letters that lead your eye from one letter to the next. The post title is Trebuchet, which is a "sans" font, without the little strokes on the letters, and that makes it look clean and neat as a heading. I could have picked others, but those are just two I personally like.

And then there's Comic Sans, based on comic-book lettering, which was overused on early Microsoft computers and in hundreds of Ad campaigns to the point that people grew sick of it.


Some people have been downright infuriated that people still use it when there are so many other choices, and they want Microsoft to ban it from the type library. Why? Maybe because it looks too simple. I tend to think of it as a "clown" font, for some reason, but I don't actually hate it. Others do apparently, like the folks at "Comic Sans Must Die" . . .

From the website "Ban Comic Sans"

Love it or hate it, Comic Sans is one of the most popular fonts in the world.
Vincent Connare designed the font for Microsoft in 1995. He described it is best being used for “new computer users and families with children”. Despite this it has constantly been misused and can be seen everywhere from school letters, e-mails from government officials and even in documents about the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
Since it was unleashed on the world there have been multiple calls by designers for the font to be abolished completely.
Comic Sans Must Die is a project that satisfies every designer’s dream: to see Comic Sans die a slow and painful death. Every day the individual glyphs of Comic Sans will have their demise displayed for all to see.

However, in defense of the much-maligned font is the Comic Sans Project Tumblr with examples from well-known and beloved products such as Nintendo, Kodak, and Levi Jeans (not to mention the "S" in Superman). In fact, if you look around in any store you will probably see this font because it has something going for it - it is simple and easy-to-read.

Here's a short video history of Comic Sans. The consensus of the people questioned in the video find Comic Sans to be "silly" at best and "creepy" at worst. It reminds many of their first typed paper in junior high school. However, clearly the font works well for sign-making and branding ordinary products. For fancy imported products or professional printing jobs, not so much.



And now Vsauce has posted a video "Defense of Comic Sans" that takes a scholarly approach to put Comic Sans in the context of printing and typographical history. When you're done with this video and this post, you'll know more than you EVER wanted to know about Comic Sans. Still, good times.

The Real King Richard III Revealed

“Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.”
― William Shakespeare, Richard III
Last September British archaeologists in Leicester dug up part of a parking lot and found an amazing grave containing the bones thought to be the real King Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England and the last King who died on the battlefied, beaten by Henry VII, ancestor of the modern royal family. Now the bones have been proven beyond a doubt to be King Richard, verified through DNA testing with descendents as well as historical accounts of his appearance and wounds in battle.

Will this change the way scholars and actors interpret Shakespeare's play, which paints Richard as a villain and murderer? That remains to be seen. What will happen next is that the body will be buried in nearby Leicester Cathedral, and a display for visitors will also be built. That is, if the city of York doesn't interfere. They have written a letter to the Queen of England, asking that the body be buried there instead because Richard was both coronated and married in York Minster Cathedral.

BREAKING! World first - The complete skeleton showing the curve of the spine #RichardIII ow.ly/i/1t0gN

— Uni of Leicester (@uniofleicester) February 4, 2013

From CNN.com

Since his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, Richard III has been portrayed as hunchbacked and hateful, accused of killing his own nephews, the "Princes in the Tower," to usurp the throne.
But the Richard III Society believes the monarch has been unfairly maligned by history and in particular the Tudors who ousted him.
It says its three-dimensional model of the king shows a face "far removed from the image of the cold-blooded villain of Shakespeare's play."

. . . Society chairman Dr. Phil Stone told reporters in London that the discovery and identification of the monarch had been "a momentous time" for the society. He praised screenwriter Philippa Langley's "tenacity and bloody-mindedness" in pursuing the project to locate his remains. Langley said her aims had been two-fold -- to try to find Richard III so that his remains could be retrieved from an "undignified place" and to "go in search of the real Richard III."

Stone said in a statement that the face was "younger and fuller than we have been used to seeing, less careworn and with a hint of a smile."
Richard III seemed "alive and about to speak," he said. "At last, it seems, we have the true image of Richard III -- is this the face that launched a thousand myths?"

From Reuters

Devotees of Richard, who have long campaigned to restore his reputation, proudly revealed a 3D reconstruction of the long-lost monarch's head on Tuesday, introducing him to reporters as "His Grace Richard Plantagenet, King of England and France, Lord of Ireland".

They said the face appeared sympathetic and noble - not that of a man cast by William Shakespeare as a villainous, deformed monster who murdered his nephews, the "Princes in the Tower".

"I hope you can see in this face what I see in this face and that's a man who is three-dimensional in every sense," said Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society, who led the four-year hunt to find the king's remains.

"It doesn't look like the face of a tyrant. If ... you look into his eyes, it really is like he can start speaking to you," Langley told reporters.

Guardian UK

Rival claims to Richard's body have erupted within 24 hours of the formal confirmation that the remains excavated from a scruffy car park in the centre of Leicester are indeed those of the last Plantagenet king. Leicester has him, but York wants him. So far Westminster Abbey, which holds both Richard's wife, Anne Neville, and Henry VII who defeated him, is maintaining a tactful silence, and nothing has been heard from Fotheringhay in Northamptonshire where he was born – but that may be just a matter of time.

As the face reconstructed from the skull was displayed – a faintly smiling man with a big nose and a notably determined jaw – Kersten England, chief executive of the City of York council, said it would be writing formally to the Department of Justice and the Crown "to invite their consideration of the views of the Duke of York's own people". Roughly translated, these views are: "Hand him over."

Leicester is equally determined to keep the man where he has lain since August 1485, when his body was brought back into the town naked and slung over the back of a horse – the traditional account newly confirmed by the revelation of the injuries to the skeleton. His body was claimed by the priests of Greyfriars church, and buried hastily but in a position of honour in the choir near the high altar.

200 Years of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice has been a bestseller now for 200 years as of this week. The book stands the test of time because it is enriched with motifs enough for ten such novels: likable characters, humorous or irritating caricatures, a villainous wolf in sheep's clothing, a good man who seems unforgivably rude and snobby, a heroine who comes of age as she falls in love, class differences, family devotion, rags to riches, despair turning to hope, a wealth of witty puns, and that old standby, the happy ending.



It has been the inspiration of countless other books, plays and movies, including You've Got Mail (author Nora Ephron was a Jane-ite) and Bridget Jones Diary.

From the BBC

As well as the BBC's 1995 TV version, starring Colin Firth as Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth, Pride and Prejudice was rejuvenated on the big screen in 2005 in Joe Wright's film starring Matthew McFadyen and Keira Knightley. It took more than £76 million at the global box office.

Firth revisited the Darcy persona in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), which was loosely based on the Austen story. Meanwhile, Gurinder Chadha's 2004 film Bride And Prejudice gave it a Bollywood-style spin.

. . . "Adaptation is interesting because it is always responding to the original novel and the way that we understand things now," she adds. When Colin Firth's Mr Darcy emerged from the lake in the BBC TV adaptation it was a moment that highlighted the way that adaptation was made for female viewers, says Dr Cobb.

"It's a moment that's become so well known. Colin Firth as Darcy is clearly meant to be looked at and admired by female viewers, and that is played out in Bridget Jones. It's become a post-modern joke by the time of the ITV series Lost in Austen."

If you finish the books and wear out the DVDs, you can move on to sequels and prequels.
Check out the fantastic fansite Republic of Pemberly.
Jane Austen Information Page
Everything about Pride and Prejudice Bits of Ivory Fan Fiction

Hmmm, I think I need to watch Mr. Darcy jumping into the lake again. :)

A Great Writer ~ Martin Luther King

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia,
the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners
will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.
– Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"


Today we celebrated the legacy of the late Reverend Martin Luther King, even more meaningful this year because it was also the second Presidential Inauguration Day for Barack Obama. Yes, a black man was elected President not once, but twice. And the crowds cheered on the Mall in Washington D.C., as they did for Rev. King when he delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech" fifty years ago this year.

Martin Luther King Quotes on Goodreads

Text of Martin Luther King's Speeches with Audio and some Video

That historic "I Have a Dream" speech is a beautifully illustrated book for children by Kadir Nelson:


Random House Children's Books (RandomHouse.com/Kids) announces the publication of the highly anticipated picture book, I HAVE A DREAM, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s celebrated speech illustrated with exquisite paintings by celebrated artist and Caldecott Honor winner Kadir Nelson (On sale October 9, 2012 / $18.99). Published by the Schwartz & Wade Books imprint, the package includes an audio CD of King's original speech as given on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

"My father's dream continues to live on from generation to generation," said Dr. Bernice A. King. "This beautiful and powerful illustrated edition of his world-changing "I Have a Dream" speech brings his inspiring message of freedom, equality, and peace to the youngest among us-those who will one day carry his dream forward for everyone."

Nelson's oil paintings magnificently capture the power and emotion of Dr. King's words, resulting in a poignant depiction of that memorable occasion.

Publishers Weekly raves in a starred review, "There's something exhilarating about viewing Nelson's paintings of Dr. King and the March on Washington while reading the words of the speech King gave that day; it's hard to imagine a better representation of their historical significance."

Nelson selected the most iconic passage of Dr. King's speech to illustrate in I HAVE A DREAM. The full text is provided at the end of the book.

I HAVE A DREAM will join Dr. King's legacy and help lay the groundwork for teaching a new generation of young children about one of our nation's most celebrated historical figures.

As we approach the 50th anniversary of MLK JR.'s iconic speech on August 28, 2013, I HAVE A DREAM will be part of conversations throughout 2013 at multiple milestones leading up to it, including King's birthday in January; Black History Month in February and the Letter from Birmingham Jail anniversary in April.

Random House will simultaneously release a Read & Listen ebook edition that gives readers the unique experience of listening to Dr. King's inspiring voice while reading along and following Nelson's exquisite illustrations.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was a clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination through nonviolent means.

Please visit www.thekingcenter.org for more about Dr. King, his work and life.

KADIR NELSON is the acclaimed illustrator of Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom and Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, both Caldecott Honor books. His other titles include We Are the Ship, a Robert F. Sibert Medal winner and Coretta Scott King Award recipient, and Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans.

Poets of the Presidential Inauguration

For his second Inauguration Ceremony which happens next Monday, January 21, President Obama has chosen the first gay Latino poet to read his work.

From Huffington Post

Richard Blanco -- he's a son of Miami: high school at Columbus, bachelor's and master's from FIU, the first Cuban-American and also the first gay man to be chosen for such an honor. In fact, Blanco is only the fifth poet EVER to take part in a president's inaugural ceremony. The first was Robert Frost (Kennedy, 1961), then Maya Angelou (Clinton, 1993), Miller Williams (Clinton, 1997), Elizabeth Alexander (Obama, 2009) and now Mr. Blanco. What an incredible honor to compose an original poem for the whole world to hear -- wow -- think about that for a sec, and he hails from Miami.

Poet Richard Blanco, son of a Cuban Exile from Miami, FL, made history today by becoming both the first Hispanic and openly gay man to read at a Presidential Inauguration.

"One Today"

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the "I have a dream" we keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won't explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father's cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day's gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
for each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into a sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn't give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.

People often think that all Presidential Inaugurations follow identical traditions, and that throughout history none of the pomp and circumstance has ever changed. But that couldn't be further from the truth. In the case of the Inaugural Poet, most Presidents never had one! In fact there are so few that it will be several more election cycles before a good thick anthology could be made of their poems.

From About.com: Presidential Inaugural Poems

There There are a couple of 19th century poems historically associated with Presidential inaugurations in the archives of the Library of Congress, but neither was actually read during the swearing-in ceremony:

• “An Ode in Honor of the Inauguration of Buchanan & Breckinridge, President and Vice President of the United States” by Col W. Emmons, printed on broadside in 1857.
• “An Inaugural Poem, Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois , and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee,” from The Chronicle Junior, an inauguration program that was actually printed on a press in a wagon during Lincoln’s inaugural parade in 1865.

Robert Frost was the first poet invited to be part of the official swearing-in of an American president, when John F. Kennedy took office in 1961.. . . the glare of bright sunlight off new snow, his faint typescript and the wind ruffling his pages and his white hair made it impossible for Frost to read the new poem, so he gave up the attempt and went directly into reciting Kennedy’s request without the preamble. “The Gift Outright”
. . . The next president who included a poet in the proceedings surrounding his inauguration was Jimmy Carter in 1977, but the poem didn’t make it into the actual swearing-in ceremony. James Dickey read his poem “The Strength of Fields” at the Kennedy Center gala after Carter’s inauguration.
. . . in 1993, when Maya Angelou wrote and read “On the Pulse of Morning” for Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, her reading here on YouTube. Clinton also included a poet in his 1997 inaugural ceremony—Miller Williams contributed “Of History and Hope” that year.
. . . The tradition of presidential inauguration poems seems now to have settled in with Democratic presidents. Elizabeth Alexander was commissioned as inaugural poet for Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009. She wrote “Praise Song for the Day, Praise Song for Struggle” for the occasion, and her recitation is preserved on YouTube.

How did Inaugural Poetry become the domain of Democratic Presidents? Maybe it has something to do with the poets of the 1950s not liking "Ike" Eisenhower too much. Poets tend to be politically left of center, so there was more appeal for the Democratic Candidate, Adlai Stevenson. So the Inauguration of a popular Republican President inspired in some writers the urge for a dirge rather than a celebration.
From "Poetry for Presidents" on New Yorker

(Poet Robert) Lowell had harnessed his dismay into a restrained and sombre poem, “Inauguration Day: January 1953,” which was published in its final form at the end of the year in the Partisan Review. Lowell locates the loose sonnet in a place of estrangement, New York City, which was Stevenson country and becomes, in the poem, a kind of national government in exile:

The snow had buried Stuyvesant.
The subways drummed the vaults. I heard
the El’s green girders charge on Third,
Manhattan’s truss of adamant,
that groaned in ermine, slummed on want.
Cyclonic zero of the world,
God of our armies, who interred
Cold Harbor’s blue immortals, Grant!
Horseman, your sword is in the groove!

The verse offers the sweep of history, beginning with the statue of Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the city’s Dutch commanders, and ends with the monument to Grant, who, like Eisenhower, was another general-turned-President. Yet it recalls Grant not as the dogged savior of the Union but as the butcher of Cold Harbor, the man who ordered his men to a mostly senseless death. Eisenhower appears at the end, summoned to lead a nation imbued with the memory of those deaths, and all those that came before and followed:

Ice, ice. Our wheels no longer move.
Look, the fixed stars, all just alike
as lack-land atoms, split apart,
and the Republic summons Ike,
the mausoleum in her heart.

Perhaps it would be some solace to Mr. Lowell and all the 20th Century Poets that Eisenhower wasn't exactly representative of what America wanted every four years. The best was certainly yet to come, and indeed one of the best will be sworn in next week. With poetry, too.

Les Miserables Movie Release Christmas Day

The film "Les Miserables" based on the novels of Victor Hugo will be released in the U.S. on Christmas Day.

Cast List and More on IMDB

Original Text by Hugo on Project Gutenberg

The movie is already earning kudos and award nominations:

Contact Music

Les Miserables has become the favourite to win Best Picture at the Oscars after being nominated for four prizes at the Golden Globes - a key barometer for the Academy Awards. Lead stars Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway received acting nods, Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil are shortlisted for their song 'Suddenly', while the movie itself is shortlisted for Best Motion Picture (Comedy and Musical).

Largely shot at Pinewood studios, Tom Hooper's Les Miserables cost around £38 million and featured the actors singing every song live on set. Speaking to the BBC after the Golden Globe nominations were announced, The Kings Speech director said, "I'm just pleased for the whole team who made Les Miserables. Making a musical is an intensively collaborative type of film-making, because it requires such an army of people. An army who aren't there on a conventional movie. The singing teachers who helped the cast, through to the onset pianists who played in the live duets with the singers."
Though musicals and comedies are often ignored by the Academy, Les Miserables has been installed as the 9/4 favourite to snatch the Best Picture Oscar away from the hands of Ben Affleck and Steven Spielberg in February. Hugh Jackman is now the third favourite to win Best Actor, though it would a huge shock should Daniel Day-Lewis not win the award for his turn as Abraham Lincoln. Anne Hathaway is favoured for an Oscar nomination, though the bookmakers still firmly believe Jennifer Lawrence will win Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook.
Les Miserables hits theaters in the U.S on Christmas Day, with a UK release following on January 11, 2013.

About the original musical on the Les Mis Official Website

Les Misérables is now the longest running musical in the world and, in October 2010, celebrated its 25th anniversary with a theatrical first – three different productions of the same musical staged at the same time in one city – the star-studded concerts at The O2, the acclaimed new 25th Anniversary Production (which completed its sell-out UK Tour at London’s Barbican Theatre) and the original production, which continues its record breaking run at the Queen’s Theatre, London.

From Wikipedia:

It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, with an English-language libretto by Herbert Kretzmer. Set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a burly French peasant of abnormal strength and potentially violent nature, and his never ending quest for redemption after serving 19 years in jail for having stolen a loaf of bread for starving relatives. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a kindly Bishop inspires him to, but he is relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector named Javert. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters he becomes entangled with get swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists make their last stand at a street barricade.

The musical adaptation was originally conceived and produced in France, before its English language adaptation, which opened at the Barbican Centre in London, England, on 8 October 1985, where the production overcame bad notices through word of mouth, launching the beginning of what has turned out to be a global sensation.

. . . At the opening of the London production, critical reviews were negative, and literary scholars condemned the project for converting classic literature into a musical. Public opinion differed, the box office received record orders. The three-month engagement sold out, and reviews improved. The London production, as of late 2012, has run continuously since October 1985: the second longest-running musical in the world after The Fantasticks, the second longest-running West End show after The Mousetrap. It is the longest-running musical in the West End followed by The Phantom of the Opera.

Hans Christian Andersen Discovery

A new story by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen has been discovered in the attic of a neighbor. What a gift to the world! You can read the entire story here:
The Tallow Candle

From Smithsonian:

A historian in Denmark may have discovered Hans Christian Andersen’s first fairy tale ever. The story, called “The Tallow Candle,” was discovered at the bottom of an old box in Denmark’s national library. Politiken Denmark spoke with Ejnar Stig Askgaard of the Odense City Museum, who has been studying the discovery:

“This is a sensational discovery. Partly because it must be seen as Andersen’s first fairy tale, and partly because it shows that he was interested in the fairy tale as a young man, before his authorship began”, Askgaard says. “And I am in no doubt that it has been written by Andersen”, he adds.

The front page of the story is dedicated to a Madam Bunkenflod, who lived across the street from Andersen’s childhood home. Discovery writes:

Historians know that the writer visited her often as a child, borrowing her books.
“The fairy tale was a present. A present of thanks to a woman whose home had been very important to him,” Askgaard said.
The Bunkeflod family then sent the manuscript to another family close to Andersen, the Plum family, in whose archives the story was found. A dedication written on the document later in blue ink reads: “To P Plum from his friend Bunkeflod.”

Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2012/12/is-this-hans-christian-andersons-first-fairy-tale/#ixzz2FMQOSZz3
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter

10 Books to fill the Post-Election Void

Are you a political junkie feeling restless now that the election excitement is over? Are you craving the intrigue of smoke-filled war rooms and rousing populist speeches, but have to settle for C-Span or MSNBC? Or maybe you just want to know what the heck happened for the past three months?

Let me help you ~ here are ten books about politics, candidates and campaigns with all the electioneering you crave, plus a big boost of history to put everything about 2012 in context. Some are about the left, some about the right, but all are fascinating.

Note: Both links and pictures will take you directly to Amazon.

1.
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-but Some Don't
Numbers guy Nate Silver is either a hero or villain depending on your political views. Starting out as a progressive diarist on Daily Kos then rising to New York Times blogger status, he correctly predicted the outcome of both the 2008 and 2012 down to the exact states and number of electoral votes won by Obama, McCain, and Romney. While other statisticians may claim the same success, Silver was the most outspoken on the internet both times, which made him a lighting rod for criticism from all sides.

2.
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin gives behind-the-scenes details about the White House of President Abraham Lincoln. This is a great book if you crave more Lincoln after watching the movie of the same name, which comes out in theaters Nov. 16.

3.
Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime
This book by Republican writers John Heilemann and Mark Halperin gives you the two-fold story of the 2008 presidential race, starting with Hillary Clinton's tough primary fight against Barack Obama, then moving on to John McCain's stunning pick of running mate Sarah Palin and all the drama that followed.

4.
The Selling of the President: The Classical Account of the Packaging of a Candidate
In this age of 24-hour television, we forget that at one time voters had no idea they were being subjected to marketing ploys thought up by Mad Men types. Author Joe McGinniss was the first to expose how presidential candidates are "packaged" for the public. Learn how Roger Ailes, who went on to be president of Fox News, was once just a TV producer trying to put a better and more voter-friendly face on Richard Nixon.

5.
The Voting Wars: From Florida 2000 to the Next Election Meltdown
The long, long lines of the 2012 campaign made everyone wonder why some states run elections so smoothly while others are in a big mess. Author Richard Hasen was an adviser to the Al Gore campaign during the 2000 recount fiasco in Florida and has made it his mission in life to parse and explain our rather byzantine voting system.

6.
Why Romney Lost
Republican pundit David Frum believes Mitt Romney lost through a combination of factors, but mainly because the candidate and party were seen as out of touch with a new diverse America. But he has suggestions for how to fix that in coming elections.

8.
1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America
If we think 2012 was a wild ride, then consider the election battle of 1948 with President Roosevelt's successor Harry Truman running in a primary against previous VP Henry Wallace and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond. In the general election, the race was so close that some newspapers made the now-famous mistake of reporting that Thomas Dewey had won instead.

7.
The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
This is probably the most even-handed look at the divisive Tea Party to date. Authors Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson of Harvard University took time to interview ordinary people across America who identify with the Tea Party movement, which is based on the premise that half of society pays taxes to give "free stuff" to the other half. Whether you are part of the elite 1% or the more common 47%, this book is enlightening.

9.
Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent
E.J. Dionne is a liberal, but he tries to strike a balance here while explaining the causes of our "divided" government. This is also a good book to read if you know nothing about politics but are planning to vote in the next presidential election. How did things ever get so confusing?

10.
Presidential Campaign Posters: Two Hundred Years of Election Art
This coffee-table book put out by the Library of Congress is a lush look at campaign art, plus each of the 100 political posters may be removed from the book and framed. There is also ample backstory for each election. The message - candidates haven't changed much over the decades - they just want you to vote for them!