Elizabeth Alexander

Let this serve as a belated shout out to Elizabeth Alexander, who was the Steiren Arts Series speaker at Trinity a few weeks back.

An original voice, a generous spirit, and a kick-ass teacher, she was like a visiting writer trifecta.  Of course she read the inaugural poem.

She also read this favorite of mine.

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 hear to there.

Poetry (and now my voice is rising)

is not all love, love, love,

and I’m sorry the dog dies.

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)

is the human voice,

and are we not of interest to each other?