Poetry and Politics

Recognizing National Poetry Month, launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996 to celebrate the role of poets and poetry in America’s culture, can feel like a luxury when the world faces so many challenges. Taking a moment to recognize the role poets and other artists play in society is a way of remembering poetry is political. Even the most beautiful love poem can have political undertones depending on the poet’s intent and the reader’s perspective.

For my poet friends, writing poetry is a way to document the times we live in. Poetry offers a way to send messages of support to those in need or to express the oppression one lives under. Write and write and write some more. Maybe even write a poem a day. Labor over the words or let them flow but write them down. Create the beauty that encompasses the pain and opens the eyes of those willing to see the message within.

We often don’t see the significance of a poem as political, as protest, as plea, as proof until it finds its way into history. Then hold those words sacred. All we have to say is First they came… and people nod along knowingly and generally whisper back.

The question then becomes do we learn the lesson or shrug it off. The choice is ours.

So let us embrace National Poetry Month not in spite of our struggles but because of our struggles. Let poetry be protest. Let poetry be a plea. Let poetry be our proof. Let poetry be political.

Read a poem. Write a poem. Share a poem.