AMERICAN SUBLIME-Pulitz Prize Nom. POETRY by Elizabeth Alexander

Elizabeth Alexander's "American Sublime" is remarkable collection of poems that form a stirring quartet of historical events, Afr-Amer history, contemporary artists and autobiographical reflections.  Her writing has a bluesy melancholy mode, a strong sense of pride and a dreamlike quality.  Alexander was chosen by Pres Obama to deliver a poem at his 1st inauguration, "Praise Song for the Day." I strongly urge reading both her inaugural poem and "Amer Sublime."  This poetry collection is an informative accounting of slavery and a tribute to poets, musicians, political activists and writers of the 20th/21stC.  The "Amistad" section outlines the mutinous rebellion of captive slaves from Sierra Leone aboard the Spanish ship in 1839, their amazing journeys and the historical judicial proceedings in our nation's early history.  The poem Cinque Redux is told in the 1st person by the leader of the rebellion.  "I will be venerated, I will be misremembered…violent acts will be committed in my name."  "I will not proudly sail the ship home….Many things are true at once."  "Amerian Blue"segment is a moving homage to influential artists, family members and those who left an indelible imprint on her life. "Tina Green" is a loving tribute to her teacher's kindness as well as the cruelty of her peers being the "only-black-girl- in-my class story."  Alexanders' gift of words addresses issues of race in a startling manner. I was expecially struck by "Approach:" "The dark creatures are seen to be seals,….some the dull gray of the guns our captors used to steal and corral us, some the brown-black of our brothers, mothers, and two milky blue-eyed albino pups.  Albino: the congenital absence of normal pigmentation.  Something gone amiss. Anomaly, aberration.  Her poem "Ode" is a poem that resonates with warmth for all women.  "I love all the mom bodies at this beach, the tummies, the one-piece suits, the bosoms that slope, the wide nice bottoms, thigh flesh shirred as gentle wind shirrs a pond"