To:

Zcom_simple
Home » ZMag » James Seckington » Review: "Poetry as Insurgent Art"
108_medium

January 2008

Volume 21, Number 1
Activism

2007 Anti-War Protests
Jeff Nall


Commentary

20th B-Day!
Readers & writers


Media Revolution?
Lydia Sargent


Left Electoral Campaign
Michael Albert


Venezuela Referendum Lessons
Josh Lerner


Darfur PR Scam?
Bruce Dixon


Transforming Culture
Bill Berkowitz


Homegrown Terrorism Act Factsheet
Center for constitutional rights


Prison Quiz
Wisconsin books to prisoners


Culture

Review: "The Bubble"
Michael Bronski


Words of Choice
Eleanor j. Bader


Telephone Ringing
Gregg Mosson


Insurgent Art
James Seckington


John Hammond
Bill Nevins


Features

We Own The World
Noam Chomsky


Annapolis Conference
Edward Herman


Largely About Oil
Paul Street


Global Warming
Brian Tokar


Trade & Ghana
Chris Benjamin


Zaps

ZAPS
Various submissions


NOTE: Z Magazine subscribers and sustainers have access to all Z Magazine articles here and in the archive. The latest Z Magazine articles available to everyone are listed in the Free Articles box at the top of the table of contents, and are starred in the list below. Questions? e-mail Z Magazine Online.

Review: "Poetry as Insurgent Art"

Lawrence Ferlinghetti; 2007, New Directions, 96 pp.

By James Seckington
PDF Version
Printer Friendly Version
January 2008
 Change Text Size a- | A+

In the age of iPods, text messages, and YouTube, it is difficult to imagine poetry as a serious cultural and political force. Poetry, a once fertile field that nurtured dissent, confrontation, and utopian visions, has become gentrified. Subtle, ironic, self-obsessed, and understated, today’s poet is a master craftsperson, constructing clever word puzzles that touch on many themes, but the liberation of the spirit is not one of them. In Poetry as Insurgent Art, long time rabble rouser, publisher, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti throws out a challenge to modern day poets: “Wake up, the world’s on fire.”

Where are Whitman’s wild children, 

where the great voices speaking out 

with a sense of sweetness and
 sublimity 

where the great new vision 

the great world-view 

the high prophetic song 

of the immense earth 

and all that sing in it 

And our relation to it— 

Poets, descend 

to the street of the world once more. 

 

Poetry as Insurgent Art is a kick in the pants to all those who read and write poetry sitting down. There’s no time for sitting, Ferlinghetti assures us, there is work to be done. Who better to lead the charge than the poets?  

The poet by definition
  is the bearer 

of Eros and love and
  freedom and 

thus the natural-born non-violent
  enemy of the State

Ferlinghetti believes that the poet, like the artist, has a cultural role to play and a responsibility to an ideal outside of him or herself. In this way, Ferlinghetti views the poet as a sort of humanist shaman, dealing spiritual truths from the bottom of the deck in a cosmic hand of poker. But his poet does not flee from political commitment, but rather, she skips eagerly, jump rope in hand, to 

disturb the sleep of those who 

do not wish to be disturbed in the 

pursuit of happiness. 

 

In contrast, many of today’s poets lack the fire capable of transcending the roar of the day. Poets have become, if not complicit in the status quo, at the least numb to it. Where is the energy in modern poetry? The magnificent leaps of the imagination? The passion that is born of the urgency of youth? Where is the faith, not in one’s self and one’s work, but in the power of words? Where are the declarations, manifestos, and epic statements of purpose? Where are the rope ladders to the castles in the clouds? Ferlinghetti declares, channeling his friend Allen Ginsberg:

We have seen the best minds of our
 Generation 

destroyed by boredom at poetry
 readings 

Poetry isn’t a secret society 

It isn’t a temple either 

Secret words & chants won’t do any
 longer. 

 

Ferlinghetti’s poet-warrior moves freely among all classes of people. She speaks simply, so that others may hear what it is she has to say. Communication a goal, not a liability, Ferling- hetti’s poet does not hide behind fuzzy metaphors or within the pages of the Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism.  Rather, she stands up and “lets them have it.” 

In Poetry as Insurgent Art, Lawrence Ferlinghetti makes a point to avoid cleverness, irony, and the jaded slouch Generations X,Y, and Z have cultivated to perfection. Instead he hoots and hollers and laughs a bit as he thumbs his nose at the digital age. Though his voice echoes the assumptions and commitments of an earlier time, Ferlinghetti’s definition of poetry retains its edge and his challenge deserves serious consideration. 

Z 

James Seckington is the primary caregiver to his young children. 


Loading_border