Tretheway, the new Poet Laureate

The US has a new Poet Laurette, Natasha Tretheway

,  whom I'm not overly familiar with. Not yet anyway. However, the world of words is a vast multi verse, and it takes one helluva dedicated reader to be up to date with everyone. The intoxication of the art form, the ease of which one can publish, in print or electronic, has helped explode poetry; a second big bang if you will, fueled by the gases of spoken word, slam, and protean clouds of workshops all over the world. A multi verse that Tretheway finds herself at the center, ready to pull everyone into poetry’s orbit.

Poetry is immense and ever expanding. Students of poetry know this. Professors of poetry might know this, slam artists, street poets, and visionaries know this, but the general public probably doesn't know this. The world of poetry is inaccessible to the un-initiated, Natasha Tretheway's appointment to the office of Poet Laureate, is bound to have most of the world...shrugging. “Who?” or “Oh, never heard of her.” Or even...“Who cares?”

When I guest lecture in workshops or talk with young creative writing students about poetry, one of the more common questions is “What is poetry?” or “How do I get it?” or “What makes a poem a poem?” Guys especially find themselves on the outside looking in, for whatever reason, and the process, who decides who is important in poetry (or literature in general) and why should we care what they think?

All valid questions.

For many, American poetry has unmade itself. What I mean by this, is it has, for many, become an exclusive club. Fellow Eastern Shore writer, David Poyer, in an interview a few years back said to me (I'm paraphrasing): You poets have grown inward. All this modern stuff is so self indulgent. What happened to the rhyme? (Okay, I'm paraphrasing a lot.) His point was that as far back as the 1960s, regular joes knew modern poetry. Media formats were simplier and a poem could still find its way into the public consciousness through radio or newspaper, a phenomenon Robert Pinksy's Favorite Poem Project recaptured at the turn of the 21st century. Tretheway's the first Southerner to be appointed since Warren, and is the first woman of mixed heritage from the south to hold the office. Her own work is accessible, crafted, and should resonate across cultural lines. Perhaps she can whip up some furor for the lifestyle and form. I'm looking forward to see what she can launch. Emory University is a rich corner of the US to be immersed in, and I hope to be looking southward for the next few years to see what Tretheway is spinning.