Thursday, January 26, 2006
Time to Get Serious... Oh, Crap
I have been invited by the curators of Mobile's historical home, Oakleigh House, to participate in a very important ceremony there In February. Though the house has been owned by the city for fifty years, they hanve only just opened the old slave quarters and restored them to what they would have been in the 1850's when one family, the Gaythors, lived and worked there.
There are going to be a lot of speakers, mainly community and arts leaders, reading fom newspaper accounts of slave auctions or from slave narratives. And me, ME, their waitress at Janino's, they want to be their 'poet laureate', to write an original piece to read before this crowd of local brass, make them tear up and open their wallets.
Oh, holy crap. Where do I even start? It's about slavery, for God's sake, and also about two people named Sealie and Tom who lived one hundred and fifty years ago. And it has to be good. None of this dashing it off and it's good enough stuff. It has to be something special. And I want it to be good. Who wants to write a shitty poem about slavery?
Excuse me while I do some deep breathing.
// posted by Amethyst Vineyard @ 6:52 AM 
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Go read some slave journals. They're fascinating.
Just a thought. I'm a guy, and we often offer help when what was wanted was support. I must have a "support" program somewhere here, though.
Here: I've read a lot of your work now, and it is often astonishingly good. Buck up!
Just a thought. I'm a guy, and we often offer help when what was wanted was support. I must have a "support" program somewhere here, though.
Here: I've read a lot of your work now, and it is often astonishingly good. Buck up!
It will be great.
Or at least decent.
Remember that poem about Thales I wrote? The one with all the references to the relationships between Norse/Greek (Demeter and Persephone)/Rabbits/Eggs/Easter/Mary?
Of course you don't. Because it was terrible and I probably never let you read it to begin with. That's all the more true now that I've read your poems.
It will be great.
Or at least decent.
Remember that poem about Thales I wrote? The one with all the references to the relationships between Norse/Greek (Demeter and Persephone)/Rabbits/Eggs/Easter/Mary?
Of course you don't. Because it was terrible and I probably never let you read it to begin with. That's all the more true now that I've read your poems.
It will be great.
Thank you for the link, Kelly, it will be very useful. I need to do a lot of research before I can feel really comfortable in writing about this stuff. And thank you for the support! Why is it that guys do that, I wonder? You think you're being practical, but you leave us dissatisfied.
Give me Thales, Stephen. Read it to me over a candlelit dinner.
Give me Thales, Stephen. Read it to me over a candlelit dinner.
Don't worry, I'm not planning on supporting you at all, Viney. Maybe you should simply read aloud that Bob Dylan song, "Gotta Serve Somebody".
(yes, this was the least offensive comedic thing I thought of to post. I have become inspired by Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" stand up movie.)
(yes, this was the least offensive comedic thing I thought of to post. I have become inspired by Sarah Silverman's "Jesus is Magic" stand up movie.)
I am proud of you. You have guts. I decided just now I don't have guts. But I ma happy it's Thursday, the best night of TV in the land.
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