When power leads men toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
President John F. Kennedy
We are all shocked and saddened to hear that CBS cancelled “The Late Show,” just three days after Stephen Colbert called out CBS/Paramount for its settlement with Trump. Just another day in America.
Those of us who know Stephen and his wonderful family are not too worried about him. He has been through far worse in his life. What this means for America, however, is quite frightening.
Most folks in Charleston can tell you a story about Stephen Colbert, and I certainly have many to share but I would rather republish an article I wrote about him many years ago when I had a regular poetry column in the Charleston newspaper. Stephen Colbert is the opposite of Donald Trump in so many ways, and Colbert’s love of poetry embodies a great deal about his character and makes these differences apparent. Enjoy!
Stephen Colbert and E.E. Cummings (This article originally appeared in The Post and Courier newspaper in Charleston, SC over 15 years ago. At that time, I was the Poet Laureate of South Carolina.)
I would have guessed that Stephen Colbert was a poetry lover. I remember reading in one of the numerous feature articles written about him, that he wrote poems when he was a young man, although I have never read them. I know that he celebrated National Poetry Month last April on his television show “The Colbert Report” with a skit called "meta-free-for-all." Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky appeared with actor Sean Penn in a kind of verbal metaphor contest. It was hysterical, of course. Robert Pinsky performed so well on camera that I think he could be a game show host. After the skit, Colbert (unlike anyone else on national television) described National Poetry Month and events that were planned in Washington D.C. etc. I know that his daughter Madeline showed some interest in poetry at an early age, because her grandfather bought a copy of my first book for her which I inscribed.
Stephen Colbert has never forgotten his roots and has shown enormous generosity toward his hometown in numerous ways, particularly in terms of schools. About a year ago (during his brief presidential bid), he raised $59,000 in 10 days that reached 13,000 public school students in South Carolina by encouraging viewers to make donations to Donors Choose on The Colbert Report. (Donors Choose helps fulfill teacher wish lists for books, globes or other classroom materials in schools in the United States.) So, given what I knew about Stephen Colbert, I was not surprised when he responded positively to a request for help in the Lowcountry Initiative for the Literary Arts (LILA) efforts to raise funds for our Poets-In-The-Schools program at Burke High School. He has donated two tickets to The Colbert Report and will meet with the winners after the show.
On a recent trip to New York City, I went to meet with his wonderful assistant Amy Cole to talk further about LILA’s fund raising efforts, and I expected him to pop his head in and say hello. I did not, however, expect a one-on-one sit-down meeting with Stephen Colbert that revolved around a discussion of the poet E.E. Cummings. Nor did I expect a poetry recitation, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Stephen Colbert’s on-going interest in the poems of E.E. Cummings runs deep. He described meeting his wife Evelyn McGee after a Spoleto performance, in which they immediately started talking about Cummings’ poetry. Colbert lived in Chicago at the time and would include select poems by Cummings in letters to her. It was a subtle way of expressing his feelings for her. (E.E. Cummings is well known for his powerful love poems.) The most frequently quoted lines from a Cummings love poem may sound familiar: “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in/my heart) i am never without it (anywhere/i go you go, my dear;”)
E.E. Cummings, who is known for his innovative writing style, which often included untitled poems, lowercase letters in place of capital letters when expected, broken words up between lines, and put punctuation marks unexpectedly into the middle of a line, is not a poet’s poet. You don’t hear poets refer to his work very often, although he is much better known than most twentieth century America poets. I never studied his work in college or graduate school, and yet he is a poet whose work has been inscribed on numerous cards and letters I have received over the years. There are particular reasons for this. One has to do with a series of love poems addressed to a woman named Marjorie or Marj, the other has to do with my exceptionally small hands. The poem opens with the line “somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond….and ends with the line “nobody, not even the rain has such small hands”
Then there’s the exquisite poem which one of my best friends gave me for my 50th birthday (printed and framed), which describes the free flowing, powerful nature of emotion. I am quoting my friend here, but Cummings was the master of expressing what was in his heart.) The poem begins with the line “since feeling is first,” and it goes on to describe the relationship with my friend as if E.E. Cummings knew us intimately. That kind of recognition, which happens so immediately and viscerally when we read certain poems, is one of poetry’s most powerful attributes.
E.E. Cummings is a poet whose work stays embedded in one’s memory and is easily recited, as Stephen Colbert so aptly demonstrated for me last week when he recited this heartfelt poem of gratitude. This is the poem I recited at our Thanksgiving table:
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(I who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
eyes are opened)
(poem “I thank You God for most this amazing day” found on www.csusberkeley.edu.com, used with permission of Stephen Colbert.)