I’d like to say something in response to what has happened this past week, and I think in this space the best thing I can do for others (in the abstract) is share some poems that I think are helpful for working through this uncharted territory we’re entering. I hesitated to post this, wondering if it was unnecessary, late in a week that’s been full of hand-wringing. Do people really want some poems now?
Then I listened to the NPR podcast “On the Media,” which was excellent this week, more sober and in touch with the dangers of this moment than a lot of other outlets. (The previous episode, “The Day After” was also great.) They closed with an interview with Russian-born journalist M. Gessen, whose essay “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” was widely shared after Trump was first elected in 2016. Gessen had some insight into how Harris went wrong that I found helpful, and warned of the coming lull of normalcy, talking about how they themselves were looking longingly at friends’ lives in Moscow and wondering about going back…just before the full invasion of Ukraine shattered any illusions. Host Brooke Gladstone referenced someone’s tweet towards the end: “You know it’s a bad day when they’re sharing poems,” and then mentioned how Gessen had quoted the Langston Hughes poem on this list in their book Surviving Autocracy. Though I might be ignoring the humor of the tweet, I took that as a sign to go ahead. At any rate it’s important to open avenues of connection where we can.
I share poetry now the way I might share a cup of flour or a hammer, along with some commentary. These poems are the best ones I’ve seen poets and poetry lovers sharing online this week. A few I’ve read before, but most I hadn’t.
“A Litany for Survival” by Audre Lorde: On the breaking of the “illusion of some safety to be found.”
“Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirschfield: A complicated elegy.
“Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes: This took me to a place of thinking about how this moment ties to history, and how America was always more idea than a real place. I think it can be helpful if you’re thinking through “being American.” Gessen related this poem to their belief that democracy is only a dream, but we can choose a government that’s becoming more or less like that dream.
“No One Can Stop the Rain” by Assata Shakur: I’m unsure what to make of Shakur’s biography, but I thought this poem was worth sharing. It went in a different direction from my expectation, based on the title, that it would be about trying to ward off some impending evil (which I think may have been intentional on the part of the poet). Inevitability cuts both ways.
“What Kind of Times Are These” by Adrienne Rich. On the role of the poet in a world that’s covering up its brutality. A recording of Rich that includes a reading of this poem can be found here. This poem was written in conversation with Bertolt Brecht’s “To Those Who Follow in Our Wake,” written in 1939 while he was living in exile from Germany.
“Failing and Flying” by Jack Gilbert: On the surface this poem is unrelated, but it may help us forgive ourselves for the errors we made in this fight, especially coming after the Hirschfield above.
“ana versus the social totality” by Valeria Román Marroquín, translated from the Spanish by Noah Mazer: I think this brings together several of the themes above in a poem grounded in burning garbanzo beans.
I asked myself: what poems would I add to this list? I’m somewhat dismayed to realize I’m at a loss: I don’t read much explicitly political poetry. After some thought, I remembered I reread H.D.’s “Trilogy” about two years ago and at the time felt humbled at all she went through, living in England during both World Wars. Though I also remembered where she arrived may be of limited help if one is not a classicist or seeking a vindication of poetry. Still, some of those tough lines are coming back to me now (the link only gives the first section, not the whole epic).
I have probably in the past read other poems that may be resonant right now, but because 15-25 years ago when I did most of the new reading of poetry I’ve done to date, I did not have the imagination to conceive that we’d end up here and so I have not remembered them or they are not coming to mind in connection with what just happened. I’m sure there are obviously appropriate poems I’m missing and gems from other traditions. If you know of any, I hope you’ll share them with this blog or with me. I may add more to the list above that I find on my own, too, as I’m wishing I had five times the number of hours I had to put this post together.
If there’s something you think I can do to help you, please reach out.
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Thank you Meg. I’m very grateful to receive this email and your thoughtful choices to help us through such a devastating time. What could be better than finding our way through the lines of poetry—leaning on the beauty of nature and the ongoing creative spirit of art will be mandatory as we try to process, learn, find renewed strength and act. Thank you so much. Looking forward to spending time with all these great works.
Melinda, thanks as always for reading and responding. Getting out in nature (just to the playground in my case) really does help. I also found doing a little tidying or decluttering to have an impact too. I hope you are well besides recent events.