GRANDEUR OF THE UNIMPORTANT
APZ Books
The reasons a contemporary American poet might consider writing political poetry these days are too many to name. I would include the government’s attempt to silence dissent in the media, in the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, even members of Congress; to attack the research and consensus of scientists and science; to dismiss manipulation of our democracy as “nonsensical”; to question the integrity of judges and elected officials; to attempt to take away health care from millions of Americans, especially the vulnerable, poor, women, children, and the elderly; as well as to alienate, discriminate against, and deport immigrants, while banning Muslims from coming to this country.
American poets might address festering issues that predate the current political situation, writing toward issues like economic dislocation for working-age, non-college-educated people, a minimum wage that hasn’t kept up with inflation, too-easy access to guns, the growth of mass incarceration and along with that the old heritage of slavery, segregation, and the continuing reality of widespread racism.
“It is exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful,” Adrienne Rich once wrote. I’ve been thinking about that sentiment lately, and it’s led me to give a lot of thought to a quieter path for poets. I believe a greater threat to autocratic regimes is the writer who focuses on the inner life. Why? Because, as Vaclav Havel reminds us, authoritarians know that a citizen who thinks for themselves is the greatest threat to their hold on power. Perhaps now is the time for poets to seek simple, private, intimate discoveries, to focus on the viscera of the human condition. Perhaps now is the time to tend to what is dynamic within the human spirit so that a new day of healing can begin. Perhaps now is the time to be a poet of human emotions, a subject relevant to seven billion human beings on the planet.
And so the question is, does the world need more books of poems about the impressionistic fires of love? If you read what’s in high fashion in American poetry today—poetry as a frontline defense against racial and political aggression—the answer
