Fluttering Dichterlings
There’s often a world of cocooned vacuity on the website of the Academy of American Poets... because the high-and-mighty
Academy chancellors are as established order as it gets. Do not offend is their mantra. Smile, you’re on clever camera! You’d be hard-pressed to find just one
dissident mind amongst the lot of them.
Gary Snyder? Maybe 100 years ago,
but certainly not today. He's comfortably gone from Beatnik to tenured emeritus academic stuffed in the established-order canon. Oops. He’s no longer on the chancellor roster.
A handful of poets were
asked on the Academy website (poets.org) to respond to the following question posed by some invisible Academy
chancellor or likely lackey thereof:
“What do you see as the role of the poet in today’s culture?”
Now,
if I were asked that question, I’d state upfront precisely what the chancellors would not wish to hear, for evidently they'd feel inevitably and uncomfortably, though indirectly, targeted.
The poet, above and
beyond all else, ought to decry censorship, speak rude truth even at the expense
of literary and/or academic career, and otherwise be a soldier/defender of freedom
of speech and vigorous debate, democracy's cornerstones. He or she ought to have the
courage to especially denounce the censorship effected by organizations like the Academy of American
Poets.
A few years ago, I’d contacted members of an earlier flock of chancellors who proved
indifferent to censorship. One of them is present in the current flock, prof emeritus, ex-hippie Lyn
Hejinian. No matter. The careers of chancellor Dichterlings depend on chancellor
Dichterlings turning a blind eye and adorning a classy-looking muzzle.
Mary
Jo Bang was first to present a response: “Today, as in any era, there are myriad roles
for poets: semiotician, elegist, eulogist, gamer, white noise machine,
musician, Sapphist, theorist, father figure, bird watcher, a video projection
of a moving mouth—all trapped behind the glass of Wittgenstein's fly-bottle.”
Jo
Bang seems to excel like most other known poets in the art of vacuous verbiage.
Perhaps that’s the true role of today's poet. Brilliant, Jo Bang!
Mark
Bibbins was next in line: “To point out that
today's culture has spinach in its teeth and egg on its face.”
Now, that’s a good way to avoid speaking rude
truth! Cover it up with egg… and why not
throw some bacon in its mouth too? Brilliant, Bibbins!
Timothy
Donnelly fired out the fundamental problem, without of course realizing it was in fact a
problem: “The role of the poet qua poet
is to write poems. What is the role of the architect in today's culture? What
is the role of the chef? The answers are self-evident. A poet writes poems. I
don't see any other additional role or function or responsibility that all
poets share...”
Yes, the poet as ostrich supreme. Brilliant, Donnelly!
Randall
Mann echoed Donnelly’s modus operandi of scribouilleur uber alles: “The
poet should shut the door and write poems, and then, after much time and care,
show the world. If this goes well, the role-playing will take care of itself.”
Yes, the poet as role player certainly
mirrored the sad reality of most poets as role-playing poseurs. Just look at their websites. Brilliant, Mann!
Ben
Mirov noted with a little touch of fanciful Dali: “The role of the poet in today's culture is
the same as it's always been: to be a huge transparent eyeball.”
But it
took more than a mere eyeball. It also
took a mouth and especially the courage to open it when doing so might irk the
flock! Brilliant, Mirov!
Brenda
Shaughnessy suggested: “Not that the poet's work
makes it all the way out into actual ‘culture’ very often, but nonetheless, I
do see the poet as someone whose role it is to push back against
anti-intellectualism, anti-activism, and passivity in general.”
Yet
how not to be anti-intellectual when the intellectuals remained buffered
in academic herds, ever truncating freedom of speech and vigorous debate in the name of today's world religion: PC? Would Shaughnessy remain passive now that she's
been informed the Academy not only censored my remarks but also banned me
from participating in its online forums several years ago? But of course she would! Brilliant, Shaughnessy!'
