poetree

Poetry matters to the extent that it influences people's awareness, thoughts, and actions. In order to make a difference, poetry needs to involve a topic that people care about, and say something meaningful about it that makes them look at things in a new light. Sometimes this is primarily about entertainment, which is a perfectly good reason for poetry -- because when we realize that things are beautiful, we are more likely to protect and preserve them. Other times poetry is meant to do quite proactive things, language honed to a fine cutting edge.

One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.
-- Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

That is the power of poetry. It moves people. It can make fundamental changes in their ideas and decisions, how they perceive themselves and other people, what they choose to do about the world.

So what can you accomplish with poetry?

You can point to marvels, encouraging people to celebrate and support them. The whole genre of nature poetry does this, but there are other examples. I've done a book on this myself, From Nature's Patient Hands: A Collection of Poetry. Another great thing about nature poetry is its accessibility: it talks about concrete things familiar to most readers. This helps draw people into poetry who might otherwise shy away from it.

You can show readers that their experiences are recorded, that people like them write poems about topics that interest them. For a while, I designed coursework for some adult remedial education classes taught in a prison. The students were predominantly black and Latino. So I got them hooked on poets like Langston Hughes and Lorna Dee Cervantes. Most of them had never seen anything like that before; they thought poetry was something that white dudes did. I showed them that poetry is for everyone. We'd get one or two guys per class who just caught fire with the idea of reading. Yep, I sure made a difference to that one.

You can fill gaps in representation and correct flawed portrayals of people, places, or ideas. I do this a great deal in my crowdfunded series, some of which have been inspired by "Why isn't there more of X?" Here, let me write you some X. The Adventures of Aldornia and Zenobia is my counterweight to the Dead/Evil Lesbian trope. An Army of One: The Autistic Secession in Space began when someone asked for autistic characters forming a society of their own. The Clockwork War sprang from a discussion about disabled characters in comic books, and a request for them in active combat roles rather than intellectual support. Glimpses of Minoa features historic and Pagan motifs about an ancient civilization that one prompter just really wanted to talk about. Hart's Farm promotes alternative family arrangements and intentional community, a counterbalance to the fraying social bonds of modern times. Kande's Quest is a deliberate reversal of the fantasy trend toward demonizing people of color; the heroes are all black, the story structure and cultural expectations are based on African traditions, and the demons are a caricature of Caucasian appearance. The Ocracies grew out of an awareness that almost all fantasy nations are monarchies, so it showcases a different type of government in each nation. Path of the Paladins began with a request for a paladin who was world-weary instead of shiny and perfect. It has gained themes of PTSD recovery, faith, and perseverance; and both of the protagonists are asexual women. P.I.E. emerged from my frustration with "smart, strong" women in urban fantasy who always seem to wind up with jerktastic boyfriends; so Brenda blows off those and picks a nice guy instead. Also she can whump villains from her wheelchair. Starfather deals with adoption, single parenting, and interracial relations in a science fiction context. The Steamsmith features a black, female, genderqueer, British steampunk engineer and upsets many ideas about race, gender, class, and other issues. These series show a combination of ideas from myself and my audience, where we've thrown poems into various culture gaps.

Notice that many of those topics have very little written about them, or if there is more stuff written, a lot of it is oppressive crud. Even a small amount of poetry, when dropped into a very shallow pool of literature, can make a big splash. If you want your poetry to matter, this is an excellent place to aim. The earliest portrayals of something tend to become canon later just to fill that part of the timeline, and the same is true of the first positive or nuanced portrayals if everyone else has been writing bad stereotypes. If you understand the progression of identity literature, you can spot new movements early on and skip to writing the good stuff before most other people have figured out what is going on there.

You can use the poetry you write, read, or buy to support your favorite causes or creators. See "Crowdfunding Functions," "How to Support Your Favorite Author," "Non-cash Support Methods for Crowdfunding," and "The Power of Patronage" for more details on making this work.

You can teach people about something that is often overlooked by using poetry to increase its impact. An excellent example is the video "To This Day" which features a poem about bullying. This is also a good example of how poetry blends well with other media, since the video uses animated illustration. Plenty of people don't think they like poetry, but that video has over four million hits.

You can codify a complex idea into a potent semantic package that sticks in people's minds. Have you heard activist chants? Most of those are poems. They are short sassy poems as subtle as a punch in the nose. They use poetic techniques such as driving rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and alliteration to raise power and make a memorable impact. Activist songs are just longer verse with the same goal of raising awareness and compelling change. These poems are transmitted through oral tradition as well as through text -- people hear them at a march, pass them on, modify and update them for new causes. This is the kind of moving-and-shaking poetry that can tilt a whole society, but people rarely recognize it as poetry. It still is. Some examples include:
Civil Rights Chants and Songs
Feminist Chants
Korean Immigration & Racism Chants
Teachers Union Chants

So think about what you want the world to be like. Think about what kind of poetry you want to read and what poets you wish to support. Then write, prompt, shop, and read accordingly. Ignore the people navel-gazing in ivory towers. They are not involved in the kind of poetry that changes the world. The poetry that really matters is out there getting chalked on sidewalks, shouted at riot police, stapled to billboards with cheap paper, and posted to blogs. Go make a difference.