A Call for Political Poetry

Yesterday I waxed political for one posting, noting that such diatribes were necessary in order to keep the political from tainting my poetry. Today I read an interesting essay in intellectualconservative.com on the subject of political poetry. I’ll have to admit that this website is not one of my regular feeding troughs so I cannot vouch on how intellectual their conservatism is. And if I wanted to be a wise guy, I could say that such thing is an oxymoron. But this article is indeed fair and balanced. Not only should it be considered by editorial pages in this country but also poets themselves.

Political poetry is difficult when written in the lyric mode, the preferred manner of this age. But during the Viet Nam war though there was much written. War will encourage poetry. That war became so political that such poetry naturally became political. But I’m not sure how much of it was enduring. But I’m also not sure if it should be written to last.

Poetry can say things in a context that goes beyond the screed and into the realm of the soul. Maybe that would be a welcome infusion to the political bloodlife of this nation. Poetry about the deficit, for example, may be a dry topic to consider. But if Tip O’Neil was right when he said that all politics are local, then such a local look at the deficit and how it’s effect on the personal would be a worthy theme.

Some mq’s from A Call For More Political Poetry On America's Op Ed Pages by Michael Silverstein:

On the poets' side, we need a lot less of the post-modern, endlessly introspective, culture for the cognoscenti, self-consciously unstructured work that is geared to winning sinecures, juried prizes, and praise from a tight circle of learned professionals…. We need poetry that enriches national debate, changes points of views, and provides better ways of understanding and altering contemporary political, economic and social realities.

On the Op Ed side of things, we need editors who recognize poetry as a real world way to look at the issues covered in their pages. Not something that belongs in what used to be patronizing termed "the women's pages." Not something that gets slotted in a little "Poet's Corner" box that gives an occasional nod to the culturally elevated.