Blue Ivy: Critics Slam Beyonce Over Poem on Daughter
While appearing as the cover girl for CR Fashion Book's latest issue, Beyoncé opted out of an exclusive interview and instead chose to publish a poem about her life, trials and tribulations, and her daughter, Blue Ivy.
The poem, entitled "Bey the Light," was originally written by Pulitzer Prize winner Forrest Grander who collaborated with Beyoncé to remix her thoughts and words in the form of poetry, Slate reports.
In the poem, Beyoncé describes her daughter as her "muse" and describes herself as "a vessel for all that isn't right."
Below are a few stanzas from the poem:
"It's my daughter, she's my biggest muse. â¨There's someone, we all find out soon, â¨more important than ourselves to lose."
"You call me a singer, but I'm called to transform, â¨to suck up the grief, anxiety, and loss â¨of those who hear me into my song's form."
"I'm a vessel for all that isn't right,â¨for break-ups and lies and double-cross. â¨I sing into that vessel a healing light."
To read the full poem, click here.
Beyoncé's decision to publish a poem instead of an interview stemmed from her desire to break out of the norm, Grander told Slate.
"One of the editors at CR I have worked with before, he did an interview with Beyoncé, but she's done so many interviews. There ends up being a kind of interview-ese, where you've been asked every question a zillion times," Grander explained. "Dominique [Teja Sidhu, the editor] had the intuition to try something else with her responses, to ask what we could do that opens up new territory for Beyoncé and expands her boundaries into a new theater. And I'm very interested in formal exploration, in using others' voices."
Despite Beyonce's desire to try something new, critics have slammed her remixed poem for falling flat.
"I love poetry. But presented with a poetic 'remix' of Beyoncé statements -- even one done by acclaimed poet and translator Forrest Gander -- alongside a photo-spread of Beyoncé looking gorgeous and ferocious in wild outfits, I am likely to just look at the pictures. Sorry, muse," Slate staff writer Katy Waldman wrote.
Kevin O'Keeffe from The Wire made a similar comment writing, "So Beyoncé wrote a poem to be featured in her spread for CR Fashion Book, a magazine helmed by former Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld. If Beyoncé were to ask us what we thought, we'd say she looked so beautiful in the photo shoot! She always looks so good. The poem? Oh, well, she really used some interesting words! Mhmm. Yeah."
Beyoncé has not responded to the critics.
What are your thoughts on "Bey the Light?" Share your comments below.
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