W.S.Merwin will be the next poet laureate of the United States. While my own laurels are the tiniest little green shoots, W.S.Merwin's leafy crown must be as weighty as gold. I have the Potomac River and a little bungalow in Del Ray and he has the Pacific Ocean and a pineapple plantation on a dormant volcano! The same ratio applies to our lives as poets, his being of far greater, depth, quality and quantity than mine. However, just as one person's suffering can not be compared to another's, one poet's passions and inspirations cannot really be equated to another's. I share W.S. Merwin's dependence on the natural world and his love of languages and translation. We both have a need to write poetry.
I was interested to learn that he credits his accomplishments in poetry to the discipline and art of translation, something he pursued in order to 'learn to write'. As poet laureate of Alexandria, one of my desires is to see some sort of cultural exchange of words occur between English speakers and English learners, much as the program Poetry Inside Out has accomplished out of the Center for the Art of Literary Translation in California. Translation provides a portal into other languages and cultures and by first translating works of established poets into English, non-native speakers can gain an appreciation for their own heritage and share their pride in their culture with others. Bilingual students who are native English speakers can engage in the new language and culture in an organic way. Eventually, the established poets serve only as models for the students to write and translate their poems with and for each other.
Mr. Merwin, I welcome you as my nearest poet laureate and am open to any advice you have for me in my role. Congratulations from this side of the Potomac!
On July 10th, Alexandria celebrated its 261st birthday and the skies paid homage, by opening up and pouring down on the city for much of the day without spoiling the afternoon and evening festivities. In fact, it was a beautiful evening with low humidity and gentle breezes. The Army Band played and the Town Crier cried. The Mayor spoke and civic heroes received awards. The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra played (boy did they play!) and the fireworks went on forever! I had the pleasure of reading "Praise Song for Alexandria" (See Poems) a poem written for the occasion. I used Mary McElveen's poem "City of Songs" as a departure point.
My hands began to tremble, something I had not anticipated and Mayor Euille stepped in to save the day, steadying the paper with the words of the poem on it for me. Thank you, Mayor! And thank you, citizens for joining in with your voices at the end:
"Let us sing.
Let us sing.
Let us sing!"
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