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and the latest miracle, canned food.
The war is over. There are unburied bones
in the fields at sun-up, skylarks singing,
starved children begging chocolate on the tracks.Unlike Stein, Haas directly emphasizes the sociopolitical subject matter and his compassion for the subject. The form of the poem is recognizable as traditional verse. The repetition of the alliteration of the f, b, and s sounds offer a predictable rhythm that satisfies the reader’s expectation. Haas, a former US poet laureate, prides himself on his political engagement; his direct language and conventional technique seem to speak directly to the reader. His intention is not to disrupt or complicate his compassion for the subject within poetic form. Which one is more political? I think the better question is which one has a greater impact over the long haul: Is a poem more radically political because it directs the reader to a political views and social conditions, or because it radically changes the way the reader thinks about the world?So what makes formally inventive poetry “political”? Poetry—especially the history of avant-garde American poetry—is a dialogue, or even an argument. The invention of new poetic forms challenges old ideas about poetry. These radical shifts away from accepted forms of poetry create gaps that can be either generative to poets interested in new ways of working, or disenfranchising to those who find these new forms exclusive or less useful than the established forms. But contrary to those who might argue that these new forms are simply new in order to be new, I believe that these inventive forms align poetry with forward-thinking movements in the other arts and society at large. If these gaps created by new ideas and new forms in poetry offer a significantly compelling dialogue, then poets and their readers will take this up. This opening between the old and new can be an exciting territory to mine. It’s an open space that generates context building, new works, rebuttals, and new terms for poets to test and define themselves with or against. It’s a place of the unknown, where poets and readers can bring their own intelligence and start to define a new direction for poetry and, ultimately, society.
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