Maybe some North American ears have trouble with poetry because of the noise from an aggressively voiced ruling ethos—its terminology of war, success, national security, winning and losing, ownership, merchandising, canned information, canned laughter.
Adrienne Rich on Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
3 comments:
Adrienne: Take all the crap-of-the-world, noise and nasty, insanity and the horror the horror as merely the given of course, whatta you expect! rather than the OMG stuff is really screwed up how'd it get this bad? or as my Nana would say when we cut up in the living room: tch! tch! and wonder if that frame of mind would make a difference that made a difference. Poor Sammy, already unsettled.
Amen. And I think that being unsettle already is probably a blessing for Sammy.
Amen again to Adrienne Rich's comment. And I'm wondering about the details of this process. Are we so accustomed to the bombarding language that we don't trust anything that reveals itself and ourself simultaneously? I mean, that's the difference between poetry and this other kind of noise, right? one scrapes down itself and all things it contacts; the other only reveals only so much of us that we are driven to turn to this voice for hope, and we are willing to open our hearts and wallets and any manner of self we can give for that hope.
So is it that we so trust that hope we've learned to listen to? It keeps us afraid...keeps us dependent.... And that fear doesn't allow for the restructuring that poetry may induce. The whole restructuring process is so unsettling for the already unsettled. Though, allowing yourself to survive the poetic restructuring process eliminates fear slowly, bit by bit, in little and huge ways. And sammy knowing he's unsettled by the commercials - isolating the voice and naming it - i think allows him to choose more freely what voices he will allow into his temple. Then the unsettling restructuring of which poetry is a provider is a tool for growth. So knowing your unsettled is an important moment. Yay for Sam!
Thank you for the opportunity to ramble.
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