Can a poem commit verbal violence?
If that poem has violent imagery and comments that are incarnating an actual historical, and ongoing violence, does that make the poem violent?
Clearly some people who heard the poem felt that way.
As the author, I think it is important to remember this is a poem, not a campaign speech. This hastily-put-together blog attempts to justify the poem as art, and art that the author is in fact proud of.
If the poem makes one feel attacked, well, maybe it has succeeded in conveying what the people "inside" the poem are feeling. If the images in the poem refer to actual dead people, and includes historical voices of those who might be glad that the people are dead, is that not a valid poem? Does that not happen in poems throughout history?
We should not confuse the voices in a poem with the voice or beliefs of the poet.
Towards the end of our group discussion -- where many very valuable and important points of view were discussed (and which I have not the time to include here: those who were there heard them), the person who had the integrity to stand up and publicly voice his problems with the poem, eventually said he would give the author the "benefit of the doubt"
I hope this blog, as incomplete as it is, earns that benefit of the doubt from those who listened to the poem, and to those who might read it or hear it in the future.
Do not criticize me for using the word Nigger (and niger, Negroes, Nigra, Black, and Niggas, all with distinct historical meanings, several of which pre-date the 19th-Century American development of usage).
I will gladly accept criticism regarding meter, form, image, clarity, assonance, alliteration, voice, and syntax.
I do not think a poet needs to explain their poems; however, I do regret not introducing the public reading of this poem. I think if I had said "This poem deals with issues of eugenics, racism, and abortion, and it uses language that most people would find offenseive" then people would have been warned, and perhaps not as bewildered and angered as to why a member of their community had just spoken the words.
For that lack of wisdom, I apologize. In hindsight, I regret not doing that. I am a saddened because I damaged new friendships, particularly with one of our instructors that week. In the group discussion after the reading, and in the discomfort and context of that moment, where it was important that other voices besides mine were heard, I did not feel it was my place to "justify" the poem, but rather to simply express what I consider the core of the poem:
Love and words expressing love are cheap. For me, to say I love someone in public is not a melodramtic statement, an attempt to evade responsibility for my words and actions, nor a sentimental vaguery. In the context of the discussion, it was a way to attempt to say I respect your actions of protest, I accept your reaction to my work, and I am very sorry I have offended you. And it was a way to acknowledge the discomfort many others felt over my choice of reading that particular poem, in that particular way.
It was not the time to make a defense of my poem. But since community requires honesty, I feel I owe it to the members of that community to indeed defend my poem and to further discuss the issues which arose. I think they are quite pertinent to what in fact we were speaking about that week, and I think the convener of the event made a good decision to ask us all to stay and use the predicament as a teaching moment.
In my comments I mentioned that I thought an online discussion at a later time would be something I would be willing to enter into, and this blog is my making good on that offer.
I do not accept the idea that using the word Nigger in a poem is forbidden territory. I DO accept the idea that an artist must be responsible in his or her art. I do not accept the idea that a white person cannot write about "black" issues, as though some issues pertained only to one group of people, and not all people. The specific usage of each and every use of my words was backed up with historical research, as well as personal experience after having lived in the Bronx for ten years. I was not intentionally lighting verbal fires or making verbal assaults. I was intentionally using the language of social reality, and I believe I was using it, as I hope this blog conveys, with intellectual rigor and artistic quality.
Once again, if that artistic quality was/is lacking, then I am eager to get to work and make poems that do reach a higher level of artistic integrity.
If that poem has violent imagery and comments that are incarnating an actual historical, and ongoing violence, does that make the poem violent?
Clearly some people who heard the poem felt that way.
As the author, I think it is important to remember this is a poem, not a campaign speech. This hastily-put-together blog attempts to justify the poem as art, and art that the author is in fact proud of.
If the poem makes one feel attacked, well, maybe it has succeeded in conveying what the people "inside" the poem are feeling. If the images in the poem refer to actual dead people, and includes historical voices of those who might be glad that the people are dead, is that not a valid poem? Does that not happen in poems throughout history?
We should not confuse the voices in a poem with the voice or beliefs of the poet.
Towards the end of our group discussion -- where many very valuable and important points of view were discussed (and which I have not the time to include here: those who were there heard them), the person who had the integrity to stand up and publicly voice his problems with the poem, eventually said he would give the author the "benefit of the doubt"
I hope this blog, as incomplete as it is, earns that benefit of the doubt from those who listened to the poem, and to those who might read it or hear it in the future.
Do not criticize me for using the word Nigger (and niger, Negroes, Nigra, Black, and Niggas, all with distinct historical meanings, several of which pre-date the 19th-Century American development of usage).
I will gladly accept criticism regarding meter, form, image, clarity, assonance, alliteration, voice, and syntax.
I do not think a poet needs to explain their poems; however, I do regret not introducing the public reading of this poem. I think if I had said "This poem deals with issues of eugenics, racism, and abortion, and it uses language that most people would find offenseive" then people would have been warned, and perhaps not as bewildered and angered as to why a member of their community had just spoken the words.
For that lack of wisdom, I apologize. In hindsight, I regret not doing that. I am a saddened because I damaged new friendships, particularly with one of our instructors that week. In the group discussion after the reading, and in the discomfort and context of that moment, where it was important that other voices besides mine were heard, I did not feel it was my place to "justify" the poem, but rather to simply express what I consider the core of the poem:
The original Niggas—
now they were black,
beautiful, dark, deep black.
Love and words expressing love are cheap. For me, to say I love someone in public is not a melodramtic statement, an attempt to evade responsibility for my words and actions, nor a sentimental vaguery. In the context of the discussion, it was a way to attempt to say I respect your actions of protest, I accept your reaction to my work, and I am very sorry I have offended you. And it was a way to acknowledge the discomfort many others felt over my choice of reading that particular poem, in that particular way.
It was not the time to make a defense of my poem. But since community requires honesty, I feel I owe it to the members of that community to indeed defend my poem and to further discuss the issues which arose. I think they are quite pertinent to what in fact we were speaking about that week, and I think the convener of the event made a good decision to ask us all to stay and use the predicament as a teaching moment.
In my comments I mentioned that I thought an online discussion at a later time would be something I would be willing to enter into, and this blog is my making good on that offer.
I do not accept the idea that using the word Nigger in a poem is forbidden territory. I DO accept the idea that an artist must be responsible in his or her art. I do not accept the idea that a white person cannot write about "black" issues, as though some issues pertained only to one group of people, and not all people. The specific usage of each and every use of my words was backed up with historical research, as well as personal experience after having lived in the Bronx for ten years. I was not intentionally lighting verbal fires or making verbal assaults. I was intentionally using the language of social reality, and I believe I was using it, as I hope this blog conveys, with intellectual rigor and artistic quality.
Once again, if that artistic quality was/is lacking, then I am eager to get to work and make poems that do reach a higher level of artistic integrity.
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