Poetry without the Politics

[pinerow]

Poetry without the Politics
©Ramon Piñero 6/30/2005


let’s take
the politics
out of poetry;
or at least
that’s what
my friend
told me
once.

he says
‘you write
so well,
but,
you’re
so
damn
political”
so he
suggests;

let’s take
the politics
out of the
poetry
and see
what
we have
left.

I believe
it was
Joyce Kilmer
who said
“I believe that
I shall never
see,
a poem
lovely
as a tree.”


now, let’s
look,
(if you
will)
at that
tree;
unprotected,
naked
as a
Jaybird
standing
there,
tall and
proud.
oldest
tree in
the forest.
How long
will it
stand
without the
poetry in
the
politics;

without
the poetry
there would
be no
tree.

if we
take the
poetry
out of
politics
how can
we
sing about
life
without
adding
the
discourse
of reality
into the
arrangement
weave it
into the
fabric
of the
song.

let’s take
the politics
out of
the poetry
and
I ask,
what are
we left
with(?)

a canary
without a
song
a cricket
without a
lyric;
a dog
without
a bark
a kiss
with
no embrace
a beautiful
woman
without
a
painter.

let’s take
the politics
out of
poetry;
and what
are we
left with(?)



people walking
over the
bums on
the Bowery
and
the junkies
in the
Bronx;
the homeless
in
San Francisco
the lost
and the
hungry
around the
world.

we are
left with
Sunday
go-to-church
folk
who never
look to the
side;
with their
Biblical
blinders
on
lookin’
straight
ahead,
oblivious
to the
suffering
around
them.

let’s take
the politics
out of
the poetry;
and what
are we
left with(?)

sunflowers
that won’t
bloom
grass that
won’t grow
babies who
won’t smile
love that
will not
grow.

let’s take
the poetry
out of
politics,
and what
are we
left with(?)

I cannot
take the
politics
out of
the poetry;

it just
ain’t me.

[KaliTracy]

1. yes....

yes.


the personal is political. poetry is often personal (even if its distanced)..... poetry is political...



the political is personal.

[govegan]

2. Love it.

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still. -- Pablo Neruda

Ahora contaremos doce
y nos quedamos todos quietos.

from "A callarse" or "Keeping Quiet"