Barack Obama was recently spotted carrying a book by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. Walcott, a West Indian poet, is quoted in yesterday’s Washington Post and has written an Obama poem (listen to Walcott here).

That our new President-Elect reads is a great source of encouragement to many (especially booksellers), as is his recent selection of Elizabeth Alexander as the Inaugural Poet. As you have no doubt read, Elizabeth is a DC native and Yale professor who grew up amidst our area’s vibrant poetry scene. The poem published by the Post, includes a hat-tip to this tradition with its reference to Sterling Brown, a seminal figure for Washington area poets. (more…)

Dancing
i dreamt i was tangoing with you,
you held me so close
we were like the singing coming off the drums
you made me squeeze muscles
lean back on the sound
of corpuscles sliding in blood.

i heard my thighs singing.

–Excerpted from Like the Singing Coming Off the Drums.

Sonia Sanchez.
Poet: one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement, innovatively blending haiku and the blues, master of her craft. Activist: continually working for peace and social justice, she goes on trial December 1 for defiant trespass. Scholar:  Black Studies pioneer (at San Francisco State), she taught English for many years at Temple, leads workshops and lectures regularly.

We are honored to have Sonia join us as Vertigo celebrates its anniversary.  Fifteen years ago we wanted to create an inclusive, welcoming environment for people to meet and talk across the lines that sometimes divide us. But this would not been possible without the support of authors like Sonia, our multicultural investors and customers’ energy, ideas and encouragement. 

Sonia’s poetry challenges and questions, sings and weeps, loves and grieves–but always sustains. 

The rain comes and fall approaches, time for a bit of poetry. Our friend, poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller has work that will soon appear at Dupont Circle’s Q St. Metro exit, engraved on a bench. It honors the local volunteer response to HIV/AIDS. Here’s a sneak preview.

We Embrace
We fought against the invisible
We looked to one another for comfort
We held the hands of friends and lovers
We did not turn our backs
We embraced
We embraced
© E. Ethelbert Miller, 2005

This summer Chicago’s El has featured some wonderful poetry by school kids on posters of Elevated Verse. Now that summer’s almost over, this seemed most appropriate. Visit here for more info.

No public transportation plans? Then check out tinywords for a daily dose of haiku. It can even be delivered to your cell phone. So, when you are stuck in traffic, overwhelmed at work, irritated with the general chaos of the world: beep, you’ve got haiku.

Founder Dylan Tweney hopes to spread an appreciation of haiku while humanizing Internet/mobile technology. The bonus: a moment of quiet reflection and insight in the midst of a busy day.

thunderstorms–
tadpoles swimming
in my porch
-Mary Chapman

Oh
(for SS)

Oh - just consider my words
to be an extra sweater when you get cold.
Gas when your car starts running low.
My love might one day get you where you
need to go. Life is filled with destinations.
Where are you coming from? Where are you going?
Friendship is that road on the way to forever.

-E. Ethelbert Miller

E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist (and Vertigo Books investor). He chairs the board of IPS and is director of Howard’s African American Resource Center. The author of several books, he’s our blog’s first registered user, check his blog out sometime.

Friday we hosted a wonderful book event for Living in Babylon, Esther Iverem’s new poetry collection. It includes the widely broadcast poem,“What Do You Believe In?,” that she performed at the October 2003 anti-war march. She is a journalist and poet. Her film reviews regularly appear on the web site she founded, SeeingBlack. Edit: But you may have read about her in this week’s City Paper. Signed copies available.