Politics & Poetics

[UPDATED 8:00 PM 16 January: Wow. Andrew Sullivan just linked to the poem. My stats are booming!]

My poems seldom incite controversy, but I Have This To Say About That, regarding why the New Hampshire pollsters got it wrong, has done exactly that, here and elsewhere. Comments and emails on this poem have reminded me of questions regarding the role and responsibility of art, of poetry, in our contentious times; and of my own responsibilities, as a poet, a woman, a feminist, and a citizen.

First, let me mention that (like many, if not most poets) I often write in a voice not my own; that neither the speaker nor the subject of my poem is necessarily me. Like a novelist, I am attempting to say truth with fiction, true fiction, as it were. I have found, through the years, that adherence to fact can actually impede the expression of truth.

In writing workshops, when some aspect of a piece is critiqued, the novice writer will often protest: but that's what actually happened! and resist the suggestion that something that didn't really happen might express the mood or the point of the piece with more power and, paradoxically, authenticity.

I am not a reporter. I am a poet. I attempt to tell the truth, and sometimes to enlighten, to entertain, even to amuse while doing so. I am attempting to enlighten, entertain, and amuse myself as well as the reader. The truth is, I often don't know what my poem is about until years later, if ever.

But this time I did.

I chose to speak in a voice not my own, a cadence as true as I could make it to the twang of my western youth. My uncles' voices, perhaps; a certain Missouri syrup in there with a little Montana cowboy. But is this cowboy lying when he says:

... women
lie ...

They lie mostly about
money and politics.
And sex. That, too.

... to which several have taken offense?

No, he is telling the truth. People lie when they must, or when they believe they must. In this country, many women have little power in these arenas, which are considered the territory of the husband -- so they lie. They lie to get along, or to get what they need or want, or -- in more cases than we want to acknowledge -- to avoid a beating.

But they tell the truth when they can:

when they pull that poll booth curtain
closed, who's to know?

One response to this poem was that it presents an ugly stereotype of men and women. This is true.

catnapping says: ... one of the things that kinda bothers me about absentee ballots is that so many women have abusive husbands watching over their shoulders as they fill them out ...

It has been suggested that merely writing -- or posting -- this poem is a betrayal of women. My first (gut) response to this was, gosh, women are betrayed in so many ways, this doesn't even register on the meter -- even if it were a betrayal, which I don't believe it is.

But the suggestion does raise the question -- are there things that must not be said? Isn't that how we got here to begin with, by being told that there are questions which must not be asked, things which must not be said? Isn't this, at least in part, what art is for: to say what is not allowed, to uncover what is buried?

gautami tripathy says: ... categorising as Woman or Black man is demeaning. We vote for a person, not to any gender or colour.

To which I say, this is the dream. But the dream has not been reached. In this country, it is unprecedented to have viable candidates for president who are women, who are black. As long as there are (many) citizens who will vote against a candidate on that basis, we must not pretend otherwise. To pretend otherwise is to accept things as they are, without hope or expectation of change.

And I do not.

And white women, well,
they'll vote for a woman
or a black man without flinching.

... which is, of course, the dream, that one might vote for someone like or unlike ourselves, without flinching. Or the nightmare, I suppose, depending on your point of view. If you think that only white men should be in positions of power, this is, truly, the nightmare.

Don't those pollsters know
that married women
lie ...

Is this really why the pollsters got it wrong? I don't know; it was just an thought, that grew into a voice, that grew into a poem, that became a question.

That became several questions: Are there thoughts, ideas, concepts, that a responsible artist must not share? Is poetry a political act? Do you restrict what you say in public, because of these concerns?

Is that lying?

[There is a piece in response to this one at Poetics Vs. Politics: I Just Have This To Say About That.]

Comments

[susan]

You got it right and frack 'em if they can't get with it. Solid comeback by the way. I was nodding in agreement all the way through, but even if I didn't agree, I respect your right to say it and willing to fight about it, too. Honestly, a disrespect to women? Give me a break. This poet, feminist, citizen says more power to you. Hell, with permission, I'd like to copy this post and plaster it to a few foreheads. Okay, I won't assault anyone with it but I'm ready to stand up and sing you praise (well, you really don't want to hear me sing.)lol

[susan]

And to answer your question: Yes, poetry is political. The personal is political. Frankly, if the poet ain't speakin' up, I wanna know why the hell not! Another writer said art is the guts of the people. Let's not get it twisted, if you're not going to be real like showing the ugly, why are you writing? You've got me started now. I'll bow before you get more emails and anyone interested in going there with me, feel free to write.

[Crafty Green Poet]

Interesting post, I think you're entirely right. We need to be able to talk about things that aren't talked about. I think that what you say in your poem about voting patterns is entirely true for some women, not all of us, of course, but some. I've also been accused of various writerly crimes when I've used someone elses voice in my poems. Whatever happened to poetic licence, particularly when its the best way to address an issue?

[beadbabe49]

I wondered, when i read the poem, if you wouldn't hit some folks' hot buttons with it and sure enough, you did....ain't it great!
There's nothing quite like controversy to get a dialogue going...

[SB]

susan: "Frack"? "Frack"! Not only do we share bandwidths (note the Personal|Political category on the sidebar) we watch the same tv shows...

And -- all my work is under a Creative Commons license; feel free to share, with attribution (preferably with linkage.)

Crafty Green Poet: writerly crimes & poetic license -- the same thing, no?

beadbabe49: yep, those buttons are hot!

Actually, I'm pleased at the controversy for just that reason: dialogue.

[Michael A. Wells]

Ah, but to incite controversy in poetry is to awaken the reader. It is to pull them out of la-la-land and cause them to sit up and curse you (the voice) or shout out in agreement.

Nice flowery words can create "nice" poems. I detest "nice" poetry. It takes so little imagination, so little effort and produces just one more poem that goes into the "nice" heep and no one remembers it from the others piled there.

One of the more poewrful poems I ever read was written in the voice of a man arrested as a rapest who couldn't recall doing what he was charged with, but came to assume it must be true because everybody said he did it. Anyone who read it had their emotions pulled all over the landscape and one could not be moved one way or the other by the poem. Most seemed to feel both anger and empathy.

Well done! From both a poet and person with a long history of political activism.

[Cathy]

Ah there's nothing like a poem that raising a little hell.

[Jim Murdoch]

I have to say I agree with you. I can't say much about the politics. I have a hard enough time getting to grips with politics this side of the pond. I do have one truth about politics, something my father taught me: "Jimmy," he said, "No one votes governments in, only out," and, as I've grown older and seen a few come and go, I've realised that's the case. Not one of them has all the answers so when we get sick of one, and it's long enough since the last lot were in and we've had time to forget what a bad job they did last time, what do we do but vote them in again.

As for writers and lying, well we're speaking the same language there. Just have a look at the title to my blog. I've posted the following poem a couple of times but I expect you'll relate to it and it'll save me prattling on any longer than I have to.

READER PLEASE SUPPLY MEANING

Writers are all liars. We all are.
But at least they are honest liars.

They write down those necessary lies,
the kind that move men to leaps of faith
or excuse us when we fail to jump.

In the end it doesn't matter that
they let us down in the cruellest ways.

August 18, 1996

[Dave]

Good on you for stirring the pot. I am continually irritated by the widespread presumption that a poem's "I" must be autobiographical; few people make the same mistake with regard to popular music. Good political poetry is a relatively rare thing, in part because writers don't have the sense to make it personal, as you have done.

[SB]

Michael: I fear that much of what I do you might consider to be "nice" poetry -- but I work at it. Whereas, this one came through like a bell-ring, with relatively little revision. And I suspected, as Cathy says, that it might raise a little hell...

"to awaken the reader" -- and myself -- that's what all of it is for, yes?

Jim's blog is called The Truth About Lies" -- couldn't be more spot-on, eh? Thanks for sharing your poem.

Dave: I wish I could claim 'sense' in writing this poem, but it wasn't that at all. Or perhaps it was -- all sensation... & thanks for the heads-up on the non-working links. Fixed now, I think.

[mikeinportc]

I liked the poem . I'd suspect that more men than women lied to keep their spouse happy . ;D

[niki]

Great poem, sb. Clever and made me laugh at the ending. Just got an email from a friend whose daughter emailed her about your "controversial poem that is being linked on political blogs"! Isn't that N's friend? she wondered. YES! I answered proudly.

[SB]

I suspected something was happening in email -- from my stats, and because I'm quite sure Andrew Sullivan does not read my blog. Someone must have emailed this to him.

It seems to me that your poem had a lot more sense to it and added more to a discussion of the New Hampshire primary than many thousands upon thousands of words babbled forth by the political pundits of the media.

[MC]

Shakespeare should only have written in a man's voice, who did he think he was?And I have it on good authority that he lied in some of his poems.