[New-Poetry] "political poetry" (was new on wordstrumpet)
TheOldMole
Opus40-01 at opus40.org
Wed Jan 16 18:06:11 EST 2008
I love the Forster quote. The Johnny Cash is from "The One on the Right
Was on the Left," in which political differences break up a folk group.
A funny song, but you're right...not good advice. I don't put all that
much of the political into my poetry -- you just have to follow where
the words take you, and mine don't seem to take me to the specifically
political all that often, athough it's all about the world we live in,
and the weird stuff that impinges on it. But boy, I can't stay away from
it in my fiction. "Nick and Jake" was about the McCarthy era, the one in
progress is set in the thirties, and is mostly about left wing WPA
muralists.
Jeff Newberry wrote:
> Hi Rachel,
>
> How are you defining political? Do you mean broadly, as "of the
> people?" Or perhaps "having to do with politics?" Or perhaps "having
> to do with politics with a slant toward one's own political party?"
> Or perhaps, "not private?"
>
> I'm not being snarky. I just wonder. I've heard this line before,
> "All poetry is political." I suppose that depends on how you define
> "political."
>
> I have a great interest in this debate(?). Is poetry by nature
> "political?" Again, I suppose it depends on how you want to define
> "political." Is language "political?" If you buy that line of
> thinking, I suppose it is. Of course, my great curse is that I always
> not only see but also feel some sympathy for every side in a debate,
> be it political(!) or private.
>
> Best,
>
> Jeff Newberry
>
> On Jan 16, 2008 1:15 PM, Rachel Loden <r_loden at sbcglobal.net
> <mailto:r_loden at sbcglobal.net>> wrote:
>
> Thanks, Tad -- and I was very intrigued by your post "A Low Dishonest
> Decade":
>
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/2008/01/low-dishonest-decade.html
> <http://opusforty.blogspot.com/2008/01/low-dishonest-decade.html>
>
> I agree with Forster, for the most part, but not with the usually
> astute
> Johnny Cash. Folk song and politics are inextricably mixed, unless
> we want
> to deep-six "This Land Is Your Land" or "Silver Dagger" just for
> example.
>
> It always makes me laugh when people say they're not interested in
> (what
> they like to call) "political poetry." Did they imagine there was
> another
> kind? Some fish don't see water, but they're swimming in it.
>
> On the other hand, I'm not much interested in what often *passes* for
> political poetry -- agitprop and sloganeering, I mean.
>
> Rachel
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: TheOldMole [mailto: Opus40-01 at opus40.org
> <mailto:Opus40-01 at opus40.org>]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 8:20 AM
> > To: r_loden at sbcglobal.net <mailto:r_loden at sbcglobal.net>;
> NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry
> > News & Views
> > Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] new on wordstrumpet: nixon vets the
> > candidates &c.
> >
> > As a faithful wordstrumpeter, I had read this and loved it.
> >
> > Rachel Loden wrote:
> > >
> > > http://wordstrumpet.blogspot.com/
> > >
> > >
> > > * How Would Nixon Vote? Tricky D. Vets the Candidates
> > >
> > > * A Poem for Primaries: Milhous as King of the Ghosts
> > >
> > > * The Moist Lotus Open Along Acheron: Sappho, psychopomp &c.
> > >
> > > * The Important Looking Men (with a Note from Mairéard Byrne)
> > >
> > > * Speechless: Woody Allen on the WGA strike; the
> > "right-to-sing" state
> > >
> > > * Rose, Oh Pure Contradiction: Knox, Manguso & more
> > >
> > > * The More Things Change Dept.: Some Remarks on Humor
> > by E.B. White
> > >
> > > * Susan Sontag: An Argument about Beauty
> > >
> > > * Concord in the Sixties: Hawthorne, the Alcotts, the
> Civil War
> > >
> > > * Poetry and the Theory of Heartbreak
> > >
> > > * A Fresh Face, Somebody Who Understands: Nixon and Rumsfeld
> > >
> > > * My Wicked Caddywumpus Ways: Blurb-Composition &
> > other confusions
> > >
> > > * A Page from the Dangerfield Playbook: the Stephen T.
> > Colbert Award
> > > for the Literary Excellence
> > >
> > > * Poetry, Grimness, and Gallows Humor: Mlinko, Brecht,
> > Lerner, Flarf
> > > &c.
> > >
> > > * Adventures in Heresiology: Patrolling the Perimeter of the
> > > Avant-garde
> > >
> > > * Academy of Fine Arts: Linh Dinh by Jonathan Hill
> > >
> > > * Poem in Spanish (with a Note from Paul Hoover)
> > >
> > > * M. A. Numminen Sings Wittgenstein
> > >
> > > http://wordstrumpet.blogspot.com/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > New-Poetry mailing list
> > > New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu <mailto:New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
> > > http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Tad Richards
> > http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> > http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
> >
> > The moral is this: in American verse,
> > The better you are, the pay is worse.
> > --Corey Ford
> >
>
>
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>
>
>
>
> --
> "Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than
> recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."
> —William Faulkner, Light in August
>
>
> http://museoffireblog.blogspot.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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--
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
The moral is this: in American verse,
The better you are, the pay is worse.
--Corey Ford
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