Why is the current US poetry scene so fantastic? It must be, at least in part, the MFA phenomenon, despite its faults. People are dedicating time and resources to writing poetry while receiving formal instruction. Another reason must be the increasing diversification of the population. Historically this seems to always presage a richer culture. And with this diversification comes the tensions of the political moment—inspiring people to write with intensity of purpose. They have the sense that what they are writing is important, and that people are going to read what they’ve written.
I saw a critic say yesterday that what we value about poets is not what they say but how they say it. As if their ‘value’ is achieved by their techniques and not their insights. I think the word ‘value’ here should be interrogated, as well as the seeming cynicism regarding the possibility of what can be said. But most importantly, it may be best to consider this statement in concrete terms: would you only pay money to eat food that is presented beautifully, and surprisingly, but has little to no flavor or nutrition? I know there are those who are impressed with such food. But only because they have never had food with much flavor.
Though the Build Back Better bill addressed preventing further climate change in a way that was more substantial than anything previously considered by Congress, it was still conservative—far too conservative—compared to what is necessary. Climate change is a part of the national conversation. Yet not even this bill could pass.
With the Supreme Court’s decision on the EPA, this may be the year that future generations—however many are left—will indicate as the year that extreme climate change became unavoidable.
I am not writing to offer the reader ‘hope’. Hope does not always exist. I am not going to guard my writing against despair. Despair in art is authentic because despair exists in the world. Sometimes people despair. Sometimes people are hopeless. I feel no moral compunction to present the world otherwise. To do so would be conforming to the neoliberal agenda. We endure inequalities because we have been told ‘to make the best of it’, and that ‘it will all be ok’. Sometimes it won’t be ok. I give myself permission to write that. I will write to my experience, not according to the expectations of a Hollywood script.
Forty seven pieces accepted so far this year. My goal for myself was fifty two in 2022—one a week. A goal I thought I had very little chance of achieving. I may not have even one more acceptance the rest of the year. But I’m happy that more of my work can be read by others.
The rate of PTSD in correctional officers is double that of military veterans. The suicide rate among correctional officers is double the national average. Research suggests that domestic violence is two to four times higher among the law-enforcement families than in the general population. And yet psychiatric treatment remains stigmatized among law-enforcement communities.
I watched a 12-minute Jordan Peterson talk yesterday. Quite difficult to do. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a greater act of intellectual charlatanism.
It concerns me that there seems to be an expectation that the poems a poet writes is or must be in some way a form of memoir.
Something rarely addressed by politicians or in the media is that the US is beginning to have a population problem. Fewer people are interested in having children. If they do have children, the number they have is lower than in previous periods. This is for numerous reasons: concerns over climate change, generational debt, the desire for greater freedom…
In order to maintain its dominance on the world stage, the US needs to maintain its population. Legally forcing every pregnant woman to come to full term will do much to mediate this problem.
That unwanted pregnancies unduly effect the lives of lower class women and their families is of no concern to the conservatives attempting to outlaw abortion. That many women will die or have lasting reproductive complications due to unsafe abortions is of no concern to them. That an abortion is safer than childbirth could not be a concern for those who can afford the best healthcare.
If more people are born into the lower classes, that’s great: that means more soldiers. More consumers. More voters to keep them in power.
If Republicans gain control of Congress in these mid-term elections they will do everything they can to enact a national ban on abortions. Imagine what might happen if they win the White House back in 2024. Conservatives will control Congress, have a majority on the Supreme Court, and have no one to veto any action they take.
I don’t care if Biden is turning 81 or 118 in 2024. If he is a second-term president, who obviously will not be looking for reelection, and the Democrats still have control of Congress, however tenuous, Biden will be able to expand the Supreme Court.
There needs to be a landslide victory for the Democrats in both these mid-term elections and in 2024. The kind of landslide we were expecting in 2020 but did not achieve. Otherwise the assault on human rights will not only continue but will increase.
I will continue listing my haiku publications with my other publications to encourage the recognition of the haiku as a form of poetry as valid as any other.
We have the beautiful letters of the writers of the past. The future will have our texts and emails.
Night Sky With Exit Wounds is so good that sometimes I want to throw the book across the room. Other times I want to sleep with it under my pillow.
The recent acceptance of two poems of mine by Poet Lore, like the two poems of mine recently published by The Normal School, reassures me that there are journals willing to publish work that in a previous era would be censored and/or repressed. Whether or not many might still consider the themes of these poems too controversial to accept them, I know now that if I am brave enough to write them (and, of course, if I can write them well enough), there will be editors willing to publish them.
I understand poetic theory as a means to think about poetry. I do not understand those who promulgate a specific theory and believe that all poetry currently being written, in order to qualify as “successful”, must conform to this theory. Even the notion of aesthetic taste is something I feel it is best to constantly challenge yourself about. You don’t like plain language poetry? There may be some poet who writes in that style whose work would be deeply inspiring to you, were you to allow yourself to read it. I hope I will always be able to reconsider my notion of what constitutes good poetry.
I started reading My Wars Are Laid Away in Books - A Life of Emily Dickinson by Alfred Habegger last night. Intrigued from the opening. A biography’s beginning is successful when the chapters about the subject’s ancestors seem essential to an understanding of the subject, rather than the perfunctory, obligatory material they usually are.
It seems that our poetry culture at least is finally moving away from an allegiance to the concept of absolute originality. Which is a modern invention, promulgated by the capitalists of art.
As my style moves further away from the current norm in poetry, it becomes more exciting to me. It was not my intention to develop in this direction. And I don’t think it is occurring in a reactionary way. It simply seems natural, like following your own inclination when out for a walk.