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POET, WRITER, ARTIST and COLLEGE LIBRARIAN: Corina Ravenscraft on “The Poetic Evolution”

Corina Ravenscraft
Corina Ravenscraft

Poetry moves us. It makes us think, feel, inspires us to do more, be more. It has been here as long as people could speak and sing, and its energy and intention will probably outlast the end of humanity. Like everything in life, it has had to evolve and adapt. One of the main purposes of poetry, to communicate something with someone else, has necessitated new ways of reaching an audience. This is especially true now, in this digital age of instant gratification and social media.

Poetry has learned to deliver its message via video, recorded poetry slams, Skype, flash mob poetry in action…blink and you might miss it. But even if you DO miss it, you can probably find a recording of it somewhere. No longer is it simply written words on an immortal page in some heavy, dusty collection of poetry, or an oral history sung through the ages and generations. There are still formal forms, still meters (or even free form, as even it has a “beat”), still rhymes (or not), still those who will read it and listen to it. Some things about it do not change.

There have been many famous poets who have attempted to define what poetry “is”; the well-known, poetic “greats”, and they all have valid definitions. I tend to agree with one of my favorites, Robert Frost, who said:

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

To me, poetry is a type of communication that touches the heart and soul.

In honor of (inter)National Poetry Month celebrations, I share a couple of poetic videos with all of you. Both of these “spoke” to me. I hope that you find them as powerful as I did, and maybe that you will look at poetry as more than dry, printed words on a page. It is very much a living thing. And it continues to evolve, just like people do. 🙂

First, is a poem by actor Woody Harrelson.

Next, is a piece by rapper Prince Ea

– Corina Ravenscraft

© 2016, essay and portrait, Corina Ravenscraft, All rights reserved; View The BeZine contributing writer Corina Ravenscraft’s bio HERE; view a comprehensive interview with Corina HERE. Corina’s blog is Dragon’s Dream.

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CELEBRATING AMERICAN SHE-POETS (13): Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, writing at the intersection of personal and cultural history

Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966), U.S. Poet Laureate, Poet Laureate of Mississippi, Pultizer Prize for Poetry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University
Natasha Trethewey (b. 1966), U.S. Poet Laureate, Poet Laureate of Mississippi, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University

After hearing Natasha Trethewey read at a poetry festival, Librarian of Congress Emeritus James H. Billington said he was “struck by a kind of classic quality with a richness and variety of structures with which she presents her poetry … she intermixes her story with the historical story in a way that takes you deep into the human tragedy of it.”

Natasha Trethewey is perhaps uniquely equipped by personal history, American history and public discourse, place of birth, education, inclination and innate talent to address a cruel and criminal aspect of our culture that dogs us unrelentingly: the roots, memory and legacy of racism. She is the daughter of a white father (poet Eric Trethewey) and black mother (social worker Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough).  Her background is rooted in the South. Born in Mississippi, when she was six years old her parents divorced and her young life was then split between Louisiana and Georgia. In Trethewey’s hands the juxtaposition of her biracial heritage and our shared history of colonialism, slavery and racism make a powerful case for the role of poetry to effectively and unflinchingly deliver truth.

At the time of her parent’s marriage and Trethewey’s birth anti-miscegenation laws were still in place, making their marriage illegal. Our laws against interracial marriage were struck down in 1967:

“Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967),[X 1] [X 2] is a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court, which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

“The case was brought by Mildred Loving, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who had been sentenced to a year in prison in Virginia for marrying each other. Their marriage violated the state’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which prohibited marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”. The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision determined that this prohibition was unconstitutional, reversing Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.” [Wikipedia]

51T8yxaK1xL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_ Thrall: Poems (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2006) – a sequel to Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2005) –  is breathtakingly eloquent. Trethewey explores her relationship with her father in the first poem about a fishing trip. Written as an elegy though he is still alive, it tells him in effect that she is the better poet . . . or so I infered.

Tretheway moves on from that quiet meditation to questions of identity and race, exploring colonial attitudes about race reflected in the art of Spanish painters and the Casta (caste, categorization of mixed-race peoples) Paintings of 17th and 18th Century Mexico. I was unfamiliar with most of the paintings and painters, chose to look them up.  That, however, did not detract one iota from engagement with this collection.

The work is exquisite: formal, clear, precise, perceptive … Although the material is distressing, I find Trethewey’s style understated. These poems are not strident but they have sinew and bone. Her forms are mostly free verse. One poem is a series of cinquains and another is a villanelle.

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In the video below, Trethewey offers some insight into the development of the collection and reads the eponymous poem. You will also find a sampling of her poems HERE.

Note: The painting Thrall that inspired the poem is by Juan de Pareja who was apparently the child of indentured servants and left as property to the Spanish painter Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez to whom he became an assistant. Juan de Pareja was born in 1606, freed in 1650 and died in 1670. The painting featured on the book’s cover is Spaniard and Indian Produce a Mestizo by Juan Rodríguez Juárez (1675-1728).

If you are reading this post from an email, you will have to click through to the site to view the video.

© 2016, essay, Jamie Dedes, All right reserved; Natasha Threthewey’s photograph, Jalissa Gray under CC BY-SA 3.0; cover design, publisher

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OUR REACH WAS NEVER QUITE ENOUGH: but it was ~ Ray Bradbury at His Charming Best Reading his poem “If Only We Had Taller Been.”

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), Americaan Fantasy, science fiction, horror and myster author, perhaps best known for the dystopian Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), American Fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery author, perhaps best known for the dystopian Fahrenheit 451.

 

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Thoughts of Ray Bradbury can’t help but make us smile. They bring with them memories of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, editor John Wood Campbell (Astounding Science Fiction, Analog Science and Fact, Amazing) and pulp magazines with their staple writers (Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke… and others) who thrilled us with fringe politics, pseudo science and controversy. We don’t think of them as poets, but apparently at least one dabbled in the art.

I post this once every two years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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LATE BREAKING NEWS … Call for Papers; Poetry Course with Robert Pinsky; Call for Submissions

THE ASSOCIATION OF LITERARY SCHOLARS, CRITICS AND WRITERS: Call for Papers
for its 20th conference: October 27-30, 2016 at The Catholic University of America Washington, DC
The Program Committee for the 2016 Conference:
John Briggs, University of California-Riverside
Lee Oser, College of the Holy Cross
Ernest Suarez, Catholic University
Rosanna Warren, University of Chicago
Please note: everybody who participates must be a current member of the ALSCW. We encourage participation by creative writers as well as scholars and critics. The 2016 introductory membership rate for new members, graduate students, and retirees is $50. Renewals are $100. Visit our website at alscw.org for detailed information. Proposals of 300 words and a C.V. should be sent as email attachments to Ernest Suarez at <suarez@cua.edu> on or before May 1, 2016. DETAILS HERE

Robert Pinsky (b. 1940), American poet, essayist, literary critic and translator. Photo c Jarod C Bennedict under CC BY SA e.0
Robert Pinsky (b. 1940), American poet, essayist, literary critic and translator. Photo c Jarod C Bennedict under CC BY SA 3.0

THE ART OF POETRY ONLINE COURSE WITH ROBERT PINKSY: “In conjunction with Boston University and edX, Robert Pinsky is teaching a free, six-week online poetry course, which launched on March 29, 2016 [but it looks like you can still register and catch up.]. The class covers a wide range of material, from classics by Ben Jonson and Emily Dickinson to work by contemporary poets such as Elise Partridge and Yusef Komunyakaa. According to Pinsky, “this course is based on the conviction that the more you know about an art, the more pleasure you will find in it.” (Poetry Foundation DETAILS HERE

THE GALWAY REVIEW is open for submissions in English or Irish from anywhere in the world. DETAILS HERE

THE POET BY DAY: Submit your event, book launch and other announcements at least fourteen days in advance to thepoetbyday@gmail.com. Publication is subject to editorial discretion.