PBS NewsHour weekly poem series featured a reading of “As If” by Dr. J. Allyn Rosser, Associate Professor of English at Ohio University, from her new book Mimi’s Trapeze.
J. Allyn Rosser
The Artsdesk story carried the headline: Poet posits, ‘We humans, we’re kind of a disappointment.’
In Mimi’s Trapeze, her fourth book, Rosser takes a lighthearted view of dark subjects (see “Final Invitation”), and a dark view of light ones (“Intro to Happiness”). She has refined her vision, reaffirming her belief that poetry is the most direct and effective way for humans to alleviate their loneliness.
Listen to J. Allyn Rosser read “As If” on PBS. In the poem, Rosser “contemplates humanity as not quite worthy of the world,” she told Art Beat in December. “We humans, we’re kind of a disappointment. We’re always desiring, we’re never satisfied, we’re cruel sometimes. Maybe we’re not getting the point we were put here to get.”
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