I’ve noted that young people today (even people that seem pretty cool) apparently have no anxiety around liking stuff that’s popular — even stuff that’s so popular that they may have seen it on regular TV. It sometimes seems to be the opposite way — you see people apologising both for not adoring whatever is popular, or for liking something obscure. These kids are crazy!
Well, I’m old, so I have crippling anxiety around liking something that’s not obscure enough, so when I got this book, and I saw that “Inaugural Poet for Barack Obama” I was horrified! How uncool! That thing was shown on TV! People have heard of her!
But I didn’t notice when I bought it! But I bought a different edition! But officer, I wasn’t even present when I bought this!
The reason I bought this is this:
She wrote the lyrics to and performed on Watermelon City by DJ /rupture. It’s a cool track:
It’s so cool that there isn’t even a separate upload of the track on Youtube — I have to point you to the entire album (529 views).
(The rest of the album is also good, though, so you can just listen to the entire thing, really.)
But no matter how embarassing, I guess I have to read the book sooner or later, so I might as well read it now. *hangs head in shame*
And I’m sorry to have to report that this is a very good collection. Sometimes somebody who’s well-known makes something good! I know! Whodathunk!
I don’t think there’s a weak poem in the book, but some are better than others — I particularly liked this one, but there were a lot of them I really enjoyed.
So what does Goodreads think? Here’s the top review:
But it’s poetry, so there’s just four (4) reviews in total anyway.
Body of Life: Poems (1996) by Elizabeth Alexander (buy new, buy used, 3.70 on Goodreads)