returning to the poetry of poetry

RETURNING TO THE POETRY OF POETRY

Leave the shadows cast by Emily and Walt.  Walk in rain shine.

The mischief-begotten claim

                "Even among the most barbarous and simple Indians where no writing is, yet have they their poets, who make and sing songs, which they call areytos, both of their ancestors' deeds and

 praises of their gods  ----  a sufficient probability that, if ever learning come among them, it must
 be by having their hard dull wits softened and sharpened with the sweet delights of poetry"

                Philip Sidney, Apology for Poetry (1595)

is obdurate.  Imperial capitalism came, delivering abuse of wit and quicksand of alien poesy.

The publication of

Erdrich, Heid E., ed. New Poets of Native Nations.  Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2018.

is an opportunity  for rituals of giving back to poetry what belongs to poetry:  language. It is a prelude to embracing Joy Harjo, the new U.S. Poet Laureate, with greater honesty than some American citizens have accorded her predecessors.  During her tenure, poetry may perhaps reclaim its authentic space, which has been divided like post-WW II global geography.

Before reading works by the twenty-one poets in the anthology, read

Chief Arvol Looking Horse.  White Buffalo Teachings. Williamsburg, MA: Dreamkeepers Press, 2001.

That's about as close as we can come to hearing  Pte-san win-yan (White Buffalo Calf Woman) telling the People----

"This is the C'anupa (the Sacred Pipe).  The person who smokes it achieves union with all Beings and with all things of the World.  By smoking the C'anupa, you will make direct personal contact with Wakan Tankan (the Great Mystery)." (White Buffalo 38),

because we can't achieve empathy with Pte O-ya-te, the Buffalo People.  The white shamans of the past illuminate that mission impossible.  At best, we submit to the languages in New Poets of Native Nations and try to learn something about language. The reasoning is near circular like a Sacred Hoop.

Before reading, burn white sage incense and inhale the aroma with humility and respect.

Should we be discomforted by the fact that most of us are descendants of folk who transmogrified things in the Old World of the indigenous and that we know very little about the origins and ancestors of the indigenous?  YES.

Should those of us who have no blood kinship with indigenous peoples accept  Heid E. Erdrich's invitation to

"Enjoy this place, this space, this dimension these writers open where we can engage deeply with the work of poets whose nations' long tenure in this place tell us something new and enduring at once" (xvi)?  YES. Yes, we can do this dance in language and only in language.

When Sidney used the word areytos, he was quoting from a Taino language , and as far as I can remember Taino peoples were neither barbarians nor simple-minded.  It is Sidney who needed to have his dull hard wits softened, just as hundreds of authorities on American poetries need to have their wits marinated by the works  and languages in Poets of Native Nations.

Arise from the alien quicksand.  Leave the caves of the Academy.  Walk in rain shine and return to the poetry of poetry. Enter languages.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            June 30, 2019