[New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count

[jforjames at aol.com]

There are many poets who have done good things with a 'political agenda'.?A couple of names that come to mind are Martin Espada and Anne Winters. 

We don't live in?a society?that's a breeding ground for dissident voices (not that there aren't problems aplenty to be addressed.)?As Muriel Rukeyser put it...

In Our Time???
?
In our period, they say there is free speech.
They say there is no penalty for poets,
There is no penalty for writing poems.
They say this.?? This is the penalty.

--?
Finnegan

-----Original Message-----
From: ts mclain <tsmclain at gmail.com>
Sent: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 9:38 am
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count


For me, the "numbingly weak" is a constant for almost all public poetry. Maybe that is part of its charm as well as its downfall. I agree that when you hitch up to a cause, you can be granted more of that gravitas just because people are so impressed you said exactly what they wished they had said. Like bumper stickers, these poems do not age well and they eventually reduce the value of the vehicle attached to the bumper. 

Who are good issue poets? I am curious what others think on this. In my limited readings on social issue poems, I liked many parts of Ginsberg's "Wichita Diamond Sutra" and I just read it forty years after it was written. Crane's "War is Kind" also has some nice sections. But both would look different if they were edited today. How about Yeats' topical/political poetry? I was never moved by it but it was fun to pick apart in the classroom. Generally, if the language used doesn't move me or create some tension, then I don't see the poem getting off to very good start.

I haven't read much of C.D.Wright, but I do find that she is always about language. I don't see her as being as polemical as the worst of the issues poets can be. Maybe it shows my ingnorance, but I think the whole issue about the penal system in Arkansas is largely unexplored, as recent PBS shows on the de facto slavery resulting from post Civil War Jim Crow laws suggests. Having heard her talk about this book last Spring, I got the distinct impression that she was after more than just finger-pointing or patronizing the victims. That doesn't make for a good book, necessarily. But I am curious. Although, the limited edition is a little pricey.
















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