Why do I look for your face in every crowd
Though I know you most likely
Have not yet been born?
I believe you will one day wield
The jawbone of an ass.
If Sampson were to pull down the stone façade
Would he not also crush the marbled prophets of Israel
Who still adorn its walls
And yourself along with them?
For you there was something erotic
in the pursuit of prophecy
A heat of knowledge
An intellectual energy
The verbal hopscotch of mindfeet alighting
On stones in the still water at sundown
Again the poem is a field that must be plowed
Aligned in rows the words become nutrients in new soil
Like great clay clods that must be broken.
The poet has the roll of prophecy thrust upon him
When no one else will speak the truth. Only the kernel
Of every object nourishes. Where is he who
Undoes the envelopes and removes the husks?
The elect hear the awful voice of the reprobate.
Its annoying and loud. It grates against their eardrums.
They whisper to each other, “I wonder what small amount
Of money could be paid to stop this noise?”
It is as though the Hebrew tradition of killing God’s prophets
Is continued from ancient days. The voice of Prophecy
Is still the voice of honest indignation.
There is a reason that those who came after Wordsworth
Considered him to be a turncoat
And remembered him with the bitterest enmity:
He became a poet laureate
An adjunct of the state
A Sampson shorn of his locks
And paraded before them in chains.
But the real vital force of poetry
Will always confront the elect.
This is why I mistrust poetry produced
Within the academy itself;
It has no awareness of its purpose.
Where has the power of poetry gone?
Where are Neruda or Ginsberg?
In the ancient times referred to by anthropologists
As the 1960’s poets packed political clout
Capable of antagonizing the force of evil
In the world. What happened to change that?
* Notes:
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know
That things depart which never may return:
Childhood and youth, friendship, and love's first glow,
Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.
These common woes I feel. One loss is mine
Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore.
Thou wert as a lone star whose light did shine
On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar:
Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood
Above the blind and battling multitude:
In honoured poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to truth and liberty.
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be.
(Shelley on Wordsworth)
When Wordsworth abandoned poverty he became a sell out.
6 comments:
I don't believe that every poet laureate is a sell out--far from it. Being a poet laureate in contemporary America is a far different thing than it was for Wordsworth. But think about this: when a government patronizes art, what is it that the government is buying? (what small amount of money could be paid to stop this noise)
Interesting poem. Think also of Lord Byron's anti-poet laureate poem. Rethink Ginsberg. He was a big sellout. Ended up as an academic flak at Brooklyn College, desperate, ever desperate for fame/recognition. Contrary to what commenter Harter says, being a poet laureate is by intrinsic nature to be a sellout. It is someone who benefits financially from poetry. It is a careerist, often an academic hack, and a careerist is far from being a rude-truth teller. A careerist (i.e., poet laureate) learns early on to turn a blind eye, backslap and self-congratulate ad nauseam right up to the top rung. A careerist seeks recognition, not truth. A careerist poet will never criticize the poetry establishment and its laureate hacks, executive directors, and cultural apparatchiks... and I could go on, but likely nobody will ever read this...
G. Tod Slone, PhD (Université de Nantes, FR), aka P. Maudit,
Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630
When the state pays a poet laureate, what is it that the government is buying? I m glad you happened upon my blog.
In Blake's system, the purpose of the Reprobate is to antagonize the Elect. A poet laureate is never in a position to antagonize the Elect.
Hi Peter,
Well, we completely disagree on the State Poet then. If you'd like we could back and forth on the State Poet and perhaps I'd publish it in next issue of The American Dissident. I essentially outlined my case in the previous comment. Also, how not to think of Gorky, Stalin's poet laureate, and his absurdly positive comments on the gulags? I too am against anonymous commenters. So, bravo on your blog! I have been critical of our State poets since back in the days of Pinsky and Collins and have drawn many a cartoon on them, usually inspired by the safe banal stupidity spouted. I have been highly critical of the poetry establishment for years now. My criticism has generally elicited the deafening silence of the poets, full ostracizing, occasional ad hominem, and extremely rare brief debate. When poetry becomes a career, it ends up innocuous. The State poet IS the Elect. Quite simply the government rewards (buys/pays off) PC-compliance and general innocuity.
G. Tod
Hello Tod,
I don't think we disagree. Today's poets all seem to be parroting each other's political plumage. I imagine myself a cormorant in the top of their tree. The history of State-funded art, including poetry, must fall under the general heading of propaganda. Even works like Shostakovich's 8th symphony, which was supposed to be written in honor of Stalin, but instead was a parody of him.
State published poetry, ie the poetry mags published in university presses, are like so much government cheese. But it's still cheese. I don't deny the humanity of those cloistered under the skirts of the academy. The poet-zoo is open September to May. At the state university, they're on display.
Peter..
Post a Comment