on Adrienne Rich & political activism

"Diving into the Wreck" is a book known to contemporary poetry
lovers. That's the book I thought of when I read about Adrienne
Rich's passing earlier this year. It was one of her early books which
was followed, of course, by many others. In one of the obits on
the poet, I came across a mention of one of her books of prose, a
collection of essays on poetry and politics called "What Is Found
There" which I decided to order. I've been reading through it
recently, and I found a passage on political activism which touches
on matters relevant to post-3/11 Japan in its search for alternatives
to nuclear energy:

   "What is political activism, anyway? I've been asking myself.
   It's something both prepared for and spontaneous--like making
poetry.
   When we do and think and feel certain things privately and in
secret, even when thousands of people are doing, thinking,
whispering these things privately and in secret, there is still no
general, collective understanding from which to move. Each
takes his or her risks in isolation. We may think of ourselves
as individual rebels, and individual rebels can easily be shot
down. The relationship among so many feelings remains unclear.
But these thoughts and feelings, suppressed and stored-up and
whispered, have an incendiary component. You cannot tell
where or how they will connect, spreading underground from
rootlet to rootlet until every grass blade is afire from every
other. This is that "spontaneity" which party "leaders," secret
governments, and closed systems dread. Poetry, in its own way,
is a carrier of the sparks, because it too comes out of silence,
seeking connection with unseen others."



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Poetry Kanto


mamaist


Walt Whitman of Cosmic Folklore