Convictions Poetry Slam

Diane Marie Amann — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:25:00 GMT

Today begins National Poetry Month, no foolin'. Given concerns voiced here about the blindering of America's lawyers, how about honoring this "cruellest month" with a Convictions Poetry Slam? Let's hear nominations for best, or worst, law poetry. By "law poetry" I mean:

use of poetry in legal writing, by judges, lawyers, or legal scholars
poems about law, or about law's effect on society
passages of prose that, intentionally or not, are poetic

To mark the month over at IntLawGrrls I reprinted America by Gertrude Stein. With effort that poem might be shoehorned into example No. 2. But it's not a great fit, and in any event I'd rather kick off our slam with this snippet, representing example No. 3:

The facts of this
case
are, we must
hope,
extraordinary.

Michael H. v. Gerald D. (1989), by Antonin Scalia

More to come as the month unfolds; looking forward to your entries.

Convictions : Antonin Scalia, poetry

Convictions Poetry Slam