Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Weigh In on Praise Song for the Day

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

-- from the inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day by Elizabeth Alexander (about which there is an ongoing and fiery debate). Please, dear reader, do weigh in. What did you think of the poem?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It struck me as a workmanlike occasional poem. Occasional poetry doesn't tend to rise to what we perceive as the aesthetic heights in our age-- hasn't for quite some time (for my money at least). Perhaps a function of poetry being so much the expression of "self" since the Romatic era, & the fact that poetry based on a sort of didactic rhetoric can sound a bit off to our poetry listening ears. But there are nice moments throughout the poem.

Miss Whistle said...

John Hayes,
Thank you so much for weighing in and for your ongoing support of this blog. It is very much appreciated.
I think workmanlike is a very good word.

-- MissW