Jackson Free Press

WMC-TV is reporting that a folksy poem by Paul Ott, proposed to the Legislature as the state poem, is causing controversy, with a group of Ole Miss professors and students saying it doesn't exactly make Mississippi look very, well, smart.

Previous Comments

ID

138033

Comment

I think I'm going to have to agree that this poem doesn't seem to exactly live up to our literary tradition here. Faulkner, Willie, Ms. Margaret, Ms. Eudora and Richard Wright may all be spinning in their graves in unison.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2006-02-15T23:28:41-06:00

ID

138034

Comment

I am pretty "tone deaf" when it comes to poetry, so I'll have to pass on this one. But I can say it's better than the limerick that Nantucket, MA has to deal with :P

Author

Philip

Date

2006-02-16T00:01:57-06:00

ID

138035

Comment

Oh, for crying out loud. We've got Jack Fenwick--one of the best lyric poets alive--sitting there in Kosciusko, and they're considering this for a state poem? I won't be hard on Ott and say that it has no literary merit at all, but it's greeting card verse and we can do so much better. That said, I suspect it probably does fit the legislature's idea of what Mississippi represents, so it'll probably pass. And we can proceed to ignore it, just like we ignore the official state song. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-02-16T03:40:33-06:00

ID

138036

Comment

That poem is awful. AWFUL. I really just can't get past that.

Author

Lori G

Date

2006-02-16T09:23:09-06:00

ID

138037

Comment

How about "I have an education, and I know how to speak and write without mutilating the English language, and I even have indoor plumbing, and I am Mississippi." Or, at the very least a poem that scans correctly, and doesn't sound like a bad children's book. Gaa.

Author

kate

Date

2006-02-16T10:32:14-06:00