Talking about New Orleans About deforestation & the flood of vodun paraphernalia the Congo line losing its Congo the funeral bands losing their funding the killer winds humming intertribal warfare hums into two storm-surges touching down tonguing the ground three thousand times in a circle of grief four
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Louisiana
In 1942, Louisiana established a state poet laureate position, which is currently held by Jack Bedell, who was appointed to a two-year term in 2017. Bedell is the author of several poetry collections, including Bone Hollow, True: New and Selected Poems (Texas Review Press, 2013).
recent & featured listings
type |
name | state |
|---|---|---|
| Festival | Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival | Louisiana |
| Reading Series | RELIC: Readings in Literature and Culture | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | McNeese State University | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | Louisiana State University | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | Tulane University | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | University of Louisiana at Lafayette | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | University of New Orleans | Louisiana |
| Writing Program | Xavier University of Louisiana | Louisiana |
| Conference | New Orleans Bookfair | Louisiana |
| Conference | Words & Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans | Louisiana |
Louisiana poet laureate
Ava Leavell Haymon
Ava Leavell Haymon is the author of Eldest Daughter (Louisiana State University Press, 2013).
poems
poem
2009
poem
1900
The long, gray moss that softly swings In solemn grandeur from the trees, Like mournful funeral draperies,-- A brown-winged bird that never sings. A shallow, stagnant, inland sea, Where rank swamp grasses wave, and where A deadliness lurks in the air,-- A sere leaf falling silently. The death-like
poem
2016
1.
Dear Tom Dent,
We still love you
And what it means
To be a black college
President's son
Whose point of pride
And rebellion look
Like men in the 6th
& 7th Wards. You
And I knelt before
Them until they
Groaned. And ain't
That music too
