Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb"

Loved it!

It spared us the ever tedious Maya Angelou .

Very good

Hated the hat.

It wasn’t that sophisticated.

I liked it. She was young, charismatic and energetic, and it was original.

We're so damn thirsty for anything other than Trumpist slop, I can't even tell anymore.

I think it ridiculous that the Poet Laureate is fucking 22. It should be an emeritus, not a prodigy.

She was great. Yesterday and today were the antidote to a four year nightmare

Well, dumbass r8, she's the Youth Poet Laureate. Is that okay with you? R5, you might as well have said, "she's a black girl."

I didn't know that she uses poetry to overcome a speech impediment.

I thought she was wonderful. I loved her hand gestures too.

[quote]I loved her hand gestures too.

Yes, she was so graceful! Like a Javanese dancer.

It was better than Fred Durst's poem at Trump's inauguration.

I thought it was too long but she did a great job, I would have been so nervous

I really enjoyed it, I plan on listening to it again a few times to take it in.

A hill as metaphor. Genius.

"Poet" my ass.

Maya Angelou, as creepily dishonest and full of shit as she was, at least could write a phrase worth reading once in a while.

But poetry has been gobbled by the academics and the rabble for a long time, and between them they don't know what a poem is.

You didn't need to call me a 'dumb ass' for not hearing "youth", R10. I hope that made you feel better about yourself.

Youth sounds a little young for a 22 year old, but I guess if you can stay on your parents until you're 26 now, that it is.

It was pretentious as hell. Reminded me of the awful beatnik crap. I feel like our country is so divided now that if you admit to not liking this kid’s poem you will automatically be accused of being a member of the SS.

[quote]It wasn’t that sophisticated.

It didn't need to be sophisticated.

Her poetry had a great rhythm, it flowed naturally, it wasn't pretentious, it was the authentic voice of a young woman and it represented the moment.

What a talent this woman is.

youth is part of her honorary title. She got it (National Youth Poet Laureate) when she was still at Harvard in 2017 after she had been California's Youth Poet Laureate. The announcer at the Inauguration blew the title - left off the "youth".

She knows what she is doing so I will respect it. I myself find it and her styling a bit "Imhotep" camp, for an Ivy Leaguer. But she didn't go work for Goldman Sachs so she gets a pass.

Only if you use racially coded language like "sophisticated", r19.

And I DID like her yellow coat!

I loved it...very beautiful (the poem, not that thing she wore on her head).

R5 prefers the sophistication of poetry involving a man from Nantucket...

Christ, some of you are awful people. She’s a 22 yo kid, just enjoy her words for what they are, from a young voice with some new optimism.

Well she's a 23 yo Harvard graduate, not some kid.

Many of the greatest poets wrote their best work before age 30. Her recitation was definitely one of the high points of a pretty spectacular day.

She’s a year beyond having a pediatrician as her PCP, R27. She’s a kid.

Fuck her for being so talented and poised and brilliant and only 22. And for making it look so effortlessly easy.

(She was brilliant, and for me, the highlight of the entire ceremony.)

I loved the inauguration today, and everything it stands for. That being said, I didn't care for this. Too much rhyme and sounds like someone's trying way too hard. Also too long.

"Kid" is reserved for white males between 18-35 who go on killing sprees or in some way shame themselves and there's an attempt to justify that shame.

It didn't rhyme!

I kept waiting for the poetry to start, and then it was over. Very confusing. I liked the outfit though.

It was very, um, black, but that is all the rage. I thought she looked cute and I agree, if we are going in this direction, I prefer her to Angelou.

It was a little Poetry Slam at The Local Bar, but good for her. Do your thing, toots.

R8 is an insecure underachiever.

I don't like poetry-slam stylized delivery (hate it, in fact), but I enjoyed the poem and think she has a gift with words.

I liked her hair and headdress or hairband, whatever it was.

i thought she was quite lovely and very talented.

A young woman with talent, grace and poise, her delivery was exquisite, but think it's a poem that is more powerful silently read than recited.

I thought she and her poem were highlights of the morning. She looked absolutely regal, and spoke with poise and conviction. The poem was full of life and reflected the voices of her generation. It's okay if her words didn't touch you -they are no less powerful for being directed to the young. I look forward to hearing from her again.

she was amazing. my 21 year old nephew can't even clean his room

Anyone who was genuinely impressed by this inspirational Facebook quote pablum needs to have his DL card revoked.

This is slam poetry, and it's meant for oral recitation--it doesn't work on the page the same way the poetry of Robert Frost or Gwendolyn Brooks does.

Her "poetry" is amateurish, immature drivel which included two references to lyrics from Hamilton. She is overpraised and relishing it and will have a hard time later in life.

Sometimes when the wrappings fall

There's nothing underneath at all.

Thanks for weighing in, God/r45.

Sorry, R45 is right. The sad thing is, as far as what's happening in "poetry" right now, she's not the worst thing. There are people who publish profitable "poetry" books which collect their Instagram posts. It's all that and the slam stuff.

Insipid pablum. Obviously just right for many DL posters.

R45, your post was insipid pablum on the other Amanda Gorman thread. It is repetitive and insipid pablum on this one, and I'm not quite sure what possessed you into thinking it was worthy of posting twice?

Anyone who says "insipid pablum" is writing it.

R13, but I thought his last line, "Burma shave", was inspired.

I was also a “youth poet.” Verlaine put his claws in me and I was never the same. Absinthe, opium, and hashish is in your future. I managed to make a career for myself afterwards, but it was hell.

I thought the poem itself was quite pedestrian, but she is adorable and charismatic.

I feel she is pretty full of herself, either entitled or lacks maturity and is now being overpraised. Not a good combination.

I don’t usually post, but I saw the term “youth poet” being bandied about. It’s no day at beach, fellas.

I think her poem would have been more effective in a different setting. The theme of the day was all about historical "firsts," so she was clearly part of a bigger agenda. I wish people would just focus on the work itself rather than what kind of woke records are being broken.

The work was crap.

She sounded like Barbara Jordan.

Well, it was way better than if they would have let Ariana Grande read from her journals.

Did Jewel ever get to read her poetry at an inauguration? She deserves and opportunity at some point.

R58 Barbara Jordan was far more interesting than this pretentious poet.

That preachy tone always sets my teeth on edge. I spent too many years listening to preachers.

She's not a poet at all. It's just slop. They should have put Mark Doty up there.

[quote] I feel she is pretty full of herself, either entitled or lacks maturity and is now being overpraised. Not a good combination.

So you're saying in effect that she's "uppity," then.

No, R64, they're saying she is another Greta Thunberg.

Oh, I know full well what I read: "full of herself," "entitled," "being overpraised"...

r54 is saying pretty unequivocally that Amanda Gorman should know her place.

R65, she doesn't seem similar to Greta Thunberg at all. What a strange comparison.

twas a sad attempt at wokeness....she gots her day in the limelight.....meh.

Is it strange, R67? Insufferable, coddled children with god complexes, seems pretty straightforward to me.

[quote] It didn't rhyme!

I just found out that poetry doesn't even have to rhyme! How easy is THAT?!

R69, their personalities are nothing alike. Did you see her interview with Anderson Cooper -- nothing about her seems insufferable or coddled to me. I plead no comment re: Greta Thunberg.

I dunno, maybe I just hate youth.

I'd write her off as callow, but Biden's speech wasn't much different. She fit in pretty well.

She was terrific and she captured the spirit at the moment. It is terrific that people have her age are participating. It was nice to see the future represented with this young woman.

It beat the shit out of whatever Trump would have done. Thank god it's over.

It doesn’t quite approach this.

She quoted the show Hamilton. Twice.

Yes, that's the insufferable part, what R77 said.

The rise of Social Media users' proliferation of countless tedious philosophies and poetic captions on their posts have made me numb and inert like a tired withered dick post-orgasm. Now, I only come to admire clever memes and gifs. So, soon when she started her recital with hand gestures, I skipped. I enjoyed the swearing of oaths more.

I want to know (and hear) the runners-up to her title. Let me be the judge.

It's garbage from a self-aggrandizing fashion piece embraced by me-me types.

Nothing wrong with that. Just don't call it poetry, please. It's low-level cant from a dodo who doesn't know the first thing about poetry.

And the Hamilton shit, with Miranda telling her she's the shit on GMA while Robin Roberts smeared the grease was a perfect tell of what this crap is all about.

If she pisses off a bunch of old, bitter, rightwing cunts so much, she's doing something right.

I'm an old, bitter left wing cunt, thanks.

Her poem was fine. The way she smiled and nodded when Anderson Cooper recited part of it... self-laudatory and cringey. She is being used and seems unaware of it.

I get enough diversity training at work, I don't need to come here and be accused of whatever because I don't like ersatz poetry cribbed from Hamilton.

R85, nobody is forcing you to stay on this thread if it offends your sensibilities for whatever reason. You're a big boy, I imagine -- you do you.

You are the one in the minority here, R86.

The quality of the "poem" was dismally low, even if the message was quite heartfelt and even beautiful. I am incresingly tired of anything that is not written in paragraphs, being classed as poetry. It's a speech, and nothing more.

So yes, she is a good orator and speech writer. A poetess, she is most definitely not.

R87, I think you're full of it, and your random, nonsense comparison of her to Greta Thunberg, bringing up diversity training -- it tells me about as much as I need to know.

[quote] poetry-slam

Did it use words that aren't in the dictionary? Four-letter words? Onomatopoeia?

R89, I think your typical DL-ish inability to conceive of criticism from the left tells me about as much as I need to know.

Nice sense of style and taste in clothes. That's for sure.

[quote] I look forward to hearing from her again.

Did we hear much about Blanco again? I didn't.

R58 Barbara Jordan sounds like Kate Hepburn

R89, the Greta Thunberg comparison was based on the fact that both of them have emphasized their personal experience with disability as something shaping their worldview. And the fact that both are annoying. There are many, many better black female poets to bring to the inauguration. People with enough life experience to lend resonance to their poetry (and who actually write poetry).

Robin Coste Lewis would have been interesting. Or Nikki Giovanni.

My mother was the meat in a Fyvush Finkel and Maya Angelou Sex Sandwich in 1962 at a Carvel Ice Cream Shoppe. Such a slut.

Loved the poetress and her poem.

I enjoyed listening to her delivery, it was lyrical and had captured my attention.

I'll be honest - it sucked! Very nice delivery/performance. She's a very poised, magnetic young women with a great speaking voice but I'm afraid the words were just a Tumblr post in motion. I have a feeling that she would go down very well with the limousine liberal crowd. She's being an 'activist' but she's also a Harvard grad and not very threatening or demanding. She only asks you to listen to her perform some flowery Hallmark language and then afterwards you can feel very smug about how wonderful and liberal you are because you listened to it. Outside those circles (and my blue collar ass is very outside those circles) this is a bunch of bullshit.

The bigots came out tonight on this thread.

Are you sure it wasn't Boris?

[quote] blue collar

Our nation was built using the labor of the blue collar class. And they are despised now by the middle class elite.

R102, what the fuck does this have to do with the topic at hand? Has this thread been taken over by bots regurgitating tired Trumpian talking points?

Laughed at r8 and his 16 likes, because it meant a minimum of 17 people on this thread were unaware that Gorman was the YOUTH Poet Laureate and that's not the same thing as the Poet Laureate, yet despite not really knowing what was going on, they were still hopping mad about it!

R103, that's the guy who is from some European country in some posts, claims to be American in others. He's just a nutjob. No one who talks about "the middle class elite" knows what they're talking about.

I have yet to read anything from any of you that is superior.

[quote]I get enough diversity training at work

Clearly.

I noticed that too, R106, we're obviously supposed to believe that some anonymous bitch on Datalounge with complaints about "limousine liberals" would know more about poetry than a poet with a degree from Harvard.

R104 R106 should stop taking umbrage wherever they can find it and instead look up what "emeritus" means.

Joke's on you; I am DL's Umbrage-taker Emeritus.

I really preferred Biden quoting an Irish poet about don’t try to find justice on this side of the grave...something lie that...that I loved! It was when he was debating I think.

The cure at Troy by Seamus Heaney ^

Poetry criticism from a bunch of morons who usually have trouble spelling and punctuating barely-coherent thoughts.

Surely the point of poetry/art is that it is subjective. I never cared for Kurt Cobain while some of my friends still hang on his every lyric. A poem will speak to some and fall flat with others. I think that’s not a surprise to the poet. Calling people names won’t make them like it more anyway!

[quote]a bunch of morons who usually have trouble spelling and punctuating barely-coherent thoughts.

How the world sees America.

So, if I didn't like the poem, I'm an uneducated racist?

Seriously, you guys need to go check out the tail end of that Sean Hannity thread for some actual deplorable content.

She was enchanting. Loved the poem too.

The coat and the headband were popping with her skin. She looked fab.

It made me think of this parody of slam poetry.

I AM the light , BITCH.

It pretty much says it all that she ended up with a modeling contract instead of a book deal.

Well, I guess they are publishing the stupid poem too. But how many other "poets" work for IMG?

This is why America is doomed. First she get’s hyped as the next Emily Dickinson, now a modeling contract. What’s next? A Reality Show?

This just coming in.... ladies and gentlemen, Lana Turner has collapsed!!!!

Wag!