Before Hillary Clinton ceded victory to Barack Obama, pundits such as E.J. Dionne compared their campaign styles and likened Clinton to prose and Obama to poetry.
In 1960, the articulate Adlai Stevenson compared his own oratory unfavorably to John F. Kennedy’s.
“Do you remember,” Stevenson said, “that in classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, ‘How well he spoke,’ but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said, ‘Let us march.’”
At this hour, Obama is the Democrats’ Demosthenes.
Demosthenes and his arch-rival, John McCain, spoke this week at the national convention of the League of United Latin American Citizens. According to an opinion column in yesterday’s Indianapolis Star:
Poetry is in the DNA of this romantic, passionate people. Obama knows this language without speaking Spanish.
…while McCain spoke PowerPoint about his economic plan — creating jobs, stimulating small business, keeping taxes down — Obama told stories of a little Hispanic girl stuck in a crumbling school building and a nursing mother torn from her baby during a government raid to round up illegal immigrants.
I couldn’t find any online references to McCain and poetry but I did find a rhyming poem about him composed by Michigan creative writer Steven West.
With the allegory of poetry in the presidential race, I’d like to share a poem I wrote in college.
Initially uploaded to an online bulletin board stored on a VAX server, I’ve tinkered with my free verse over the years since, changing a preposition here, a clause there, and wondering if this poem or that is worthy of an unsolicited submission to a literary journal.
Much of my poetry is based on subject matter I studied as a sociology student, and there are some sociocultural themes.
The following poem was written on February 7, 1995:
The Child
The child was born
in a white hospital room
The child was born
in a white hospital room
The child was born
in a decrepit little shack
The child was born
in a white hospital room
The child grew up
in the care of his parents
The child grew up
in the care of his parents
The child grew up
living alone on the streets
The child grew up
in the care of his parents
The child then married
a wonderful person of wealth
The child then married
a wonderful person of wealth
The child then married
into a killing and lynching gang
The child then married
a wonderful person of wealth
The child had kids
who were beautiful and smart
The child had kids
who were beautiful and smart
The child had kids
but they died in the gang
The child had kids
who were beautiful and smart
The child soon died
in the arms of those children
The child soon died
in the arms of those children
The child soon died
and was murdered alone
The child soon died
in the arms of those children
Constructive criticism, anyone?
Related posts:
- 6 Business Lessons from President Obama
- How Obama Ordering a Hamburger is a Lesson and a Warning for Every Chief Executive
Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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