{"id":4348,"date":"2013-05-10T21:19:57","date_gmt":"2013-05-11T04:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=4348"},"modified":"2013-05-10T21:21:48","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T04:21:48","slug":"fresno-pentameter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/10\/fresno-pentameter\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Pentameter"},"content":{"rendered":"

from The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Recognition Grows for Poets of Streets, Main or Otherwise<\/h1>\n

By\u00a0NORIMITSU ONISHI<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Jim Wilson\/The New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n

FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 This city has long been an object of ridicule. Even seemingly innocuous details like the flatness of the land, reinforced by the sea of ranch-style houses, take on a pejorative hue. Midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the western gateway on Highway 99 to Yosemite National Park, Fresno is not a destination but \u201ca bathroom stop,\u201d in the words of its\u00a0poet laureate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, Fresno inaugurated its first poet laureate on April 22, formally embracing a rich poetic history that, though widely acclaimed in literary circles, had received little recognition here.<\/p>\n

Fresno joins a rapidly growing list of cities and towns across the nation with their own official bards; in just the past few months, not only have Houston and Los Angeles established poet laureateships but so have Boise, Idaho; Key West, Fla.; McAllen, Tex.; and San Mateo County, near San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Ashley Swearengin, the city\u2019s mayor, said Fresno realized that there was \u201ca missing piece\u201d in its ability to express itself. So the city decided on a poet laureate \u201cto express what it\u2019s like to be in Fresno, what life is like on the ground here, and to really capture the essence of our community, to bind us as a community and help to represent to the outside world what our community is like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresno, which is providing a $2,000 stipend for a two-year term, chose James Tyner, 37, an award-winning poet, a full-time librarian and the author of a chapbook of poetry, \u201cThe Ghetto Exorcist.\u201d At his inauguration, Mr. Tyner read from a poem he had composed for the occasion, \u201cFresno, California. 2013,\u201d which began:<\/p>\n

I am Fresno.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am the high school kid that can\u2019t wait to get out of this town,<\/em><\/p>\n

there\u2019s nothing to do here, nothing ever happens, waiting<\/em><\/p>\n

for that last summer, before heading out of town.<\/em><\/p>\n

[ click to continue reading at NYTimes.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from The New York Times Recognition Grows for Poets of Streets, Main or Otherwise By\u00a0NORIMITSU ONISHI Jim Wilson\/The New York Times FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 This city has long been an object of ridicule. Even seemingly innocuous details like the flatness of the land, reinforced by the sea of ranch-style houses, take on a pejorative hue. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}