[New-Poetry] "political poetry"

[David Graham]

Just a side-bar to this perennial thread:  I'd like to offer a hearty  
recommendation for a novel that I'll bet many have not heard of:   
*Malcolm & Jack*, by Ted Pelton.  From Spuyten Duyvil (2006).

It's a beautifully written novel in a number of historical voices,  
including Billie Holiday, Jack Kerouac, and Malcolm X.  The premise  
is that Kerouac met Detroit Red in Harlem at a Holiday concert, and  
things develop from there.   It's not "about" politics in any  
didactic way, but it skillfully weaves together all sorts of hot  
button issues, including, of course, race, class, gender, and the  
alienated politics of the Beats.  Pelton really captures the feel of  
late 1940s New York, and if you're a fan of the poetry or jazz of  
that era in particular, the book will not disappoint.  Cameos by  
Ginsberg, Cassady, et al.  Really luscious, historically saturated  
writing.  The book's been compared, predictably enough, to DeLillo,  
though I found myself thinking more of Toni Morrison.

Amazon page:

http://www.amazon.com/Malcolm-Other-Famous-American-Criminals/dp/ 
1933132094/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200526349&sr=1-1

Publisher's page:

http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/fiction/malcolmandjack.htm




========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu

Home Page:
http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/About%20Me.html

Poetry Library:
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==========================================



On Jan 16, 2008, at 5:06 PM, TheOldMole wrote:

> 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
>>
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