Meade and I encountered a street poet, Amy Marschak, on our recent journey to Boulder, Colorado. Marschak asks passersby to give her topics for inclusion in what will be an impromptu poetry recitation. I'm not sure whether Meade is making it easier or more difficult when he throws out a few abstractions — life, love, freedom — so when she turns to me, I hesitate, strain to think of something concrete and specific, and being the lawprof that I am, say: The Supreme Court.
Marschak gave us permission to film her and to post this performance on YouTube and asked that we link to her website ePoems About Life.
ADDED: There's a sly reference to the Court's campaign finance case, not yesterday's McCutcheon case, of course, but Citizen's United. Meade and I don't make contributions to political candidates, but we did make our contribution to the street poet, and there's no cap on such contributions… yet!
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If she is on the square in Boulder she must be good at hacky sack. Was she?
Her mannerisms are engaging and likable and some of her words rhymed. However, there should be a limit to how much money one can contribute to poets. A society can survive corrupt politicians, but corrupt poets are the beginning of the end.
You may support 17 poets if you like. But not 18. That could debase the poetic process.
It was so bad, I couldn't watch it all the way through.
She's engaging and likable because that's the major element of her business plan.
Talent in poetry or even expression clearly is secondary.
I give her credit for making a living with this mess.
I thought she was engaging and considerate. She did pretty well given the assignment. Any regular reader of this blog would have known the answer to the question "Do you like the Supreme Court?"
Since Percy Shelley points out that "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world," I think the government interest in avoiding at least the quid pro quo corruption of poets that is on display here is kind of obvious.
Old Ireland required an official poet for every 6000-9000 people.
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