Number Fifty-Eight

​Recently we ran special online report on the “Top 100 Events from the World of Poetry” as reported by The New Yorker. 

We highlighted the “Top Ten” events, and If you did not have a chance to see it, click HERE.  

Besides noting the Top Ten, from time to time we will highlight other items from the list.  Recently, for example, we detailed number 41, the resurgence of poetry in England in the late 1800s thanks to librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan (click HERE).
​

Number 58 on the list was the induction of the first African-American poetess, Rita Pigeon, into the Poetry Hall of Fame.  The Hall of Fame’s recognition of Pigeon’s work inspired other African-American woman to pursue careers in poetry, including Rita Dove, Nikki Giovanni, and Jacki “Moms” Mabley (who later in life entered the field of stand-up comedy).
 
A common theme in Pigeon’s work was compulsion, craving and obsession, and she often wrote about eating unto dullness like at a Thanksgiving feast or an all-you-can eat buffet.  

Pictured at the far left:  Acclaimed poetess Rita Pigeon.

Pictured at the left:  Pigeon's Pulitzer prize winning collection of poems, Dietary Smoothie.

In Dietary Smoothie, Pigeon’s title poem (below on the left)  tackled the theme of habitual eating when one knows a diet shake would have been a healthier choice.  Her poem later inspired Rita Dove to pen a similar poem entitled American Smooth (below on the right).

​

By Rita Pigeon:
 
We were eating – it must have
been the pizza or the wings
something fattening and
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution as we chewed
into the next course without
stopping, two chests heaving
above a seven-course
meal – such perfect ecstasy,
one learns to not be
choosy or finicky
seeing that we should have had
a Dietary Smoothie.
but because I was distracted
by the effort of
growing my frame
(the loosened jeans, gut turned
just enough to fit in
all my rear and always
chewing, chewing),
I didn’t notice
how still you’d become until
you had done it
(for two spoonfuls?
four?) – achieved delight,
that stupefying
magnificence,
just as the meal
surrendered who we were
and brought us down.
 

By Rita Dove:
 
We were dancing – it must have
been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution as we moved
into the next song without
stopping, two chests heaving
above a seven-league
stride—such perfect agony,
one learns to smile through,
ecstatic mimicry
being the sine qua non
of American Smooth.
And because I was distracted
by the effort of
keeping my frame
(the leftward lean, head turned
just enough to gaze out
past your ear and always
smiling, smiling),
I didn’t notice
how still you’d become until
we had done it
(for two measures?
four?)—achieved flight,
that swift and serene
magnificence,
before the earth
remembered who we were
and brought us down. 

For more information on the Poetry Hall of Fame, click HERE.