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Evie Shockley
1) Elizabeth Catlett's "Woman Fixing Her Hair"
2) "Ruth Ellen Kocher likes Godzilla movies. She was so inspired by one
particular movie, Godzilla vs. Gigan, that she decided to invent her own
form. Gigan, Ruth explains, is a low-bugdet monster that was made out of
the pieces of previous unlucky opponents from other movies, with patches
of metal all over him and a buzz saw in his stomach. And so, the new
poetic form Gigan was born. Ruth mentions in her weblog that some of the
inspiration for the project is from Beckian Fritz Goldberg’s invented
form, the “shuffle.” The Gigan consists of sixteen lines, includes five
couplets and two tercets [in this order: couplet, tercet, couplet,
couplet, couplet, tercet, couplet], with line one repeating as line eleven
and line six repeating as line twelve."
3) Benediction by Bob Kaufman
Pale brown Moses went down to Egypt land
To let somebody's people go.
Keep him out of Florida, no UN there:
The poor governor is all alone,
With six hundred thousand illiterates.
America, I forgive you . . . I forgive you
Nailing black Jesus to an imported cross
Every six weeks in Dawson, Georgia.
America, I forgive you . . . I forgive you
Eating black children, I know your hunger.
America, I forgive you . . . I forgive you
Burning Japanese babies defensively --
I realize how necessary it was.
Your ancestor had beautiful thoughts in his brain.
His descendants are experts in real estate.
Your generals have mushrooming visions.
Every day your people get more and more
Cars, televisions, sickness, death dreams.
You must have been great
Alive.
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