IS POETRY USEFUL IN THESE DISMAL POLITICAL DAYS IN THE U.S. AND WORLD? -- CELEBRATING NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

"Poetry doesn’t seem

to be doing much

to alleviate the tension in our communities"

It doesn't seem to address the moral outrage of we humanists regarding the vile destructiveness of today's dominant politics. Thus I am prone these dire days to ask myself: am I poetizing while Rome burns?

I'd prefer to read a poem or an article about how poets can create a sense of urgency to get out of our chairs, emulate the courage of many before us who put their lives on the line, get on the streets and into writing Letters to Editors, and call and call our representatives to represent us, not act to advance their own position. Recently and especially (but for a different reason from the poet Rilke) I see it as a waste of time and pure frivolity to write about love.

An article about the benefits of poetry appearing in the online Greater Good Magazine caught my attention. The writer of the article initially quotes a poet who reflected my bottom line concern:  "No matter how much you enjoy it, a poem can’t save your life. It can’t “Luke Cage” your skin in a Marvel Comics deus ex machina."

Action can make substantial changes! We senior protestors who have taken to the streets know that protests and active resistance can work because we went thru women's liberation, the anti-Vietnam protests, marching in Gay Day Parades (when in law school, five of us students marched arm in arm - in 1992? - in the second annual SF parade ever - and with a bit of trepidation in those days!), supporting the Black Panthers and marching with Dr. King. We simply know how to do it with courage, courage perhaps born of naivety as to what could happen in police sweeps...but we did it despite our fears or naivety in those times. This time I'm prepared with the business card of a respected and experienced criminal lawyer colleague taped to the back of my protest sign, and on call just in case. I'm actually looking forward to being arrested at least once in my long and relatively "safe" life, for and when exercising my free speech rights with which I'm ever hopeful that more of my friends will join in using their voices, too.

So how can art or poetry in this case, help us get there again? How can we benefit from it to turn this country around and try to get back to where we were headed 50 years ago when No. 47 is trying to take us back to the 1700s?

Poetry -- like music -- changes our brain,

and in beneficial ways as it turns out.

Just two days ago I took the first of two zoom classes on tips for getting into the publishing world with one or more poems, taught by poet Meghan Sterling for Writers.com. We students were asked to list three goals we have for writing (and hopefully, publishing) poetry and then list three reasons why we write it. I managed to do so in the short time we were given.

I now read through those as a preparatory ritual Meghan recommended before beginning my morning homework for the class. I want my poems out there read by a larger audience than my two volumes of poetry have managed to engender.

My first "why?" dealt with action: "To work toward a world of the autonomous woman and the autonomous everyone." My second second "why?" was: "for therapy."

What I know for certain about my poetry writing efforts is that when I distill into a focused and minute detail employing my beloved rhymes in the ballad form lyrical style I prefer, and pour into a poem precisely what is impacting my brain or body, in that moment I write I lift my own spirits. As poet Louise Gluck says in her essay "Against Sincerity": "the secrets we betray lose power over us." Who doesn't need that these days?

In addition, I experience a welling up of additional energy to go on to other necessary activities of daily living. I also inspire myself to sooner rather than later write another poem and thus, keep my creative muse alive and well. I find outlets to let off steam about how distressed I am by the direction in which this country is headed. I find some kind of medicine for the sick, nauseated feeling I wake up with on many days of the week.

I simply feel better.

As it turns out, I'm not alone.

"One 2023 study found that participants in a virtual COVID-19 poetry community experienced mental health benefits; other research finds that therapy incorporating poetry can improve well-being for people in palliative care."

There is even a National Association for Poetry Therapy! "Poetry therapy is the use of language, symbol, and story in therapeutic, educational, growth, and community-building capacities." Reading and writing poetry can even build empathy with others, something in short supply these days when for the most part, we have all retreated to our corners.

Who knew?

For certain, writing poetry focuses my thoughts. It engages my brain and centers me as I search to precisely and accurately articulate a dream, a nightmare, a wish, an agony, or bliss and wonder, and sometimes if rarely these days, even write about love.*

On an intellectual and technical level, writing poetry does not come easy for me. I'm working hard on learning to input more exciting and unique images and metaphors over time, and reach deeper inside me to better articulate my life experiences, lessons learned, and values I want to perpetuate now in the world and the one that comes after me. Sometimes I feel I've hit the spot in a particular poem, especially ones that just flow out of me in a state of almost unconscious writing, but I'm not quite there yet.

More importantly perhaps, and it turns out, other research cites benefits to our emotional well being, even as I experience.

One study shows that poetry provides a powerful trauma support tool. It improves self awareness, acceptance of our individuality especially if we feel ourselves to be outside of "the norm", and even "healthy functioning" although I don't much cotton to the latter phrase's ambiguity. It can even nuance some of those testy political black-and-white or warlike positions we might hold. It can foster community rather than "entrepreneurship" and competition.

Those benefits alone seem worthwhile. They might counter the horrific human tendency revealed in an infamous US university study that had stunning results. When the research instructor told student volunteers to keep applying electric shock to "pretend" victims, they did so even until some "victims" feigned death. At the end of the experiment most volunteers simply walked away not even asking about the welfare of those "who lived" through excessive amounts of electricity as the test subjects thought they were administering. I promptly suppressed the true horror of what this study demonstrated and try not to remember it.

Today I am hopeful that I won't forget -- even if less frequently than before last Nov. 6 - to call upon my poetic muse Euterpe. I'm reassured that it will benefit me to write poetry and get it out there to be read even if my readers are less than impressed. It seems this process will work to re-balance my rocking spirits and keep firing my brain cells so that I don't lose them in this hellish interim.

There are many other ways that the arts and artists both famed and not famous, can influence and sometimes lead protest movements, and they have done so too many times in the past to review in this brief essay. The inspirational recent 25-hour filibuster of Senator Cory Booker of Maryland, gives hope. About 20 minutes in to this interview he mentions as one of his personal inspirations for his feat, the power and effectiveness of artists.

I write on this topic, gratefully called to my attention by my much loved neighbor Amanda, mainly to inspire your creative muse to come out in whatever art form is most comfortable for you.

There are many benefits for us if we don't give up enjoying and creating art in these troubled times.

***

*ON POETRY (these poems are from Vol I Poetical Musings)

Poetry is therapy, poetry gives hope.

What? You want me to sit at home and mope

when I can pour my heart into a receiving cup

then read back my words and know I’m heard

by someone important to my soul–just me,

and then I more easily come to understand

what this or that experience meant, what lesson

I was to learn and then carry on,

moving along my path, my decisions made,

some hopes finely wrought but not to be,

other hopes from blue skies come home to me

about how to be, or move, or think,

or live, or love, or what poem to ink.

LOVE AT FIRST HEART

Some believe in love at first sight,

an earth-shaking seizure of body and soul

that takes us on flight beyond gravity

into the universe as wonders unfold.

Some say love is only a chimera,

a relentless mirage or illusion of old,

that all love does is mislead by its deed

of hiding the truth from the smart and the bold.

Yet those brave enough to take up the challenge

might find that what’s right will prevail.

As Maya Angelou said about the act of flying:

to do so requires taking the chance to fail.

MY THANKS

To those who allow me to draw

quite close to my essential being,

see the force within

that drives me now to be just who I dream,

who show me the foundation

of a soul connected to

my song expressed without,

who hold up a mirror to reflect right back

what I aspire to be at heart–

to those valued friends,without one doubt

you have my love in full.

May your life be long and happy,

too, same for those whom you love, for sure!

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