Healing, Optimism, And Polarization: A Collection Of Political Poetry Musings By Jennifer C. Wolfe, published by Blaze VOX Books. Reviewed for Crow Reviews by Lynn Alexander.
Jennifer C. Wolfe has put together a collection of poetry that explores the political mindscape of America on the cusp of the post-Bush age. There’s no doubt that we, in America, had high hopes for change with the election of President Obama- many of us want so badly to see change on so many levels and we have come to recognize that we need a certain kind of inspiring leadership to get there. Even the cynical and disenfranchised by choice share a strong sense that there has to be a change in course because what we have been doing has not been working and is now dangerously unsustainable. Is Obama the change? Who knows. At the time of writing these poems it is certainly too soon to tell.
Hope, optimism, unity…these are difficult ideas to tackle, because the diversity that makes us strong is also the diversity that fosters pluralist animosity that renders reconciliation so elusive. Wolfe aims to touch on the dynamics of competing interests, and the nature of polarization in a society where groups tend to compete before they cooperate on mutual goals and opportunities and where divisive strategies seem to rally citizens and garner support and even rouse the apathetic. Can we heal? Can we come together, find common ground? Is it absurd to hope for change, are we that far gone?
Wolfe opens with a poem about change, via the election of President Obama who ran on the promise of it. It seems hard to imagine the culture of corruption and the status quo being shaken, but perhaps it is the nature of optimism by necessity to want to believe. Wolfe touches on the subjectivity of change and how it is responded to: change is a divisive thing, change is the enemy of people who benefit from the status quo and who need to hold onto their perceptions of the ground they’ve gained. She confronts the strategy of propaganda and the ways any opposition can and will seize on fear to capitalize on the public’s sense of threat: Obama is a socialist, his changes will hurt you, “change is vile”. Change will lead to lines at the doctor’s offices, change will make us Canadian, change will make us soft on crime and let our enemies run free. Change will come along and take your first born!
When we decide not to change, we are making a choice. We are choosing to stay oil dependent, for example. We are choosing to ignore climate change. We are choosing to stay with policies that have failed or behaviors that seem counter to our nation’s identity.
Wolfe addresses that in her second poem “Close Gitmo” where she uses plain direct language to essentially lay out that argument: that Guantanamo Bay does not reflect the “American Way”. She also makes that case for the practice of rendition.
“Close Gitmo and we may open our minds to what America is, what it can be.”(Close Gitmo)
“Let’s render those we classify as our enemy” (Rendition)
In “Polar Ice Caps In America”, (polar also as in polarization, a similar double entendre in “Rush Week” ,college pledges and Rush Limbaugh) Wolfe places much of the blame for the challenges of change on post-election political rivalry, and the subsequent thwarting of efforts along partisan lines regardless of the interests of America. “We are polarized”. Polarized, refusing to meet in the middle.
Ironically, when she gets to “Government Motors”, Wolfe returns to this accusation of socialism and the new era of financial jargon including such concepts as companies being “too big to fail”.
The selective amnesia in America seems to lead us to forget how we got to these places in the first place and under whose leadership. It doesn’t matter who is responsible as there are few mechanisms for accountability anyway.
In many ways, Wolfe’s poetry- from Ann Coulter to Sarah Palin to “cash for clunkers” to lead paint toys reads like a trip down memory lane. Her poems are full of the headlines and buzzwords of recent years and the personalities that everyone talked about- from The Daily Show to Talk Radio, to CNN to the papers. At this point, many on the left are fighting back now armed at last with some talking points of their own- and not a moment too soon. Wolfe is probably pretty happy about that.
Wolfe makes very basic observations, she doesn’t get into theory or get bogged down with the nuances of the issues, she essentially throws out a list of egregious examples of things that need fixing. For a collection of political poems, they are pretty low key. She doesn’t get radical on the soap box, she comments in the way people across America comment.
“…the food police should first police themselves”
“Health care that is recognizable/Makes consumer confidence sizeable.”
Over the years, much has been made about this notion of political poetry- some love it and some hate it- and I want to get into that here because this collection is an example of what both fans and foes of political poetry are often talking about.
I had no idea that there was venom out there about political poetry until a heated discussion broke out about it a few years ago and I saw how quickly people at the venue took sides. Some thought it to be the poet’s job to speak out, to serve as witness, to lay out the issues using the tools at their disposal: their words.
Being a believer that everything is fodder, I saw no problem there. But a faction soon chimed in that political poetry constitutes a misuse of art, a hijacking of the point to get “all partisan” and worse- to be “one of those preachy poets”. This is a reaction I have encountered since, and it still surprises me. What gives?
Wolfe’s choice to express her political observations poetically is no less valid than writing about trees and creeks. The fact that she has put her energy and gifts in the service of her concerns is something I personally applaud, and would like to think will always have its place.
I wouldn’t say that there is a burden or moral imperative on the writer to do so, but I definitely see the personal as the political, and the political as the poetic. Wolfe, like anyone willing to put their views “out there” in the face of agreement or scrutiny, displays courage with this collection.
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