Can someone explain why this thing is a star?

[quote] on her rise to fame:

Is this person famous? No one reads poetry. Not even Dylan Geeck.

[quote]So fucking sick of seeing her being pushed everywhere.

That is SOOO annoying.

Seriously, OP?

Of all the undeserved celebrities, media whores, and social media parasites to pick on....

A poet? Who might actually interest people in reading and writing poetry?

^undeserving, not undeserved

Affirmative action poet.

Arrogant, entitled girl. We all know why this 5'3 girl is a model.

Who?

I haven't seen or heard much of her since the inauguration.

I cannot quote one line from this self-described poet.

There's Amanda Gorman outrage now?

This girl might as well not exist for all I've heard of her.

OP is a white supremacist upset at any Black person who breathes.

Racists gonna racist

Never heard of this person before. What the hell are you talking about?

You know exactly why she is pushed. Just fucking say it.

Why don't you just go ahead and use the 'N' word, OP?

OP = failed poet

Another ugly thread. Fuck you, Dataloungers.

Shot out of a cannon? What about the wall you hit face first?

R18 that's not exactly rainbows and unicorns, bitch

I gotta interview somebody!

Well she does look cute in this Prada number

She wrote a Prada-themed poem, too:

A Poet’s Prada Seeking: Well-crafted, high-end Fashion that transcend trends

Looking: To challenge fashion codes Dance off previously carved roads Unafraid to experiment, explore, explode

Demanding: ready-to-wear style in our hands Giving us power, which makes it a power brand

Nothing at all is truer Than fashion that dances In the past, present, future

Style is statement, style is creative power revitalized And never compromised. It is then in no way a surprise That it’s also “uniforms for the slightly disenfranchised.”

This is no cloth on my arm It’s the uniform of an armada A poet’s sonata pulsing in Prada

La moda, quando è coraggiosa, è una lampada La luce feroce trafigge l’anima come una spada Ogni swish di tessuto è una melodia E ogni creazione è la più pura poesia

Fashion is a lamp only when it is unafraid Its fierce light pierces the soul like a blade Every swish of fabric is a melody And every creation is purest poetry

Wasn't this bitch the one complaining her doorman was asking her for proof of living in that building just because she was "black"? Uhm, ma'am, I'm white and my building is just as strict, especially post-pandemic. I live in NYC, and this is very common in some building with doormans.

R18 Which poem can you recommend to us to justify for anger.

OP hates seeing colored people on TV while he's trying to digest his Sanka, Cream of Wheat, and Metamucil! And it upsets Mother.

Well, she's a pretty young thing and that gets attention.

Have you forgotten what that's like, OP?

R5 Got it right

Where is THE POETR Y? ! ?

This poet doesn't rhyme.

She's released 3 books this year alone. She shits out money.

Pretty girl. Lower class background. Graduates from Harvard. Writes low-brow poems, reads them in blacketyblack cadence, and did we mention pretty and Harvard grad? She hits all the buttons and is SOOOOOOOO safe.

She was in the right place at the right time.

Who of us has read a single poem?

Who will tell us this person't best poem?

That's because Americans always assume poetry or any cultural knowledge with being automatically smart, since most of them have 0 culture. That is why they crave Europeans and find them attractive just for being from overseas.

On top of that, she's black, so that's the perfect sellout.

I read her inauguration poem. It's over-ambitious and revels too much in word-play, but there were thoughts in there.

She's VERY young.

Listening to her poem at the inauguration was inspirational.

When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.

We braved the belly of the beast.

We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what “just” is isn’t always justice.

And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.

Somehow we do it.

Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.

And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.

We are striving to forge our union with purpose.

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.

We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.

We seek harm to none and harmony for all.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.

That even as we grieved, we grew.

That even as we hurt, we hoped.

That even as we tired, we tried.

That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.

Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.

If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.

It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.

It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.

Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.

This is the era of just redemption.

We feared at its inception.

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour.

But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.

So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.

We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, become the future.

Our blunders become their burdens.

But one thing is certain.

If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.

We will rise from the golden hills of the West.

We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.

We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.

We will rise from the sun-baked South.

We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.

And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.

When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.

The new dawn balloons as we free it.

For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.

If only we’re brave enough to be it.

^ Which is the best line?

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.

She's a good poet but her delivery when she reads them is hideous! It's not her fault. Most American poets from the 1990's until now have been doing the same. They basically trained her to read that way. It's foul!

"Who did this, helen? Who do you think Did it, Henry? You should Thank me, really. A grown man who reads silly Ridiculous, Nonsensical doggerel. This isn't doggerel! There's some beautiful Things here. I say it's doggerel. And I also say It's a waste of time. Helen, helen, Don't do that! Helen, please Don't do that! Why, helen? Why do you do These things? Because I'm Married to a fool."

[quote]Affirmative action poet.

At which white poet's expense, pray tell?

Agreed R40. It was that hack phony Doctor Professor Maya - Miss Calypso - Angelou. God did she stick in my craw. And the Obamas fawning over her like she was Gwendolyn Brooks. Did they have no taste? Or just go with the flow for the media events?

R3, she is not a poetess. Poets write metered poetry with perfect rhymes that is both complex, beautiful and harmonic. They are masters of language and created extremely beautiful works of art with a few simple lines. Of course, poets must also prove that they are good enough to master the classical cannont: sonnets, madrigals, villanelles and Rhyme Royales, among others.

This pathetic little creature can't write anything at all, and her "poems" are random texts in prose, haphazardly presented ina vertical fashion. There is no metric, no perfect rhymes, no complex figures of speech (antitheses, metonymies) and all she can offer are poorly executed metaphors. She should thank the high Heavens that Trump was so ferociously disliked by most Democrats and some Republicans, and they wanted to elevate any member of any minority to star status as an affront to his bigotry. That is the only reason why she is famous.

And I am not only criticizing her, by the way. I am just as harsh with most modern day poetasters, who have used the free form verse that became popular in the early 20th Century, as an excuse to produce shamefully bad crap... Of course, this is only because the vast majority fo them don't have an ounce of talent. Amanda Gorman is only one among many embarrassingly bad poetasters, unfortunately.

It's the moment we're in.

Coulda been a LOT worse, queens. Thank God Merwyn died.

She’s pretty and black, that’s why. She’s palatable any wypipo can pay themselves on the back for swallowing her pablum. “We like black people! Like that lovely Amanda Gorman. Isn’t she so talented?”

R41 Is that a quote from a movie?

[quote] wypipo

an ugly word

Billy Ray earned a mint with "Achy Breaky Heart".

If she gets hers with poetry, then God bless.

Maya Angelou wanna be. They are a dime a dozen.

Poets are pretentious.

They think they are superior to ordinary people like us.

"Call Us What We Carry"

Herpes, Chlamydia and HPV?

How does she compare to someone like Ingeborg Bachmann? Poem at link, translated from German.

I am so goddamned sick of the poets getting all the attention and money! When will it stop!?!

[quote] I am so goddamned sick of the poets getting all the attention

Why is this person getting attention when we've abandoned Dylan Geick?

What she is gonna run on when she campaigns for president in 2036? Her mediocre poetry?

topical

And calling her a thing is just pointless cuntery.

Well, they need to push a "dark-skinned girl" because otherwise we would see their blatant racism (like putting Beyonce out there as the black mega-star instead of former bandmate Kelly who could actually sing and was far prettier...but alas...that pigmentation problem). A few years later...they got them a "really black girl" and just to make sure they cover all their bases she is a poet and a model (at 5 feet 3 inches...because we all know there are no taller black women trying to get modeling jobs). 🤦‍♀️

Apparently no one is allowed to translate her work unless they are just like her.

I honestly had no idea who she is, recently watching the Masked Singer at a relative's home (terrible!). I remember the PCD, but not her. She comes off even less likeable than the very plastic and idiotic Jenny McCarthy.

I forgot that she wore that headband in that stupid way. That is the only thing about her that I really object to. She is very pretty.

I mean, most poetry is stupid as hell, isn't it? Some people will defend it (like they might defend some times of modern art), but we will never know if those people really like the sucky poetry, or they just want us to think the know something we don't know.

Someone up thread is right about the overly dramatic way poetry is read now. It's kind of full of anger. Would people read sweet poetry that way? Or do people not write sweet poetry anymore?

raci$t le$bian troll alert!!

R62, there is very little sweet poetry out there.

The revolution WILL be televised.

I really like her seemingly stream-of-consciousness rhyming, alliteration, and other word play. I think for her age she is quite good (though I am partial to more structured styles, but I'm ancient).

FWIW, I taught and studied all manner of poetry, British and American.

Yes, r62, probably most poetry is as you say. But then the majority of everything is "stupid as hell," isn't it? Art, politics, sports, religion, relationships, even science (think of how many failed hypotheses there must be).

If you are trying to say you hate poetry because you think the people who enjoy it are pretentious twits, what you are really saying is that somewhere along the line---oh, let's say high school---you preferred the concrete absolutes of mathematics to the nuances, multiple meanings, unknown (to you) allusions, and general nature of poetry whose understanding varied with every single poem, with no formulae to memorize.

But still, I'll bet your heart leaps up when you behold a rainbow in the sky.

I'll bet you agree that no man is an island, entire unto itself.

And you must recognize that for American Blacks, life ain't been no crystal stair.