Bernstein's "A Poetics" -- a poem-slash-critical-discourse -- seems to me to be a paradigmatic text in this regard, though it's been a while since I've read it. The assumption there is that poetics and uses of language are inherently and inextricably political, and hence an opaque and disjunctive poetics ("antiabsorptive" in Bernstein's word) is subversive of extablished power hierarchies. Whether or not this is utopian, such was the ambition.
I attended a fascinating talk by Marjorie Perloff in Amherst the other week, in which she touched on the current US antiwar poetry and how bad she thought it was (as poetry). It was surprising to hear her say that to an audience that grew momentarily tense. To her, expressions of political self-righteousness aren't poetically interesting.
Philip
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