[New-Poetry] "political poetry" (was new on wordstrumpet)

[Rachel Loden]

Hi Jeff, I shouldn't be permitted near a computer when I'm so tired -- but
will try to intersperse comments:

	<<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?">>

Not any of these, exactly, and most certainly not "having to do with
politics with a slant toward one's own political party."

I'm just saying that our experiences, and our perceptions of those
experiences, don't occur in a vacuum. They're shaped in part by the
conditions we encounter from the moment we're born. 

I'm not talking about a narrow view of politics or (I think and hope) a
partisan one. I'm talking about the human condition as it's massaged and
pummeled  by a myriad of forces, starting with whether basic survival needs
are being met.

Sometimes when people say that their poetry "isn't political" they mean that
they're not writing about ex-presidents or whatever. That's not what I mean
by political.

Classic New Yorker-style poetry, for instance, is very political, but in a
completely unconscious way (although this is bound to change with Paul
Muldoon). It's about flowers in a vase or touristing about in European
cities or some other way of telegraphing that the life of the poet is being
lived on a plane that partakes very little of the worries that bedevil most
people. The poet is relieved of those worries, and is thus free to write
(what he or she thinks is) "non-politically." But actually such poetry is as
deeply embedded in political conditions as any other.

I don't see how one can encounter our language as it's spoken and not know
that it's political on the deepest level. Here's the OED on "woman":

[OE. wífmon(n, -man(n masc., later fem., pl. wífmen(n, f. wíf woman, wife n.
+ mon(n, man(n human being, man n.

Man = human being. The word has enormous authority, an authority "woman" can
never have, and no amount of feminism ever changes that. It's built into the
language and thus into how we think. Similarly, we have "black" moods (and
if we do we should "lighten up"). Etc. etc. etc.

How can language be other than political -- it's the living record of human
thought. Or human cussedness. Or both.

Hope this makes sense! I can't go on with it and should never have opened my
trap in the first place.

All best,
Rachel