There has always been a practical political role for the poetic imagination to focus
people and
place. Denys Thompson in 'The Uses of Poetry: ‘Patriotism and Politics’
lists these as:-
- eulogies that strengthened the position
of a tribal leader by glorifying deeds in war;
- war songs that enticed people to
fight enemies;
- poems of nation or culture to preserve
the identity and maintain the continuity of those groups
or nations under threat;
- propaganda for a short term purpose –
a change of government or the relief of a wrong.
Tennyson has provided examples of all four of these categories of poetry.
Just over a hundred years after Tennyson's death, another Poet Laureate, Robert Haas
of America,
faced the challenge of using 'poetry of community' to voice a practical politics of conservation by
initiating the annual WATERSHED Festival. This Festival offers members of a community the
opportunity to come together to explore different ways that poetry and art can be harnessed to the
long- term socio-political work required to reverse the damage inflicted on the environment and think
about the impact of human actions on future generations.
Haas' historical perspective is the re-discovery of the nature writing tradition
in America, which
includes the writing of Thomas Jefferson, the journals of Lewis and Clark, the sea novels of Melville,
Thoreau's Walden chronicles, the Sierra essays of John Muir, and the hunting stories of
Hemingway and Faulkner, as well as the prairie books of Willa Cather and the popular scientific
writing of Rachel Carson and Lewis Thomas. Haas says,
"All you have
to do is name the names to see that this is a literary tradition that fuses
science and art, advocacy and meditation, with a deep sense of place and of community."
"We have to
have in place an imagination based on intimate knowledge and love of the
places where we live, so that we can push programs forward rather than just react to
environmental despoiling for the rest of our days. It can begin in small and symbolic ways,
like the day- lighting of Strawberry Creek in Berkeley. To open up the fact that we live on a
watershed, that where we live is really a drainage from the Contra Costa Hills into the Bay --
and that we've lost that connection -- can be solved with imagination. Imagine our streams
flowing freely again, with the egrets and the herons working their way up the creeks through
the city, fishing for minnows and sticklebacks. With this imagination we can restore the
ecological cycles of this place, reminding us daily of the larger issues involved in
preservation and restoration, the healing of the planet".
Poetry, like all the arts, can speak to us about our place in the world; it can help
us gather the
strength and vision we need to stand as active citizens, to share in making a better world. This
highlights the challenge to find a way to promote poetry as an important social force for morality,
brotherhood and spiritual awareness and include the poetical celebration of life in the agenda of
local and national politics.
