By Jeniffer Viscarra, Commissioner
I love literature -- poetry in particular -- for its power to poignantly reflect the human experience. Sometimes, poets capture a feeling you didn’t even know you felt until they express it for you.
During my academic days, I spent countless hours writing extensively about hybrid identity across genres and historical periods. Poet Richard Blanco, Miami’s own poet laureate, summarized much of my work in one sentence: “Como tú, I want to speak of myself in two languages at once” (Como Tú / Like You / Like Me). Only a poet can do that!
Only a poet can show you the grace, defiance, and dignity of the disrespected and oppressed in 43 lines (Maya Angelou (U.S.) 1928- 2014, Still I Rise). Only a poet can portray a repetitive, mundane life as “measured out in coffee spoons” (T.S. Eliot (U.S.) 1888-1965, Love Song of J. Aldred Prufrock). Only a poet can wring your soul with an ode to his deceased dog (Pablo Neruda (Chile) 1904-1973, A Dog Has Died). It gets me every time.
The impact and power of poetry are intangible. Poetry is something you feel, and it’s something worth sharing.
That is why I was thrilled with our first Poetry in the Park event, held at the end of National Poetry Month. Many thanks to the staff who took my vision for a literary event and turned it into a tasteful, cultural experience for our residents. Many thanks to our poets Mary Block, Julie Wade, Jen Karetnick, and Oscar Fuentes (the Biscayne Poet and talented musicians) for turning South Florida life into poems of storms, talking with our hands, traffic, mangoes, and so much more. Many thanks to the Miami String Girls for creating the perfect musical ambiance. I hope to build on this success and grow the event year after year.
Speaking of hope...
Hope is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all –
(Emily Dickinson (U.S.)1830-1886)