S.C. POET LAUREATE WON’T BE ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN INAUGURAL CEREMONY
|| By FITSNEWS || Arts advocates are livid after S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley decided to cut the state’s poet laureate out of next week’s inaugural ceremony.
Wait … Haley finally vetoed something? Ha!
Anyway, the sleight means Marjory Wentworth – who had been working up a special poem for the occasion – won’t get to read her creation. Appointed to her post by former S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford, Wentworth isn’t paid for her efforts. In fact the state recently cut a $1,500 annual travel stipend related to the honorary post.
Entitled “One River, One Boat,” Wentworth’s poem would have taken an estimated two-and-a-half minutes to read. Apparently the governor doesn’t have that kind of time to spare, though …
News of the diss was first reported by Andy Brack of the S.C. Statehouse Report. He criticized the governor for the omission, saying she should have made time for “the solid, passionate ring of Marjory Wentworth’s poem.”
Wentworth’s poem made a reference to the Confederate Flag flying on the grounds of the state capital complex – which Haley supports.
“Here, where the Confederate flag still flies beside the Statehouse, haunted by our past, conflicted about the future; at the heart of it, we are at war with ourselves,” it reads.
That’s true …
“Art enriches the lives of our citizens. It uplifts, chastises, suggests new things and delivers fresh truths,” Brack wrote. “It’s a crying shame that Haley and her administration couldn’t spare 140 seconds to hear the solid, passionate ring of Marjory Wentworth’s poem. Yes, we are at war with ourselves. And we need to do better.”
Haley’s decision to cut Wentworth’s poem is one of several inauguration-related decisions that have rubbed various constituencies the wrong way.
“I don’t care so much about the poem but they’re going out of their way to piss people off,” one GOP elected official told FITS, referring to a decision made by one of Haley’s advisors regarding the inaugural processional.
***
66 comments
I read the entire poem. If she spent a month on that I am surprised . The poem is not one that I would want read at any event I was an honoree. Gloom, gloom and very troublesome with the poets “no hope” beliefs. Who wants to hear that stuff. Give us some hope, especially at such an event. Good call.
In other words, pump more of Darling Nikki’s fake sunshine up our asses. Like there’s not enough of that already.
Where can I find the entire poem?
Robert Frost she ain’t. The whole thing is stupid why are we spending the time and money on this when she’s already in office. Our constitution only requires that she recite the oath of office: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am duly qualified, according to the Constitution of this State, to exercise the duties of the office to which I have been elected, (or appointed), and that I will, to the best of my ability, discharge the duties thereof, and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this State and of the United States. So help me God.”
It says nothing about a parade, ceremony or fireworks show – she’s had he day in the sun (actually it was cold as Hell and there was snow on the ground). Have a ceremony in the State House and get back to work.
Obama’s second
boondoggleinauguration cost $180,000,000. Hale’s first inauguration cost about $1,500,000 – if her second cost more than $25 we’re getting ripped off.Correct. An event like this only further fuels the silliness of putting a politician (i.e. self-interested crook) on a pedestal.
Amen! Amen!
Phone it in and be done with it!
Excellent idea! Wouldn’t it be a good opportunity for a Republican to demonstrate the fiscal restraint they usually just talk about? What am i saying???
So TC did you have the same opinion when a democrat was elected and gave his speech?
Lets recall who was the last Democrat Governor. gosh it was so long ago I can’t recall I know he was some old white liberal fart, Oh that’s right it was Mr Hodges who was a 1 term parasite.
You mention the cost good point so let compare cost & debt, how about the cost Democrats and Obama has cost the American Tax Payers?
When President Bust left office the debt was about 8 trillion, today the debt is http://www.usdebtclock.org/
So if your worried about spending and debt thank Obama and the democrats.
Since Obama came into office 11 million Americans have lost their jobs because of Obama and the democrat party spending and their polices, but so your still a democrat? This might interest you to know, Obama and democrats gave what to who 1.5 billion dollars to who?………. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2S1mJAxMzA
We just had more Terrorist attacks, so what does Obama do? well surprises keep coming…. this week released more 5 or was it 7 Terrorist from gitmo and these terrorist are from the same country as the ones who carried out the French attacks..WHAT! yes that’s is fact, So Your still a democrat?
TC your either a blind idiot or a complete fool.
Obama’s active debt clock: http://www.usdebtclock.org/
S.C.T.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeviIcoFMuI
All second inspirations should be done away with. They’re nothing more than “look at me parties”. We’re not crowning a king/queen, we’re just changing occupants in gubamint funded housing.
You don’t come here often if you think even for a minute that I am somehow supporting Democrats with this diatribe – I am simply pointing out another area where we could and should do better.
Your right only twice before have I been here.
I agree there is always room for improvement in most any case but to think where we’d be if a democrat had been Governor the last 3 elections is scary.
Mrs Haley has fought the Obama administration and has won her battle over the coastal expansion, if there had been a democrat governor that expansion would still be in a democrats closet gathering dust.
As far as the speech goes it would be great to see more governors speak openly to the cites they represent. It is a rare and worthwhile occasion for both the governor and the south Carolina citizens to share.
The poem probably was inappropriate, but it also probably was realistic. Why is it that folks want to believe this shit is sunshine and rainbows, when all evidence points to the contrary?
Amen. I guess she cut the poem out so she could have another 90 seconds to pat herself on the back for all that she thinks she accomplished.
Why was it inappropriate? Because it mentioned the Confederate flag? Isn’t one of the objectives of art to cast an eye on controversial realities? Would it have been okay if it were just pablum?
Yes, it was inappropriate (in Nikki’s mind) because it mentioned the Confederate flag. If CEOs don’t mention it, where does this so-called poet get off doing it? And yes, pablum would’ve sufficed along with a few atta-girls, and a couple of misused words like freedom, fighting, etc.
/// Why is it that folks want to believe this shit is sunshine and rainbows, when all evidence points to the contrary? ///
Because it’s a great goddamned day in South Carolina. WTF is WRONG with you anyway?
Haw!
The poem is too raw and truthful for Nikki.
Favorite comment in a long time. And this is how the phones SHOULD be answered at state agencies.
I do try to do my part. Thanx.
Now that Maya Angelou has died, I can’t even name a living American poet.
What? You’ve forgotten me and the other commentators on Fitsnews who contribute poems and rhymes? Pshaw..!!
Ya’ll are also forgetting that noted poet Robert Poo who wrote:
Some come to sit and think
Some come to shit and stank
I come to scratch my balls
and get Trikki Nikki’s number off the shit house walls
“Alas for South Carolina,
Her poets are fewer,
She never was much given,
To literature.”
Yawn
Glad the nixed the poem. Now, lets nix about 45 minutes more, and it will be the correct length.
In other news …. so SC Federal Prosecutor Bill Nettles and the FBI will NOT be arresting anymore members of the SC General Assembly nor their campaign donors, eh? Who paid off who?
Nettles pulled all his favors in to stop all the investigations so the creator of his children’s trust funds – Jean Toal – would not be exposed or harmed in any manner. Old news.
When you elect a first generation ‘American’ – did we ever see that birth certificate? – what do you expect?
The whole idea of having a state-sponsored poet is slimy. When I was much older than I am now, I was asked to join a certain coastal city’s poetry society. I went once. But I learned a valuable lesson: most poetry is crap, and most poets are deluded and talentless. Such is the case of the late Maya and the still living Marjory. Timrod, Sims, and Rees and a paltry few other South Carolinians even deserve to be called poets.
Angelou’s poetry is very earthy… reminds me of cows micturating on a flat rock…
I got a poem. Twinkle, twinkle little slut…Name one guy you haven’t f#cked.
As of yet,me.
my inaugural poem:
nikki haley owns this state
her own personal
sandlapper collection plate.
she’ll sell the state piece by piece
for a 15 minute speech.
and if the price is within reach
georgia can have folly beach.
the ignorant sheep
are hers to fleece.
they bitch and moan and loud proclaim
but on election day its all the same
and in the end they vote her name
and claim obama was to blame.
Bravo!
that’s one damned fine poem right there
my .tep-mother makes $72 /hour on the laptop . She has been unemployed for 6 months but last month her check was $14621 just working on the laptop for a few hours. see;.Bravo…
Yours is a very dumb and stupid poem but then spoken like a true liberal moron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeviIcoFMuI
I’d diss any poem that talked about the Confederate flag too… unless that poem noted that if the whiners and protesters regarding said flag don’t shut up, that back on the State House it will go… seriously, as a native South Carolinian, I’m sick of hearing about the evils of the flag. Let me be clear, if you and yours are sorry, illiterate people, than understand that that is the result of you and yours, not a small piece of cotton flapping in the wind.
Small piece of cotton flapping in the breeze.
Right.
If that’s the case it won’t matter if it comes down. After all the losers strike their flags.
Right?
Tell you what, I’d agree to take it down for 10 years as part of a deal. That deal would require tremendous improvements within the aggrieved community during that timeline related to SAT scores, standardized test scores, graduation rates, crime rates, out of wedlock births, employment rates, etc., etc. (After all, if it is that magical talisman that is holding said community back, improvements should start immediately). If however, there were no material improvements during that timeline, back on the statehouse it would go forever. Now seriously, that’s a deal that almost anyone should agree to.. right?!
News reports indicate that SC is one of the fastest growing states. If true, the flag may come down sooner rather than later.
I don’t see what one gas to do with the other. Just exactly what is that flag there for? Plain and simple it is there so that the white power establishment can stick it in the eye of blacks.
I’ll make a deal: we leave it up for ten years with the agreement that the large percentage of welfare whites get educated and removed from welfare.
Just what does that rag gain anyway?
Who gives a shit about you being a native South Carolinian? Most of us are, and we’re trying to make it better. Common sense tells me that if we’re tired of hearing about the flag, take the shit down and be done with it. For me personally, forget all that retire it bullshit. Take it down auction it, and make some money off of it. Some dumbass will go broke trying to purchase it. This is just like same-sex marriage fight, you want it because a segment of the population doesn’t. And when the fight ended, nobody was irreparably harmed.
“…….they’re going out of their way to piss people off….”
No Shit Sherlock
The Gypsy Queen has embarked on her journey to become Jeb Bush’s running mate
She can’t make her bones on the International or National stage so she has to demonstrate her skills as “I am a Bitch to be Reckoned With” by picking on the defenseless sheep who put her in office
Roll on Gypsy Queen Dooh Nibor, dammit, roll on
What’s the difference…
between you…..
and a mallard with a cold?
….one’s a sick duck….
I can’t remember how it ends…
but…..your mother’s a whore.
What is a constitution?
It’s what I say it is and what is in my best interest. Any more questions?
Soon the flags of Ohio, New Jersey, New Yuck, Massaholia and other failed Soviet republics will fly on the former South Carolina state house grounds.
All power to big government!
If you aren’t blowing smoke up Haley’s ass, she and the sophomore crowd around her, are not interested in anything you have to say or do.
Appreciation of poetry requires minimal literacy and at least a smattering of intellect. Given the Queen’s re-election, the electorate of this state, as those who “repersent” us, have pitifully little of either… Any poem would be waisted on that audience.
Our own elected politicians sold out our heritage years ago…and nobody seemed to care enough to do anything about it. And the beat goes on…and on…pitiful.
Well, the poem certainly does celebrate South Carolina’s heritage. Wonder if the following verse influenced the Inaugural Committee’s decision
http://www.statehousereport.com/2015/01/09/inaugural-poem/
“at Gadsden’s Wharf, where 100,000
Africans were imprisoned within brick walls
awaiting auction, death, or worse.
Where the dead were thrown into the water,
and the river clogged with corpses”
Chris Christy will be in attendence and it ( mention of the Confederate flag)may cause him some trouble as it did Bush in 2000..Tricky Nikki is gearing up to be in the national spotlight…
Confederate ghosts
Get all of the attention
While pols rob us blind
Third World? . . . Not even yet.
Sandlappers are still feudal.
Bow to your barons!
The poem is terrible. It’s a negative piece and all about the issues important to the “poet” and not a message of hope, improvement or positive needs. I’m glad Nikki canned it. Margery should be happy.. She has never gotten this much publicity.
Why would any sane person voluntarily listen to a poet?
Same could be asked about those who read and comment on this blog
A poet must use his imagination. He must imagine people are going to read his poems.
——————-
At a banker’s dinner the other evening a banker read a bad poem that he wrote, and nothing was done about it. But just let a poet write a bad check!
A maiden at college, Miss Breeze,
Weighed down by BA’s and Lit. D.’s,
Collapsed from the strain.
Said her doctor, “It’s plain,
You are killing yourself — by degrees!”
A maiden who walked on the Corso
Displayed overmuch of her torso.
A crowd soon collected
But no one objected,
And some were in favor of more so.
————————–
There is a wild tale about Nona,
Who wore a black chiffon kimono.
Don’t think for a minute
There’s anything in it —
That is , anything except Nona.
Here’s a poen –
We’ve hit the floor, our state is poor,
We gots no jobs, update is snobs,
Whitey got the power, and he got the dough,
Rest of us is screwed, don’tcha know.
Haunted by our past?
Haunted by fighting the fascist swine Abe Lincoln and his armies?
I like those ghosts.
In the dead of night the Blatherskite
Screams out his tale of woe.
When it’s very dark he begins to spark
Leaving bloodstains in the snow.
Each night he screams
Waking dreadful dreams
In agony devine.
Be glad by far and thank your star
That no such fate is thine.
Ms. Wentworth is from Massachusetts.
What did you expect from a carpetbagger?
BS story packed full of BS against Gov. Haley.
She wants to read her poem she should call Obama I’m sure he’d love to hear it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5qBCQA0kFE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeviIcoFMuI
S.C.T.P.
Excellent! http://nikkihaley.com/
Make that call and leave a comment congratulating a great lady who won her second term and won against a democrat liberal who would have move S.C. further down the road towards Obama’s Marxist highway.
Congrats Governor Haley on your easy victory. Please keep up the good work.
S.C. T. P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeviIcoFMuI
Thank God for the hopeless, helpless and the sheep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUzMPlQb2G4
May God Bless America.