I’ve about come to the conclusion that, since I don’t know what effects climate chaos will produce in my locality,* the best thing I can do is to try (a.) to toughen up and (b.) to act as ethically as I can – which means, in large part, doing my bit to help mitigate climatogenic distress.
But is this conclusion consistent with being a writer – esp. a POET? People who don’t read poetry have this image of the poet as this ethereal, sympathetic, spiritual, otherworldly, figure who effs the ineffable. The poets who just read that sentence are laughing. Why? Because, Dear Reader, I’m here to tell you: poets are some mean little mother******s. And nobody knows this better than poets. I think it has to do with the size of the readership. Unlike fiction and nonfiction, there is a limited audience. Indeed, there is more than a little truth to the adage that the only people who read poetry are other poets (and the students to whom they force-feed it). Now, that doesn’t diminish the value of poetry. Nobody says, “I don’t watch basketball, because you know what? Most of those people in the seats play it themselves!” No. But what it does do is make for a very small, inbred, inward-looking group, fighting over a very small pie. Think of your high-school or middle-school class, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what I mean. So, unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of backbiting, bullying, lying, rumor-mongering, smack-talking, piling-on, vindictiveness, peer pressure, elbowing, grandstanding, gate-keeping, snobbery, kissing of asses (or other parts of anatomy), back-scratching, pandering, disingenuousness, insincerity – as well as some things that are really bad. In other words, I don’t think it’s writing poems that makes someone bad – it is "the Poetry Community," as it is ironically termed. I’ve got the United States in mind here, primarily, but I’ll bet it’s just as bad in other countries (with the possible exception of places where writing the wrong poem can land you in jail). It’s especially ironic, since US poets are among those who declaim most loudly about inclusion, equality, safety, freedom, and ecological healing. Careers must be made, and sometimes all that declaiming can help burnish one’s image. But that doesn't mean you have to extend those qualities to other poets. Now, to be sure, there are some amazingly kind, generous, honest, forthright, even enlightened poets (some of whom coincidentally find it hard to find a wide audience). And certainly, mean people write in other genres and pursue other vocations. But I’ve been around electoral politics and academic politics, I talk with writers in other genres, and I must say, poetry strikes me as worse. For instance, I don’t see the kind of behavior I describe to the same extent among academic literary critics, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, there is double-blind peer-review: your work is assessed anonymously by someone who is anonymous to you. You might even be writing about someone you know, for all you know. And academic publishers are always on the lookout for stuff, from whatever quarter. That alone cuts down on cronyism, cutthroat competition, and dirty politics (I'm not talking intra-departmental politics -- that's a whole 'nother ball game). But there is more of a professional ethos – the idea that there are things you simply don’t do, no matter how bad things seem, if you consider yourself a qualified member of the profession. The average level of jerkiness can only go so far. But Poetryland, where it's all about who-knows-whom, is designed to encourage that sort of thing. ______________________________________________ * Unlike, say, Mozambique or Alaska, where they have a pretty good idea of the effects already. [to be continued Thursday . . .]
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |