Unstressed

  • Poetry
  • Culture
  • Design

A weblog from the editors of Linebreak

The regulars

Ash Bowen's poetry has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Blackbird, and Black Warrior Review, among other publications. He lives and works in Texarkana, AR.

Jennifer Jabaily's poetry has appeared in Mannequin Envy and Fickle Muses. She's a second-year MFA student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Ashley Anna McHugh is a third-year MFA student at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Measure, DIAGRAM and Memorious as well as other publications.

Johnathon Williams's poetry has appeared in Best New Poets 2009, the Pebble Lake Review, and Unsplendid. He lives in Fayetteville, AR, with his wife and daughters.

Will the best American President please step forward? Not so fast, Buchanan.

By Jennifer on Dec 15, 2009

In case you missed it, there was a fantastic piece about poetry on American Presidents in the New York Times this past Sunday.  I rather liked the few lines on Rutherford B. Hayes written by James Haug–  the following is from “A Day Like Any Other,” published in the Gettysburg Review in 2006:

When Rutherford B. Hayes comes to town,
Squirrels are charmed out of the eaves.
The editor breaks down and sobs.
…
His unrecorded remarks fill the air.

If we venture outside of the world of verse, my favorite celebration of a D-list President has long been They Might Be Giants’ James K. Polk– here’s a video of them performing this song in a Borders Books in my lovely (?) hometown of Braintree, MA for a bunch of fairly energetic and vaguely nerdy children, accompanied by their slightly less energetic and much nerdier parents.

(Note:  As a few friends from college and I once discovered, to “James K. Polk” is a lovely euphemism for hogging something a la Manifest Destiny, e.g. “Ricky, can you please stop James K. Polk-ing the sofa?  The rest of us need a place to sit down.”)

Optional homework:  Write a few lines about a solidly middle-of-the-road President.  Post ‘em in the comments, if you’re brave.  Make me laugh.  Make me cry.  Make me fall in love with William Howard Taft all over again.

0 comments // gettysburg review, james k. polk, presidents, they might be giants

linebreak