Poetry for These Times

A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.—Salman Rushdie

The last two weeks have been ones of strong emotion and calls for change, the brutal death of George Floyd making it impossible to go on as before, to maintain what seems to have become the status quo in this country: systemic racism, social injustice, and police brutality. While we as a country may denounce such racism and the awful fruits of it, we haven’t done enough to make it stop.

That time has come to an end. People are speaking out–protesting in the streets, demonstrating in front of statehouses and police departments, and turning to the written and spoken word. Twelve year old Keedron Bryant wrote a haunting new protest song and sang it on YouTube, the lyrics ending I just wanna live, God protect me, I just wanna live, I just wanna live. At George Floyd’s funeral gospel singer Dray Tate sang Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come, a powerful song which has been described as the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

And as we do in all times of high emotion—anger, grief, outrage, overwhelming sorrow, we turn to poetry. “Something about the specificity of poetry allows it to crystallize experience,” Mary Chan writes, “as if one were pausing time.” For this is a moment in which we must pause. We must listen. Poetry, reading it or writing it helps us to do so. It “is language at its most powerful,” as Rita Dove writes.

On the CBS News, a young African American woman recited Langston Hughes’ poem,
“Let America be America Again.” We may remember another of Hughes’ poems “Harlem” with its famous first lines “What happens to a dream deferred?” Or turn to Maya Angelou’s “Caged Bird.” “The caged bird/sings with a fearful trill,” she wrote “for the caged bird/sings of freedom.” These poets work “to name the unnameable.” They are taking sides and helping to “shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”

Creative/Writing Exercise:

It is at this point in our monthly blog posts that we like to include a writing exercise. But these are not “usual” times. Let us just say this: poetry helps us to say what we feel but find difficult to express in ordinary language; and if we ourselves are writers, poets and songwriters, we may feel moved at this moment to write. Others of us may need a little distance before the words come. But one of our most important jobs as writers and as people is to pay attention. Paying attention is about respect. When we pay attention, we learn, we grow. Maybe we can help to make this country better, for all its people.

For more information about Writing in Community and The Writing and Creative Life, see http://www.thewritingandcreativelife.com