Why is poetry important?
Poetry is the creation of a space, a vessel, a vacuum, that can hold whatever it is you need held. Besides that, I find myself pretty allergic to statements of what poetry is or is not. For a genre that is so unbelievably varied in its contemporary existence, how can poetry be one or the other thing? All of which to say, poetry is more important or less important depending on the context of the poem, the intent of the poem, the community of the poem, which way the poem allows power to flow. I personally gravitate towards poetry that refracts the gaze of the universe, that catches the glare of our world’s multiple violences and throws it back, that laughs defiantly and off-kilterly at this place we call the now. It’s held as common knowledge, at least for the last number of decades, that poetry (and literature in general) doesn’t do anything, especially in the world at large. I wholeheartedly reject this viewpoint. I know what poetry, what novels, have done to me. They’ve rewired me at the molecular level. If that isn’t important, then what is?
No comments:
Post a Comment