Madison About You

It's no secret that folks at the P&PC home office love the language let loose by signs. We've covered the poetry of anti-Palin rallies in Alaska, driven through the jingles on Burma-Shave billboards, and counted down the top ten roadside rhymes we encountered on a road trip out West back in 2009. So here's a small gallery of the puns, witticisms, spoonerisms, and various other linguistic twists and turns on display in Madison, Wisconsin, over the past week and a half. Before you scroll down, though, check out these other links:

Call for Poems about the Wisconsin Protests
Poems about the Protest
Protest Poetry Slam
Poetry in Madison
Wisconsin Poets
Berton Braley Cyber Museum
Wisconsin, Poetry, & Animal Rights
Carl Sandburg, Badger & Socialist by Choice
Lorine Niedecker
Kenneth Patchen
Wisconsin State Ballad
Council for Wisconsin Writers
Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets
Wisconsin Book Festival
Wisconsin Center for the Book
Jawbreaker Poetry
and
"The Poetry of Revolt" by Elliott Colla

Levi Johnston's Racy Playgirl Cover to Hit Newsstands

Appeared in the Salem Statesman-Journal on February 13, 2010 and the Iowa City Press-Citizen on February 18, 2010

Not to be outplayed by Sarah's hand
with its cheat-sheet of keywords and platitudes,
he'll stake his claim as the most famous dude
in what's become a Plain Wonderland,
and down that twisted, icy, rabbit hole,
Levi—baby daddy, Bristol's ex—
will show off his abs and hairless, airbrushed pecs
and ask us to think he's baring us his soul.
But Palin Wonderland won't miss a beat.
Todd will say he's going out to ski.
Sarah will write "condemn him" certainly.
The Queen of Hearts will win a Senate seat
and somewhere, in a basement in D.C.,
the Cheshire Cat will lick its dirty feet.

Palin Poetry Watch: Rhymes of the Times

While "Poetry & Popular Culture" has yet to hear from Palin or the Palin/McCain campaign about Palin's poetic preferences, it is clear that some folks are getting poetic in their opposition to the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate. On September 14, an "Alaska Women Reject Palin" rally was held in Anchorage in front of the Loussac Library and drew nearly 1500 people. According to some reports, it was the largest political rally ever held in Alaska and much larger than the previous pro-Palin gathering that attracted a lot more coverage from the so-called liberal media. One eye-witness reports:

"When I got there, about 20 minutes early, the line of sign wavers stretched the full length of the library grounds, along the edge of the road, 6 or 7 people deep! I could hardly find a place to park. I nabbed one of the last spots in the library lot, and as I got out of the car and started walking, people seemed to join in from every direction, carrying signs.

"Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned. The second most amazing thing is how many people honked and gave the thumbs up as they drove by. And even those that didn't honk looked wide-eyed and awe-struck at the huge crowd that was growing by the minute. This just doesn't happen here."

Befitting its literary location in front of the public library, some of the homemade signs rhymed—reading "Hockey Mama for Obama" and "The Alaska Disasta," for example—and others like the raven image shown above were indubitably poetic (or Poe-etic) in origin. It seems that while Palin and the Palin/McCain campaign may be closed-lipped on the subject of her relationship to this blog's favorite genre, it's clear that her well-versed opposition is not.

Boy Doles Out Fake $20 Bills

Appeared in the Press-Citizen on September 15, 2008

Inflation and unemployment are high.
Freddie and Fannie are low.
Another month in Iraq goes by
And everyone's short on dough.

So when Georgie starts passing out cash
everyone's friends of his.
No one asks where he's hiding his stash
or what the boy's motive is.

They pocket the money and give him a grunt
but never look at the jack:
there's a picture of John McCain on front
and Sarah Palin on back.

Palin Poetry Watch: Palin Not Forthcoming

"Poetry & Popular Culture" is still trying to learn whether Sarah Palin has a favorite poem. Several readers of this blog have suggested Palin's preferences might run toward the classic religious verse "Footprints," but despite two weeks of phone calls and emails from "Poetry & Popular Culture," both the Palin and Palin/McCain offices have yet to respond. Perhaps they're too busy getting their tax statements in order to at least make them public?

"Poetry & Popular Culture" has called the following offices in Alaska & elsewhere, hoping to get in touch with the Governor to discover her poetic proclivities:

• Juneau at 907-465-3500
• Anchorage at 907-269-7450
• Fairbanks at 907-451-2920
• Kenai at 907-283-2918
• D.C. at 202-624-5858

• McCain office at 703-418-2008
• McCain office at 703-418-2008

• McCain campaign email at ideas@mccain08hq.com

To this point, however, "Poetry & Popular Culture" has encountered only a bridge to nowhere, and speculation is beginning to mount about Palin's tastes. Is she a fan of Robert Service's "Cremation of Sam McGee"—a popular Alaskan ditty even though Service himself is from Canada (a nation, like Russia, next to Alaska and hence a probable site of Palin's foreign policy experience)? Perhaps she prefers Elizabeth Bishop's "The Moose"? "Poetry & Popular Culture" hesitates to publicize other speculations out of a committment to journalistic fairness, but this blog is nonetheless beginning to wonder if Palin's reticence to respond suggests, in fact, that she has something to hide...