Wall of Fame Project: Bennie Lee Sinclair

Wall of Fame Project:Bennie Lee Sinclair Susan and Amanda

Biography Bennie Lee Sinclair was born in 1939 in Greenville, South Carolina. She was a poet who normally wrote about the people and settings of the country that she had been familiar with all her life. She has written two volumes of poetry, “Little Chicago Suite” and “The Arrowhead Scholar.” She has won many awards for her work. She used to teach writing at Furman University and led writing workshops at Notre Dame, Western Carolina, and Brevard. She held the position of poet laureate from 1986 until her death in the year 2000.

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Interview Since Bennie Lee Sinclair died 3 years ago and her husband could not be contacted, this interview is not real but real quotes form Bennie are used. • What inspired you to become a poet? “Life has dealt me blows you can only deal with with poetry.” • Do you think poetry is becoming less popular? “Poetry is an undying art. It has always been popular in our culture in the lyrics of songs. In schools when I would ask children if they knew a poem, they would say, ‘Nah.’ Then I would ask about their favorite songs, and they would quote the whole thing and then it would dawn on them.”

Something has shifted almost imperceptibly, an axis so removed it is only theory. But through the window when I wake the light itself seems to slant, and is golden, not white or so direct as it was yesterday. Perhaps it is the best moment we have for readjusting, instructed in every phase as we are by the light, which daily becomes more oblique so that the leaves reflect it curiously. Or it may be merely a dream that we are here, and everything changed— even your face as you sleep, the slow light toward winter turning. August LightbyBennie Lee Sinclair

The Dying. The Donor. The PhoenixPart IBy Bennie Lee Sinclair Too soon, I find myself dying, adrift among mine who have gone, in rooms of those houses once known, anchored only by tubes; a machine. And nearby, in the sweet Georgia hills, a young woman breathing her last perhaps starts, then settles back protesting: Not yet! Not yet! Not yet! Such is the way life ends.

The Dying. The Donor. The PhoenixPart II Times change. Against grief, her body is bequeathed to those desperate, who cling by chance of another's passing. On a May evening bright with the wonder of fireflies, the call comes: like sisters, our blood and tissues match. As the helicopter lift from the hospital roof, casting her forfeited loveliness like that of a dissected angel to far-flung operating rooms, I become the first she reprieves.

The Dying. The Donor. The Phoenix.Part III Waking to the extraordinary pulseof a future, I marvel at the gift,not yet defined in theosophythat I continue to exist through herConjoined, we have become miraculous as the phoenix, borne on our new wings, raised from ashes by forces old as love and sacrifice, recent as state-of-the art technology. Though a mere biological trace, like the remnant of a Siamese twin, she nevertheless grants me breath. On the day she is laid to rest, I know I shall never be quite so alone, or she so completely gone. Such is the way life ends and, sometimes, begins.

Analysis of Her Work Through Bennie Lee Sinclair’s different experiences dealing with her various medical situations, she was able to write poems that allowed many people to connect with her. For instance, the poems she wrote dealing with her kidney transplant allows her readers who have gone through the same experience to relate to the feelings surrounding the situation, such as the unity experienced between the donor and the receiver of a transplant. Bennie Lee Sinclair’s poetry has a lasting effect on people because she wrote about real life experiences that her readers can relate to.

Interesting Facts • Bennie Lee Sinclair wrote the Coastal Carolina Alma Mater in 1994. • She was appointed the South Carolina poet laureate in 1986. • The Lynching was her first novel. It was published in 1991. • When Bennie was in first grade, a teacher submitted her first poem to a teacher’s magazine.

Links • http://www.greenvillehigh.greenville.k12.sc.us/index.asp • http://www.coastal.edu/advancement/alumniassocalma.html

Bibliography • “Bennie Lee Sinclair.” Online Internet. [7 November 2003.] <:http://www.statehousegirls.net/sc/symbols/ poetlaureate/> • Brinson, Claudia Smith. “Bennie Lee Sinclair writes poetry for South Carolinians.” The State 22 March 2000. Online Internet. [7 November 2003.] <:http://www.state.sc.us/arts/poetry/bennie_lee_sinc lair.htm>

Group Members • Amanda: research, poem selection, analysis of her work • Susan: research, slide layout, biography, interview

Wall of Fame Project: Bennie Lee Sinclair