I’ve just read an article by Seamus (the famous) Heaney published during the
week in the New York Times (they have a web site where you can read things
for nowt)called Poetry’s Power Against Intolerance, where he quoted the
Lithuanian poet Czeslaw Milosz: "What is poetry," Milosz asks, "which does
not save nations and peoples?" Then Heaney continued: “It is a question that
concerns the redress of poetry, by which I mean the need poets feel to align
themselves with those who have been wronged, to repair and compensate for
injustices suffered, to stay mindful of the miseries of the world.”

Perhaps poetry doesn’t change the world  - on its own.
But I treasure so many poems (from the Psalms onwards) that either highlight
what needs to change or celebrate the changes that happen.

I heard about Adrian Mitchell chanting out “To Whom It May Concern” with the
unforgettable line “Tell me lies about Vietnam” (I wasn’t there, at there at
the Albert Hall in London, I didn’t hear it. But, within days, I’d heard
about it and, as soon as I could, I read it for myself!). And I remember
first reading the unforgettable Denise Levertov poem about Vietnam “What
Were They Like”. Then I also can’t forget R.S. Thomas’s poem “H’m” about
children in the Biafran war in Nigeria. Alongside the poems about the Big
Issues of falling in our out of love those poems mattered to me (and not
just me). If those poems hadn't been available my life would be far poorer
(and not just my life either).

Poems, like press photographs and news-footage, become a focus of (more than
the individuals) feelings - don't they?
I believe they do.

Bob

>From: sheridan <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: new sub - Nauru
>Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 12:03:53 +0100
>
>Dear Mick,
>This is excellent. Told me something I didn't know and made a hell of a lot
>of sense. Maybe the government wouldn't take notice, but I'd be willing to
>bet that anyone else who read it would.  It's just that they're not in a
>position to do anything about it.  Or are they?
>bw Laura
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: kmo <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 11:11 AM
>Subject: new sub - Nauru
>
>
> > If I thought poetry changed anything I'd sent this to the Australian
> > government - but it doesn't.
> > Mick
> >
> > Nauru
> >
> > A tiny speck of land
> > in the vast pacific ocean
> > no industry
> > no agriculture
> > it could be paradise
> > but it's not
> >
> > there used to be phosphates
> > until the multinationals came
> > and left
> > taking the top four feet of everywhere
> > with them
> >
> > leaving a bizarre landscape
> > of rocks stripped naked
> > like embarrassed outcasts
> > on a prison island
> >
> > pacific rain storms
> > washed away
> > what soil was left
> > and now the place is just a maze
> > of twisting empty trenches
> >
> > inhabitants who haven't
> > already left
> > are queuing up to do so
> > their villages
> > and ages old island culture
> > long destroyed
> >
> > a perfect place to send
> > three hundred and fifty
> > men women and children
> > trying to escape
> > persecution
> > and intolerance
> >


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