Magnificent, she said.

Magnificent , She Said, 2017/2025

Monday, January 20, 2025

This 2017 poetry collection (click here to read) originally consisted of 71 poems (one for each weekday) corresponding to T’s first 100 weekdays in office and separated by month. The 100-days concept is believed to have its roots in France, where the concept “cent jours” refers to the period of 1815 between Napoleon’s return to Paris from exile and his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. In the United States, the first 100 days became important when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 and initiated his signature “fireside chats” to instill calm in the face of the nation’s financial panic. The first 100-days became a standard to which all future presidents have been held.

These ‘found’ poems were generated by limiting word choice, in the order played, to each day’s playlist from the morning music show aired on my local public radio station, KCRW. The show, “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” is a reference to Eugene O’Neal’s play entitled "Mourning Becomes Electra," first performed in 1931. The plot is a modern retelling of an ancient Greek tragedy. I generated one poem per week-day corresponding to that day’s playlist (the radio show is produced Monday – Friday from 9am-12pm).

T’s last 100 days were January 20-April 29, 2017; the last poem in the collection ends on the last weekday during that time—April 28, 2017. This time was (and continues to be) beset with an anxiety that matches or exceeds that of the nation in the 1930s, daily storms rage in every realm—political, environmental, social. We are a nation craving a voice of reason, calm in the maelstrom, a homey fireside chat. Collectively we are learning to make those spaces for ourselves.

The poems are evocative and reflective in the way that music, (their original source) functions. There are moments of recognition when famous songs/bands are quoted and other lines whose familiarity has more to do with collective memory. Repetition is a foundation of radio play, (DJ’s, even on public radio, often have requirements as to which bands get played, which songs and how often), and that too, becomes apparent over the collection as a whole. As ‘found poetry,’ the syntax of each poem often reveals the conditions of its own making.

The next iteration will play out on Instagram stories over the next 100 days. Stay tuned!