Poetry as Activism

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Poetry as activism
Poetry is not about luxury, but is an important necessity for human existence. It develops the quality of life in which poets predicate their dreams and hopes towards change and survival. Poetry is the technique in which poets assist to give identity to voiceless people so that the rights of the vulnerable should be considered and protected (Love and Mattern 47). The furthest horizon of human fears and hopes assembled by poems is carved from the experiences of people’s daily lives. Poetry is not just about visions and dreams, but it is the skeleton structure for human lives. It forms that a foundation of a change in the future. This paper aims to describe poetry as an activism and examines poets such as Guillermo Gomez-Pena and others including how their poetry is intimately intertwined with activism in specific issues.
Examining cross-cultural issues of poetry as activism
Poetry as activism is a political poetry which promotes a particular ideological view. For example, Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” gave warning to the 19th century England of the foreseeable and unavoidable decline of empires. Both combinations of culture of questioning and powerful language give poetry a political power. Chicano activist and poet Francisco X. Alarcon put his thoughts on poetry to act as an activist medium. Alarcon formed a facebook group known as “Poets Responding to SB 1070” which posts poems by aspiring and advanced poets concerning Arizona‘s current controversial immigration law (Santini and Summerfield 251). Many poems are posted daily and the site consists of several creative works being posted. More that six thousand people follow the page which gives them free access to the developing anthology of significant poetry.
Using social media on the developing digital age enables poetry to have a political power by reaching many people as much as possible. Alarcon believes that social changes occur when there is a crucial mass advocating changes. The revolutions that recently happened in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries clearly show that movements inspired by the new social media in which millions of people felt to take action on their own hands (Wang 29). In Tunisia and Egypt, protesters moved across the streets while chanting the poem known as “To the Tyrants of the world” created by the early 20th century poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabihas. With the recent technological development, people across the world are in a position to listen to such calls for action. It is evident that political poems are capable of creating social consciousness that influences the activism, something which other forms cannot do. And this is the result of mixture of politics and poetry.
Politically charged investigation creates prospects of poetry for both the poem (as artistic medium) and the poet (as a designer). This kind of poetry invokes the literal practice of speaking about the wisdom of a society and also utilizes a poem as a tool of activism (Love and Mattern 54). Critics who question the function of poetry in the practical world can see that activist poetics offer expression about contemporary political happenings and suggest relevant answers to address problems experienced in such political happenings. Love and Mattern explain that activist poetry reveals knowledge of what happens in the real world through the conceptual relationship between the world of art and real experience (56).
Regarding the American wars experienced during the 9/11, terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, many poets created works which investigated the morality of the wars including the agents of war (that is insurgents, civilians, American soldiers and others). These poems advocated political efforts that were against outrage and oppression (Santini and Summerfield 254). Francesco Levato’s War Rug is a good example of documentary and investigative poetry created in response to the ongoing war in Afghanistan. The poem was created to reflect on the long-term violence in Afghanistan. Besides that, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner created a poem that raised alarm about disastrous issues of the former US nuclear site on the Marshall Islands. The poem talks about human sufferings caused by such nuclear explosions. Furthermore, John Kinsella (the Australian poet) claimed that his poetry was about social activism and advocated for rights of aborigines, animals and among others. it can be seen how poetry plays a crucial role of social activism by giving a voice to the deprived, the insulted, unheard, and the humiliated.
Poetry can serve as an important tool for resisting various ethical, political, and social ills happening in the society. The aim of poetry is to make something to happen. Poetry makes almost everything to happen in the domain of social progress (Izenberg 15). Public opinion determines what is considered acceptable and what is not acceptable. Therefore, poets who influence public opinions play vital role in the human social progress. Change has been largely advocated by poets who condemned racism and convinced other people to embrace change and transform their beliefs. Poets of the 20th century can be considered as modern prophets. For example, poets such as Robert Burns (Scottish), Langston Hughes (American), William Butler Yeats (Irish), Walt Whitman (American), and William Blake (English) spoke eloquently and prophetically about the needs for people to reform and promote tolerance and equality.
In the present era, it can be seen that certain poets and other artists are lobbying for completely equal rights for homosexuals as the process of change continues to be advocated (Holmes 401). The need started when individuals who were dissatisfied with status quo and therefore started convincing others that changes is necessary. Individuals who are the most persuasive are the one with effective command of language. Thus, most social progress started with best speakers like Martin Luther King, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and others.
A good example is Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence: