Saturday, January 24, 2009

at least there was a poet at inauguration day, right?

Sam Green, Washington state's first poet laureate and one of my favorite past professors, is back at SU, teaching his Writing Poetry class. Since I'm no longer one of his students (unfortunately), the only time I get to chat with him is when he stops by the bookstore. He came in the other day, in order to buy a card for his wife (because he is such a sweet man), and we got onto the subject of the poet at Obama's inauguration. He didn't outright say it, but you could tell he was not too impressed with the choice. "Obama's favorite poet is [some man whose name escapes me]," he said. "I don't know why he chose her to read." He added that I could have written a much better poem, but I don't know if that's saying much.

I do know that I can't stand the way she reads aloud.

Elizabeth Alexander at the Inauguration
(You can read the text here.)