If You Can't Beat 'em, Prose 'em

Cincinnati is the absolute worst place for people with allergies. The city is situated in a deep valley, surrounded by hills on one side and the muddy Ohio River on the other side. The springs are rainy and full of pollen. Mix it all together and the city turns into a deep stew of sinus oppression. It's torture. Torture I tell you!! But, instead of crying all spring long, I've decided to celebrate the unavoidable:-)

Thanks to our 15th Poet Laureate Charles Simic for adding a bit of peotic flare to my view of these antagonists of allergy season...Enjoy an ode to Dandilions!


Dandelions
BY Charles Simic

We were fabulously lucky.
We became dandelions.
Before we were even born
We kept wishing to be dandelions.
Next we found ourselves traveling
Out of the great unknown.
We rode down in a train
Sixteen coaches long,
We sat prim and proper In our golden yellow dresses.
Others came as black widows,
Little monkeys, and red birds,
And of course many ants,
Snuggled together and looking glum.

The GREAT Black History Month Fish Fry

I love food as much as the next person. Quite possibly, much more than most people. I love a good (or mediocre or slightly decent) reason to get together with friends and straight up chow down...but even a person like me has to draw the line when I get three invites in one week for Black History Month potluck dinners. No educational video or historical discussion. Just fried chicken, watermelon, and mac and cheese casserole. Really, good people!??!

Like I said, I love to eat, but Black History Month is not a time to tout our ability to make a "mean green bean casserole" or perpetuate one-dimensional archetypes of "blackness." It is the only time of the year that we are given permission to educate and be educated about the many, many contributions that Americans of African descent have made to this country.

So, this month, Evolution of Paper will be highlighting the heavy hitters of the African American poetry game...from Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar to Langston Hughes and Audre Lorde! There will also be special attention paid to the big cats of the Harlem Renaissance...because it's my blog and I can do what I darn well please:-)

Come with me on this poetic journey. Hopefully we'll all learn something along the way.

-sb

*photo credits - Michael Dixon,Chicken Eaters, oil and graphite on canvas, 2005