Why is poetry important?
Poetry is important because it is the go between for humans and the divine. It also lets the writer and the reader have immediate expression for their situations or the slow burn of realization tempered by time and consideration. The dreamers of a different world are poets. I think of the Guyanese poet Martin Carter and his poetry that helped to bring about the independence of Guyana through the poem’s protestation of colonial rule. There are political stakes for the poem that can change the world. In the United States it feels like we have forgotten this, or at least the academy has. There are many people who are currently working at dreaming up a more just world and poetry is the space for that.
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