A few years ago when my friend Peggy passed away, her daughter asked me to read a short essay I had written. Her mom had liked it, and the family thought it would be a touching tribute.
I was honored, and a bit horrified at the thought of reading my writing out loud in public. I much preferred the safety of a computer screen and the Internet to separate me from my audience. I felt the same way when one of my poems was used in a religious service. Thankfully, in that case I didn’t have to stand in front of hundreds of people and recite it. Instead, it was transformed into a video and set over a dramatic background with its own touching soundtrack. Watching people’s reactions while they read the poem to themselves was almost unbearable. In both cases, the work that was shared wasn’t written for a particular audience. It was just written. To have the work experienced in my presence seemed like a violation of the writer-reader pact.
When did I stop writing for others or in response to the events around me? And when did having others experience my work become such an embarrassment?
Poetry for a Private Audience
When I was younger, I often wrote poems and stories as gifts and tributes. Just recently, a friend told me she still has the poem I wrote for her when her father died. On many a Mother’s Day I presented my own mom with a gift of words. And though I blush to admit it, as a teenager I wrote quite a lengthy poetic tribute to the innumerable excellencies of a certain student teacher who was assigned to my high school’s physical education department. And I gave it to him.
Back then, poetry and writing connected me to people and events. I wrote in response to what was happening in my life and in the world around me. I offered up and read my words at any occasion that made sense: graduation speeches, school plays, choir performances, family meals. If I couldn’t pen words myself to express the public moment, I might select a poem or passage written by another to read aloud.
At some point, though, written words turned into something I hid behind, something far removed from public discourse. And when I looked back at my youthful displays of poetry, I felt they lacked depth and oozed sentimentality, a death knell for serious writing. Even when I began keeping a blog (which by its very nature was public) and now when I write for publication, I rarely consider the words might create conversation or change the course of history or speak directly into someone’s life by, say, extolling the many virtues of a certain PE teacher’s sweatpants collection.
Poets Changed the Heart of a Nation
In her book Fierce Convictions, author Karen Swallow Prior writes about Hannah More, a woman who never doubted the power of her words. Whatever cause she was championing at the time—education for the working poor, abolition of slavery, animal rights, morality in the upper classes—it was no mere sentimentality for her to cast her position poetically. Particularly when it came to slavery, “More did her part by continuing to wage war with the pen, ” Prior writes. Others with far more influence also were involved in the movement—politicians, preachers, philanthropists. But it was the poets who were recruited to “change the heart of the nation.” They served as the “unacknowledged legislators” Percy Bysshe Shelley described in his A Defence of Poetry.
What about now? As nations debate the most pressing issues of the day—economic disparity, health care, immigration, religious freedom, systemic racism, education, and others—we see the politicians, the preachers, the philanthropists weighing in. But where are the poets?
“Today, poets with a grasp of reality must start from the premise that nothing they write will be much read or have much influence on public discourse, ” writes Adam Kirsch in his New York Times Bookend piece, How Has the Social Role of Poetry Changed Since Shelley? He continues: “A poetry written under such circumstances may have its own virtues, but they will not be the virtues of the Romantics—conceptual boldness, metaphysical reach, the drive to bring religion and politics themselves under the empire of art. As if in recognition of this fact, poets in our time prefer to imagine themselves not as legislators, but as witnesses—those who look on, powerless to change the world, but sworn at least to tell the truth about it.”
In her counterpoint essay to Kirsch’s, author Leslie Jamison says that telling the truth might actually be a form of change, that if this is all the poet does, maybe it’s a lot.
“The documentary poet becomes a witness who might not legislate but might serve (if we hold Shelley to the fullness of his phrase) as one of the unacknowledged voices of influence beneath social change, ” Jamison writes.
As I see it, poetry as a whole suffers the two maladies that I suffer personally as a poet: First, too much poetry is written for no one about nothing in particular that others will understand. And second, we often feel relegated to sharing poetry with only ourselves.
How We Take Poetry Public
What would it mean for poets to step back into the role of unacknowledged legislator? Or to be invited to take an actual place in society’s meaningful conversations? Kirsch says that a lack of “cultural literacy” or general knowledge about poetry creates a major roadblock in this task.
“In the Victorian age, when a critic like Matthew Arnold addressed the public, he could expect it to know and care about the classics of English poetry. That is why writing about literature, for Arnold, could serve as a way of writing about society and even politics, ” Kirsch writes. “Today, no such knowledge can be taken for granted; neither the poetry of the past, nor still less the poetry of the present, can be readily invoked in public discussion, because only specialists are familiar with it.”
So we start by celebrating the ways that poetry naturally inserts itself into everyday life, outside of the classroom or the anthology. Sentimental though it may be, poetry read at the funeral service or offered during a graduation ceremony, verse inserted into speeches or scripted into prime-time television, this is where we start. When we see more poetry on sidewalks and buses and disposable cups at Chipotle, then we know we are getting somewhere. But we don’t stop there.
We go on to write poetry that captures the time and place where we live, that expresses the opinions and emotions of things that matter to us and others: rising healthcare costs, neighbors with expired visas who fear deportation, or educational standards that leave kids behind. Then, we share it with others. Sure, we read our poetry to those who come to open-mic nights, but we also share poetry at board meetings and write it on campaign posters and recite it at the groundbreaking of the new community center.
In other words, what if we started believing that what we write will or at least could influence public discourse? What if we strived to regain the “conceptual boldness” and “metaphysical reach” of the poets who went before us? And what if we started today?
There are wars being waged, there are hearts to change, and you there, with the pen: it’s time for you to act.
Photo by Pedro Ribeiro Simões. Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Charity Singleton Craig, co-author of On Being a Writer: 12 Simple Habits for a Writing Life that Lasts.
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Maureen Doallas says
Thoughtful, provocative essay, Charity.
Rattle, Split This Rock, and Broadsided Press are just three of many groups that call for submissions on current events. Rattle is especially notable for publishing in Poets Respond those voices who otherwise might never have a chance to be read and heard.
Naomi Shihab Nye, Martin Espada, the late Tata Muhammad Ali, and scores and scores of others are or have been witnesses. To be a witness and also speak out, especially as a poet, is, to use an overused word, powerful, an act like no other. I can’t recall the exact headline, but recently an entire nation called to its poets to help bring unification. I don’t accept Kirsch’s take on contemporary poets; it’s too easy a position to take, to dismiss poets, and to say no one is reading poetry these days. Poetry is everywhere, it’s being written and read. It takes just one person to read and be changed or even start a revolution.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Maureen – Thanks so much for these examples. I don’t accept Kirsch’s take either. But if enough writers and poets do, we may be left feeling voiceless, even if we are not. I think that’s how I feel at times, like my words don’t matter to any larger conversation.
I’m going to look up these examples and take courage from what these writers are doing. I also need to look around me, really explore the issues that I can speak into, and find out where public discourse already is taking place.
The real battle cry for me may actually be against my laziness. It’s easy NOT to write into these difficult places. I know. I’ve been NOT doing it for a long time.
Maureen Doallas says
I made a typo in a name: Taha Muhammad Ali (a great Palestinian poet).
You might like this Mayakovsky quote:
“Art is not a mirror to reflect the world but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Rattle’s Poets Respond is ongoing. Anyone can submit. Split This Rock had an “Open Mic” for poets to respond to events in Ferguson. Broadsided Press has an annual Year in Review Haiku. There were many calls for poetry during the Haitian earthquake (several print volumes were produced, with sales going to Haitian support directly) and the Japanese tsunami. Another example is the Occupy movement.
Some may be surprised but Denise Levertov, Adrienne Rich, Merton, Mamoud Darwish, Daniel Berrigan, and others all spoke out through poetry.
I find that poets and writers generally are among the most informed and most engaged in activism (as, for example, those at PEN International and PEN America) and I have to say, even when nations try to silence, as Russia, as China, they are not completely successful. The words get out, and are passed from person to person. And the wonderful thing is that the best poets write in a universal language; their words stand the test of time.
L. L. Barkat says
I was reading my girl’s history to her aloud last night (one day early for World Read Aloud Day 😉 ). It was about WWII and events that preceded it. I was sleepy and didn’t feel like reading, but Winston Churchill suddenly woke me.
His words were pure poetry. I mean, he actually used the poetic technique of “cataloging,” and it was extremely powerful. He roused the commitment and resolve and hope of his nation with that speech. And, yes, it changed the world.
Maureen Doallas says
Great example!
L. L. Barkat says
Thanks, Maureen. Here is the quote. When I had read it aloud, it gained power as it went. Poetry comes alive in speech.
Here is what the text said to introduce the quote:
“France had fallen to Hitler in just 35 days. Hitler next turned his fury on Britain. After the evacuation at Dunkirk [a “miracle” without which Britain’s troops would have been decimated], Churchill made it clear that he had no intention of continuing the policy of appeasement. He told his nation:
‘We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.'”
As the text relates next, the months-long bombing against Britain that followed was severe, “But the British held on and, sensing [his own] failure, Hitler made a tactical decision to postpone the invasion of Britain indefinitely.”
Charity Singleton Craig says
L.L. –
Thanks for providing the quote. You are right. This is a real catalogue of possibility for a beleaguered nation. It’s a really great example.
I wonder how people would respond if a parent showed up at a school board meeting with a prepared catalogue like this against standardized testing or in favor of a new textbook adoption or any number of issues?
I’m going to make a statement that may need a little more thought to know if it’s true, but here goes. Actually, I’ll phrase it as a question so it’s less of an affront: does the relative ease of ranting on social media or the ability to easily hide behind anonymity online weaken our ability to make thoughtful, poetic responses to those things going on around us? Or if not “weaken” do those things make it less necessary or appealing to take the time to form a more thoughtful response? I know I feel the pressure to respond quickly when I see a thread on Facebook or even when responding in a comments section like this, because if I don’t, everyone will be on to the next issue.
Just some thoughts … 🙂
Maureen Doallas says
My answer to your first very good question, Charity, is no, I don’t think our ability to make thoughtful, poetic responses is weakened because of social media. If anything, poets are among the first to respond to current events of magnitude.
To your second question, I would answer, no; I think speed requires response with greater deliberation, not less thoughtfulness. It also requires a willingness to listen to (or read) others’ comments and be willing to admit needing to rethink perspective.
I don’t think people engage with ranters once their famous 15 minutes are up. They disappear as quickly as they come online. And ranting is not, to me, how one best gets heard. Also, the caring and thoughtful people I know tend to call out those who want to hide behind a shield of anonymity. In anonymity there is too little credibility (unless, of course, you risk imprisonment or worse because the country you’re in doesn’t recognize freedom of expression and have to find other means to get the word out).
We can find a lot to fault about social media but we cannot dismiss what it can do. Just think of Arab Spring, how actions spread via social media. Social media is a tool; it’s what we collectively and individually make of it. And what we make of it can be for the good or the ill.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Maureen – Such thoughtful answers. Thank you.
I’m generally not too anti-social media when I see the good it can do. Like all tools, it can become a problem for me when I look to it to do what it can’t.
I did, of course, ask those questions in general to hear the answers of others. But I think I was asking them of myself, because I think my answers personally would probably be yes. I recoil from discussions on Facebook because of the speed with which ranters ruin conversations, and I feel the need to respond quickly which for me usually means less thoughtfully. I usually need more time to let an issue soak in and find my connection with it.
I like your idea of greater deliberation, and I am learning the value of that. Anonymity has almost always been anathema to me, except, of course, as you wisely point out for those who are in physical danger for expressing their views. I do think that there is a state of being just shy of anonymity in which we actually self-identify, but the impersonalization of talking to a screen rather than a person can make us say and do things we wouldn’t otherwise do. Maybe sometimes that is called boldness, and it’s good. Sometimes, though, it looks like brashness or insensitivity, or simply misunderstanding, and it’s hard to back out from.
Thanks so much for all your engagement here, Maureen. I wrote this post deliberately and thoughtfully, and yet there is SO much more to it than I first imagined. You are opening my mind here!
Manish says
just waiting for L.L. Barkat’s response on what Charity Singleton Craig has written
L. L. Barkat says
Manish, thank you. Which aspect? (I had commented already, but I’m happy to comment again if there’s something particular you were hoping for comment on.)
Sandra says
I think the best way to get poetry out there for the world to see, and to make a difference is to Share.Share.Share. I might not be the best poet in the modern world, and as yet I am an unknown poet in the world, but in my little town of Johnstown, Pa, I am becoing more known, and I do this by calling and volunteering to do readings, for free at a local venue, and then the venue sends out notifications to the local schools, and people come. The first time I had ten people, the second and third time I had 20. I have no clue how many I will have this year, but I am lucky because the new director of the venue is a huge poetry lover, and she thinks we shoould do more poetry readings throughout the year. So I am doing one reading in April, National Poetry Month, and then I am going to sit down with her and we are going to pick a poet each month and start celebrating, we were thinking, a Birthday or a death day to celebrate. I showed her “The Mischief Cafe” and she is all in…I will keep you posted.
There are two other places near by, one is a Bed and Breakfast and they celebrate Edgar Allen Poe, every year on his birthday, and the other one is an old haunted hotel that has Wendesday Night Coffee Nights, for local artists, poets, writers, and theater type people, Every year in August he has a Kerouc Festival, and to participate you must share a trade, it is by invitation only, and every year I share a segment on “You, too, can write Haiku” a little tacky, and I may never get famous, but since I get invited back, I must be doing something right.
I am scheduled to read to a literature class in April, for National Poetry Month, for free, at a local college and I will also be reading my two published children’s stories at the same college.
We need to get poetry back in school, we need to set poetry in motion on the sides of taxi’s and buses. We need to have more states promote poetry and have poet laureate’s.
Forgive me for rambling on, but I think this is the best online poetry connection I have found, and I love learning what everyone here has to share, because that’s the only way any of us are going to make a mark, or contribute to making poetry matter.
And I am going to hang business card size poems from trees during April, because the picture at the beginning of tis post has inspired me to do so.
Charity Singleton Craig says
Sandra – You have such passion and such wonderful ideas. I love that you go out and share your poems. I have to admit that I am so timid. This post was really a manifesto for myself about the ways I want my writing and my poetry to find their way in the world. I want my words to speak into the real issues of the day. You are inspiring me, especially with National Poetry Month coming up!
Thank you.
Sandra says
You’re welcome. I love this community and how we can share such positive ideas. It is so good to be part of this. Thank you for the kind words, for Natioanl Poetry Month, I also print poems on index cards and leave them on my co-workers desks, I used to copy a poem on one side of a business card and on the other side, the symbol from Poem in your Pocket. Now everyone know’s it’s me, and everywhere I can find a bulletin board I tack a poem or two up on it.
Maureen Doallas says
What wonderful things you are doing, Sandra! Some great projects and ideas, and especially passion for poetry.
If I recall correctly, there are now 46 states with their own official poet laureate (I try to write profiles on each when appointed), and an increasing number of cities all over the U.S. have their city/town poet laureate. America also has a national poet laureate. Scholastic has done a lot to promote poetry among youth (we’ve featured National Student Poets here at TSP). There’s even a new app out that allows people to find poetry events in their local area, wherever they might live in the U.S.
Charity Singleton Craig says
I found this link from The Library of Congress with current state poet laureates: http://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/current.html.
Maureen Doallas says
That map is a recent addition. There used to be brief biographical information but that was cut back in favor of links to poets’ Websites (though not all have sites). The Catbird Seat blog generally posts when a new state poet is appointed.
A good many of the positions exist because of legislation enacted into law. (My profiles are all under Monday Muse.)
Will Willingham says
South Dakota is in the process of naming a new state poet laureate. I’m working on a new website for the state poetry society currently. I’ll have to let you know when the new laureate is named. 🙂
Maureen Doallas says
Wonderful to know the state poetry society is working with you!
I’m also following what’s happening in S.D. David Allan Evans served 12 years in that post. There are not many states with terms of service so long; most have revised laws to limit terms to a year or two.
Sandra says
There is no poet Laureate in Pa, I think there has only ever been one, I joked with my cousin recently that in 2020 I will be the poet Laureate for the State of Pennsylvania.
Poetry has been my life since third grade, and even when I was mocked for it I never stopped writing.
Will Willingham says
Sandra, I loved the photo with the hanging cards as well. 🙂
Sounds like you have a lot of great things going on. Be sure to share with us how they progress. 🙂
Sandra says
I have more ideas then time, but do what I can. Thanks for the support.
Maureen Doallas says
A serendipitous bit of reading at Boston Review:
“Poetry Makes Nothing Happen” (so Auden claimed)
I like this quote at the end: “. . . Art must at times serve no cause but that of its own freedom. . . .”
https://bostonreview.net/poetry/robert-huddleston-wh-auden-struggle-politics?utm_content=buffer8c5f6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Will Willingham says
I told Charity I’d find this article back and link to it here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/sri-lankan-minister-calls-on-poets-to-help-unite-a-divided-nation
In this case, the government of Sri Lanka is calling on “universities to organise programmes of poetry, along with sports, drama and dance, to ‘bring together’ the largely Buddhist Sinhala majority and the largely Hindu Tamil minority.”
It’s fascinating to me to consider how many poets, as Maureen noted above, were giving voice to the people and issues of the time. But I wonder how often that’s been an organized, intentional effort. (That’s a yes, and no, I realize.)
Appreciate this piece, Charity, and the questions it’s requiring that I ask myself. 🙂
Charity Singleton Craig says
LW – I find this story about Sri Lanka so interesting, because as the article itself points out, it’s easy to think of poets engaging in public discourse as the revolutionaries, those who speak out against injustice and draw attention to issues otherwise overlooked. In this case, the poets and other artists and athletes are being asked to unify, to bring together. I like that the government is asking, but it makes me wonder …
Where is the line between activism and propaganda? I often think of propaganda as the message control of the group in power, but I think anytime a message is forced into a mold to help a cause it can slip into that.
Boy, this conversation has a lot of slippery edges, doesn’t it? I find it most compelling when I go slowly outward in the concentric circles of my own life. How can my writing, my poetry, my art affect my family, my church, my community, my state, and outward.
Maureen Doallas says
Thanks for finding that article. I could not remember the country involved.
Charity, another great question re activism & propaganda. In a way, we can consider the kind of writing we’re referring to via the question as both activist and propagandistic, whether the writer is for or against government actions and to what extent the message is controlled. The objective of the writing is to sway opinion, to make a persuasive case, whether it’s coming via underground, as, for example, samizdat by the former Soviet dissidents, or as in China today, where Yan Li’s work is passed privately but also sometimes contributes to “official” periodicals; or prohibited from circulating – a reason an organization like PEN International is so important (see its examples of writers being imprisoned or worse because they’re considered threats to government control).
Sandra says
What a great idea, I think poetry can have a place uniting people, why not a nation.
What a great article. And I always thought of Sri Lanka, as the home of my tea…who knew.
SimplyDarlene says
i do this – i think i do. i write my heart in poetry when editorial and essay formats are too much. or even in story form, where on an edit read-through, i find snippet poems tucked here and there.
how does poetical format work? i think because each word counts – it’s okay to speak in fragment without specifics (or specifics without fragments).
poetry frees because of the known (and expected) varied interpretations. is that why it works? because it doesn’t offend like a furrowed brow or wagging finger?
and it seems that the heart’s intent – both of the writer and the receiver – somehow is allowed more cushion in poem form.
several years ago i read a piece i’d written at the service of a man who was the closest to a father i’d ever had – i shook and snuffed and bawled but i meant every word i read. and they knew it – the words rung true for me. and for them.
does poetry seem more like a song than a diatribe? less offensive because the beat and tempo and tone that bend easier?
(and look there – i’ve rambled down a rabbit trail and talked to my own self in the comment box – questions and answers and all.)
(btw – glynn young’s book Poetry at Work book has both loosed and spun my view and recognition of poetry in the everyday.)
Charity Singleton Craig says
Darlene – I like the way you have interacted with this conversation and arrived as some conclusions and even more questions all in that space. I see the way you incorporate poetry into your everyday life and try to make it a part of the way you interact with others. I think that’s the first step toward allowing our words to have a meaningful place in the discussions of our day.
Thanks for joining in. Thanks for the way you speak in fragments and refrain from the wagging finger you mention. And I like your cushion metaphor. Poetry can be direct in its own way, but the form itself does seem to soften the blows as you suggest.
Sandra says
Darlene,
I think some of the things you address here in this post would be perfect for the poet is in, ask us anything. I learn so much from that section.