Back when this thread began, it was because Stephen was wondering if
poets could even respond to the world, &, if trying to do so, could
have an effect. I'm not sure about the latter, as poetry doesn't reach
much of a large audience, & certainly is not read by those who make our
world so much worse day by day.
But, I've been reading Chris Mansell's new book, _Mortifications &
Lies_, which she mentioned here a few weeks ago. It's a noble attempt
to respond to the politics (at all levels) of the present, from where
she stands in Australia. The angry I speaks (screams) out, & at its
best it's terribly powerful stuff. Three poems, a kind of Introduction
in 'Country' that felt, to me, a bit too dogmatic, but that may be
because it is doing the set-up, & following it, the wonderful anger,
addressed in long flowing lines to every body, including the
writing/writer's self, in '&' works, as does the sad questioning of the
sequence 'Lies.' An un-SFnal pessimism, perhaps.
So, it's 'political' poetry, but with a real bite, partly because the
shifting I of the poem is all too aware of its complicity, how we all
are involved, & even the anger at what is going wrong, what is being
done against 'us' is also self-directed, a sense of painful
recognition.
It's as difficult to write valid political poetry as it is to write
valid religious poetry today, but Chris has achieved an energy & power
here that held my attention, especially in the warped syntax, the
carefully constructed repetitive scream of the long lines in both '&'
and parts of "Lies.'
Doug
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
There are places named for
other places, ones where
a word survives whatever happened
which it once referred to. And there are
names for the places water comes and touches.
But nothing for the whole.
Bill Manhire
|