Search results
Mar 8, 2024 · Crosby didn't learn to read Braille herself. This didn't stop her from expressing herself through writing and she became known as the blind poet. Crosby's poetic eulogy of U.S. President William Henry Harrison was published in the New York Herald in 1841.
Legendary songwriter and folksinger John Prine was given the posthumous tribute of being named honorary Illinois Poet Laureate, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Tuesday.
Her poetry has been published in Seeding the Snow, Northeastern Illinois University's Apocalypse 9, the Chicago Quarterly Review, After Hours Issue No. 19, 20-21-22,23, the Haiku Society of America anthology, Rumbunctious Review, the Illinois State Poetry Society Anthology, and other poetry journals. Recently she was one of the winners in the Poetry That Moves contest and has appeared on ...
The Poet Laureate of Illinois is the poet laureate for the U.S. state of Illinois. The state's first three Poets Laureate were named at the initiative of individual governors. [1] In 2003 the title was made into a four-year renewable award. [1] Carl Sandburg was the second poet laureate of Illinois
- “City of New Orleans,” by Steve Goodman
- “Illinois Blues,” by Skip James
- “Illinois,” by Dan Fogelberg
- “Come On! Feel The Illinoise!,” by Sufjan Stevens
- “The Illinois Enema Bandit,” by Frank Zappa
- “Illinois,” by Brett Eldredge.
In 1971, Goodman took the train to visit his in-laws in Mattoon, and was so charmed by the scenery he wrote a song about it. Goodman even rhymed “odyssey” with “Kankakee.” “City of New Orleans” appeared on Goodman’s debut album and was a big hit for both Arlo Guthrie and Willie Nelson, making it the most famous song inspired by Illinois. “Good morn...
This is an ode to the Great Migration, with Mississippi bluesman James telling the folks back home, “I never had a good time till I got to Illinois.” Drawbacks: the melody is a dirge, the lyrics rhyme “boys” with “Illinois,” and a choir could never reproduce James’s haunting vocals.
Fogelberg, a Peoria native, was trying to make it big on the Southern California yacht rock scene when he wrote this homesick ode to his home state. “Flat on the prairies/ Soil and stone/ Stretching forever/ Taking me home,” is evocative of Central Illinois. Fogelberg’s best song about Illinois, though, is “Same Old Lang Syne,” about running into h...
Stevens once promised to record an album about every U.S. state. He started with Michigan, but his Fifty States Project ended after Illinois. I guess he realized he wasn’t going to find more inspiration anywhere else. The album is chock full of Illinoisana, including songs about Highland, Jacksonville, Decatur, and “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our...
Michael Kenyon was a University of Illinois graduate and an auditor for the Illinois Department of Revenue. He was also a serial armed robber who often administered enemas to his victims. His crimes inspired this oddity, which was out there even for Zappa. Then again, probably not the man we want as a symbol of our state.
If we’re looking for a song that expresses the same sentiments as the current state song, but in a musical style accessible to modern listeners, this is a winner. Eldredge grew up in Paris, Illinois, before moving to Nashville to pursue a country music career. “I come from the heart of the Heartland/ Where picture shows, where the corn grows/ In ro...
In June, the Governor and First Lady Pritzker announced the formation of the 2020 Illinois Poet Laureate Search Committee to fill the position that has been vacant since late 2017.
People also ask
Who will be Illinois' next Poet Laureate?
Who was the first Illinois poet laureate?
What is a poem sung by Denise Levertov?
Jul 11, 2024 · Newly acclaimed young Chicago poet Imani Elizabeth Jackson also assisted with the judging of the more than 260 poems submitted for the contest. Each poem was judged in ten categories with a maximum total score of 100. First and second place winners received cash prizes of $500 and $250 respectively (there was a tie for 2nd place).
