musings through a cold
A number of issues came up in the last class that weren't resolved. The problem is hardly a lack of resolution, but I am sure we can think about them more deeply, as time allows. These are some questions I've been pondering since Monday, which might be worth revisiting. Many come out of your bloggings, and you might return to them there:
--writing poetry in a time of war (and disaster). How does one write at all, after 9/11 or during the Iraq war, or after the tsunami? Do we write to console, to provoke, to think, to act, to persuade? What effect do we have on ourselves, to say nothing of others, most of whom do not read poetry of any kind? Can we have an effect on our culture without being read directly (the trickle-down theory)? Julia wrote a war poem this last time; do you have any ideas, Julia?
--the related question of poetry as activism. What is the job description of a language activist? The necessary cv?
--privilege. A biggie. Is the problem that we are privileged, or that others are not? Is there a difference between privilege in education and the ownership of an SUV? (That's a leading question, I admit.) Given that we are privileged (even if Moby Dick escaped us), what do we do with that privilege in and around our poetry? Are certain poetic styles "privileged" where others are not? Is that kind of privilege, in itself, a problem?
--method: are there forms most appropriate to addressing these questions, or is form a chimeric topic?
--how to think about all this and still enjoy what we do and what we read...
One of the lessons of Meadows's work is that ambition is a good thing in a poet. She related to me the story of one of her mentors who advised that, since we all fail, we should fail big. A good lesson to hold onto, I think.
I'll be in my office soon, head-cold and all. Hope to see some of you today.
By the way, all of the above questions are questions of "poetics."
aloha, Susan
--writing poetry in a time of war (and disaster). How does one write at all, after 9/11 or during the Iraq war, or after the tsunami? Do we write to console, to provoke, to think, to act, to persuade? What effect do we have on ourselves, to say nothing of others, most of whom do not read poetry of any kind? Can we have an effect on our culture without being read directly (the trickle-down theory)? Julia wrote a war poem this last time; do you have any ideas, Julia?
--the related question of poetry as activism. What is the job description of a language activist? The necessary cv?
--privilege. A biggie. Is the problem that we are privileged, or that others are not? Is there a difference between privilege in education and the ownership of an SUV? (That's a leading question, I admit.) Given that we are privileged (even if Moby Dick escaped us), what do we do with that privilege in and around our poetry? Are certain poetic styles "privileged" where others are not? Is that kind of privilege, in itself, a problem?
--method: are there forms most appropriate to addressing these questions, or is form a chimeric topic?
--how to think about all this and still enjoy what we do and what we read...
One of the lessons of Meadows's work is that ambition is a good thing in a poet. She related to me the story of one of her mentors who advised that, since we all fail, we should fail big. A good lesson to hold onto, I think.
I'll be in my office soon, head-cold and all. Hope to see some of you today.
By the way, all of the above questions are questions of "poetics."
aloha, Susan
posted by susan at 10:10 AM
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