Legislators of the World
I ran across this essay by accident, when following a humourist's mockery of both it and the bland and banal masses of web-based poetry.
Adrienne Rich, in The Guardian
Both the essay and the attack upon it are accurate, which is not unusual, as there is always a shred of light in dark and visa versa. We have allowed the artform to become overrun with too many pale shadows of the quality, but I have no doubt that, in time, the forces of memory and the marketplace will clear the chaff from the grain.
We also have the academic poetry bastions, with their state legislated budgets of the university presses being used as vanity presses for the professors, to keep them feeling beloved and immortal, even if the only people buying their books are their students who are required to do so for the class the professor teaches.
I have had people come up to me in bars and at parties and ask me to recite a poem for them. I usually ask them what their profession is and ask them to demonstrate it for me, right then and there (unless she is particularly pretty, then I compose something on the spot in hopes of impressing her out of her underwear...hey, I have a reputation to protect). And that is actually a mild response, considering my views on the essence of a poetry. A more proper response would be for me to ask them to explain to me their religious views, in detail, including defending their faith against any and all questions I might have about it, loudly and for the assembled crowd.
Poetry to me is a religion. And, just as I am disgusted by all the pretend Christians I have encountered in the pews along the road to this moment, people with hate and fear in their lives and hearts and eye, pretending to follow a God who forbids hatred and fear, so am I dismayed, disturbed and even angered by the imitation, the dilution, the bastardization of poetry.
Are poets the "legislators of the world"? I'd like to think that the memes we launch may impact the cultural and socio-political landscape. After all, the quote is "You campaign in poetry and govern in prose" not "You campaign in comedy and govern in solemnity" (actually, considering some of the more recent elections in the USA, it is more "You campaign in solemnity and govern like a clown").
But in any case, the blog, the web, these have not killed poetry, just allowed the masses of mediocrity a more ready stage. In time the quality will bear out, or at least, I hope so.
As a legislator of the world, I cast my vote for hope. And love. And peace.
3 comments:
Hmm, perhaps I jumped the gun. Can you tell me any good web poets that engage
the web - that use the web - as a medium (HTML, etc) that do exciting things with the web?
Also I'm glad no one campaigns in comedy. Comedy, unlike poetry has NOTHING to do with the state.
;)
http://pvcshow.blogspot.com/
I dunno, man. The stand up comics in Congress seem to do a pretty funny job everytime I turn on C-Span (they're funnier than most of the shows on Comedy Central).
We're always tried to keep the poet's website (www.cityoflegends.com) low-tech html, as he knows too many people who don't have all the bells and whistles and can't view Flash or the latest format of whatever.
And, despite his recent forways into music (and the fact that he has spent some time behind the microphone as a stand-up comic and has written material for other people) he still rejects the notion of poetry as a performance art.
So, really, comparing real comedy to real poetry is like comparing cooking to driving a car. Both have their virtues...but they are not the same thing, designed to the same ends, requiring the same skills, etc. And, let's get real, most performance poets (some of whom are immensely entertianing) don't write poetry...they write performance pieces that, if you wrote them down, would be anything BUT poetry.
Bernie Taupin is a pretty solid poet. Elton John gets the accolades because he's the face and voice, and people often think of him as the Marilyn Monroe freak because of "Candle in the Wind"...which Bernie wrote the words for. Most great political speeches are not written by the politician, but they get quoted as if they came up with the lines. So I guess you could say that politican campaign in someone else's poetry.
Oh good. We need Cyrano, we get Christian and the nation is Roxanne, sleeping with the wrong guy again.
And if someone now float a spec concept for a show to A&E where race car drivers square off against chefs in a reality contest to see who does the best stand up comedy while running for Congress, I want a slice of the money.
Dear Mr. Trelawny,
Then I might respectfully suggest you find a woman to do it. The reality show, I mean.
There's this lady I know who can cook up one liners for speeches while grilling foil wrapped cheese sandwhiches on her manifold. I once saw her touch up her lipstick whilst steering with her knees and double clutching. Oh, wait, I just remembered she lives overseas. This should be a U.S. show.
BTW-Really liked your prospectus for the reality program. I'd like to see Paul Newman, Anthony Bourdain and Mr. Devault compete. Get Matthew McConaughey to host the show and I'd break down and get cable. I know who I'd be rooting for!
Hint-he could write his way out of a paper bag.
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