Howard Ramsey II discusses what becoming a Poetry Genius entails and how that process relates to the digital humanities in an essay on Poetry Genius, a sister site of Rap Genius. He writes:
Coordinating a blog or digital resource and now becoming a Poetry Genius have been crucial to my ability to move beyond the small audience of my immediate field. Becoming a Poetry Genius has meant drawing on lessons from people twice my age and people half my age.
According to the site, a Poetry Genius annotates works of poetry, prose, and drama on the site. Sounds sort of like Wikipedia in that anyone can enter annotations. As an example, check out this annotation by editor, Perfect Rhyme, on Patricia Smith’s “Hip Hop Ghazal” regarding the use of her name in the last line:
Traditionally, in the next-to-last line of a ghazal, the author refers to him or herself by name or in the first person. This element of the form is called the “signature.”
And Smith’s response:
That’s me! And, for the record, I have stopped crying about getting old. It’s inevitable, and I look pretty damned good for—–
Ha! I love Poetry Genius’s take on making poetry more accessible. Sounds like a great teaching tool.
