Rev. James Lowery—my favorite poet of the day!
I want to send a shout out to Rev. James Lowery, who had the temerity to describe the craven, psycopathic, mendacious, avaricious, cowardly, evilly clownish, blood sucking, vampire-like machinations of the Bush administration in a note of protest during Coretta Scott King’s funeral.
Bush surrounds himself with sycophants—including many neutered members of the Democratic Party—so it is a rare occasion to see him actually confronted about his catastrophic tenure in the Oval Office. Said Lowery:
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there.
But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance.
Poverty abounds.
For war, billions more,
but no more for the poor."
He was also joined by Carter and Clinton, who gave their more nuanced critiques of the administration in their remarks.
I am relieved that for once, folks had the nerve to speak truth to power. I am recalled of Sharon Olds’ powerful letter to Laura Bush, written after LB glibly invited so many poets to a White House function. When you hear lie after lie after lie after lie, it is so refreshing to hear the truth spoken aloud. Isn’t that part of the job of poetry? To bring us closer toward a better understanding of the world? And how can we do that if we allow ourselves, as poets, to uncritically accept the astounding level of hypocrisy, greed and ghoulish, garish, orgiastic greed that has churned out of the White House, particularly in the past long, ugly six years? I mean, if we aren’t in some way digging up the truth, then why don’t we all just chuck it in and go into advertising? I hear the pay is a LOT better!
What do you think?
Born in Detroit, poet Tyehimba Jess earned his BA from the University of Chicago and his MFA from New...
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