Poetry is political?
How can this be
Can society be upended
Divided by a love poem?
Poets are political?
Yes. No. Maybe
Some examples
Perhaps
Poets don’t tell
The literal truth
(Who does?)
They see things
That are not necessarily
There. Do continue.
See motives when such
Motives might not exist
Interesting, pray continue
(to dig yourself into a hole)
The truth is grey, everybody knows
Why do you paint it white as snow
Or blood stained, by death in the masses
Do these things not happen?
Are they not motivated by and acted on
By humans? I write what I see
You say, poetry is political
Do you mean, designed to misinform
Not to tell the truth? To inflame the minds
Of the proletariat, to put the powerful at risk?
You can’t be too careful, can you?
Yes, poets and poetry ARE political
In the sense they are human
Producing human creations
Yes, poems are political
They are narratives, they choose a side
And argue their case, assertively
Honestly. Do you fear debate?
It would be imprecise to say
Poetry is truth. It is not the opposite
By purpose. A poet seeks the truth
Either literally or metaphorically
Nothing less will satisfy them
So, yes, poetry is a political act
So is breathing. Going to ban that?
by Leslie D. Bush
No comments:
Post a Comment