As noted before, check out the PoetryPolitic site, a 50-day event of poems about politics leading up to the election. Today is day 46.
Carolyn Forche on the politics and the poetry of witness as well as Howard Nemerov on Poetry and Politics, both from Edward Byrne's One Poet's Notes.
Why shouldn't newpapers print odes to Obama or about the banking crisis?
Mary Biddinger blogs on political poetry:
For some reason, the term "political poetry" continues to carry a lot of negative baggage, even during a time of political turmoil and excitement. "Political poetry" is alleged to lack self-control or serious craft. It's gratuitous. It's derivative. It's not literary. It's incendiary. It's pretentious. You have to smell like patchouli when writing and reading it. And so on. Sure, these are stereotypes, but they're ones that stick.Two poems:
"For Mohammed Zeid of Gaza, Age 15" by Naomi Shihab Nye
(thanks)
Justin Evans channels Christopher Smart to produce a poem that begins, "For I will consider my President George Bush."
Specific poets:
Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems by John Giorno
"[His] work–as a poet, and as a sexual, spiritual and political radical–is a shining jewel in the ongoing revolution of poetry and language in contemporary life."
Collin Kelley: "By her own admission, Barbara Jane Reyes' poetry makes people uncomfortable. Poetry that is political, sexual and in-your-face over America's ongoing xenophobia and debasement of Filipinas is surely a hard pill to swallow for old white men."
"Better Read than Dead": A student at Towson University reviews Justin Chin:
Justin Chin draws from his experiences as an Asian-American, openly gay man in his poetry....[One] thing that draws me to his work is his commentary on America... "Imagining America" is one of my favorite poems from this collection, which opens with ,"If the world has seen America through the movies/I imagine how the world has seen me. If America has seen my homeland through the movies/I imagine how America has seen me." This poem essentially characterizes the way I interpret Justin Chin, as all the facets of his identity manifest here, integrating seamlessly into a poem that is rather critical of a variety of aspects of the American character. Divided into nine parts, Chin experiments with a variety of forms as he communicates an assortment of topics, from American militarism to how animals are viewed in western culture to vitamin supplements to lawsuits as a form of activism. He concludes with, "I'm imagining America. I'm fumbling to make this mine," a sentiment I think anyone can identify with, regardless of national origin.
WHAT ELSE SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST?
Posts
2 comments:
there's an interesting essay on poetrypolitics whence this quote comes:
"We need always to be alert to writers who claim that good poetry must be difficult, accessible only to the educated few, and see this claim for what it is - fascist."
—Laurie Smith (Magma 23)
this Laurie Smith piece can be googled . . .
may i please mention my "Collected Political Poems 1965-2007" which is posted in its entirety on my blog and can also be downloaded free as a pdf ——
HI there, I appreciate your referencing Collin's write-up on Cherry.
Certainly "political poetry" is not limited to the current state of electoral politics, so that said, a few poets whose works I think of as critical political engagements are Suheir Hammad (brand new book entitled breaking poems just out on Cypher Press), Juan Felipe Herrera, Javier Huerta, Joseph Lease, Evie Shockley, Craig Santos Perez.
Peace, bjr
Post a Comment