Smash-the-State Poets To Rule the World

[saltpoint]

It's National Poetry Month.

Power should not be entrusted "to people who are not spiritually great, that's all there is to it," says poet Stanley Kunitz.

From a long-ago interview in the Washington Post, here is this brief political opinion from Kunitz:

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“The poet must continue to stand in an adversarial relationship. The most elementary of our adversarial relationships are in terms of the power of the state, which has never been so great in the history of mankind. That power can destroy us all.

It’s a terrible power to entrust to people who are not spiritually great, that’s all there is to it. You see it in the callousness, self-aggrandizement, insensitivity to the plight of the poor. In the general level of ethical conduct, the state has become an abomination.

....

A poet can’t change anything, but the poet can demonstrate the power of the solitary conscience. It’s an example. Any gain, even the conquest of a small part of oneself, is a triumph.”

--Stanley Kunitz, interview in the Washington Post, May 12, 1987

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I like Kunitz' refusal to capitalize 'spiritual' and love also the notion of speaking poetry to power.

Happy Poetry Month to everyone. & vote Democratic.

[savannahana]

1. a supporting link, with many thanks for your post, Old Crusoe!

The Academy of American Poets (great site) >>>

http://www.poets.org/


Their page on Stanley Kunitz (a favorite of mine, too) is here:

http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C04


thanks again! :hi:

[saltpoint]

2. Hi to you, savannahana!

Wow. I'm kind of shocked to encounter a fan of Stanley Kunitz. There ain't many of us around.

Thank you for the poets.org site, too -- I will explore there soon. I didn't know about it before.

Before National Poetry Month ends, let me share one very quick poem by Terry Wright:


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Icarus

fell down

but oh, that tan!


==

[savannahana]

3. "Icarus / fell down / but oh, that tan!" ~ Terry Wright

I love it! LOL Had never come across that before, thanks! :-)

Kunitz, you bet :thumbsup:

Glad I posted you the poets.org site. I'm always finagling to expand the actual bound collections on my book shelf, but with book-budget so slim these days, such sites online help a lot.

Here's another one (quite different, but some really fine voices to be heard here) - hope you enjoy! (Maybe submit something? Sondra's just great, imo) >>>

http://www.sondra.net/al/

Please, pass both these sites along -- that's how they came to me :-)

A few lines from a very different poet, also a favorite: Joy Harjo, by way of exchange:

* * * * * * *

"Remember"

"Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is. I met her
in a bar once in Iowa City.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving way to night."

... <to her close> ...

"Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember that language comes from this.
Remember the dance that language is, that life is.
Remember."

-- Joy Harjo
quoted from _The Language of Life ~ A Festival of Poets_, Bill Moyers; Doubleday, 1995; pp 162-63

* * * * * * *

here's a link to Harjo's page >>>

http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?45442B7C000C0004

Nice to talk with you, Old Crusoe!