(“To Asphodel, That Greeny Flower,†William Carlos Williams)—a wrap and rap in which we consider the new core curriculum standards devised in 45 states that mandate poetry be restricted in schools in a nonfiction to literature and poetry ratio of 70 to 30, including the case for poetry in the achievements of Presidents Lincoln, Obama, et.al.), how we advertise (and buy) cars, how we end novels from On the Road to The Great Gatsby, how we present presents, and what this all says about what poetry is, why it matters in our lives as present and presence, and other ways to end our year with a flourish, to keep on keeping on: tune in for poetry by Billy Collins, W. B. Yeats, Shakespeare, Elizabeth Bishop, poetics by Abraham Lincoln, F. Scott Fitzgrald, James Joyce, Ralph Ellison, Ann Tyler, Eudora Welty, Jack Kerouac, original songs sung by B. Mossberg (keep your day job, Dr. B!), and more . . . . You’ll be transported to a river . . . you’ll catch and release a fish . . . your pulse rate will go down, you’ll slow down, and let “peace come dropping slow”
© Barbara Mossberg 2012
WRAPPING IT UP: POETRY AS PRESENT, A GIFT IN OUR LIVES “WITHOUT WHICH MEN DIE MISERABLY EVERY DAYâ€
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