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The original news reporter was a poet. The ancient poets were the transmitters of news, culture and information long before written text. Sure, there were the just the fact-tellers but it was easier to remember and keep an audience if you had a bit of style in your narration.
Poets as reporters and social analysts use the power of the lyrical message. It doesn’t matter if it is oral, written or performance based poetry. The structure and the skill of delivery keep the art form alive and fulfill an important function; we are not alone.
Poets need to tell others what is happening, provide perspective, analysis and context to events. There is almost no subject that you can think of that doesn’t have some form of poetry attached to it.
Here, I Stand
Let me give you an historical example; in 1882 the United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act. Chinese immigrants arriving in the U.S. were held in barracks as long as two years before they could enter the country or be expelled back to the country of origin.
Poetic Waves is a multimedia/flash animation about this specific aspect of the Chinese immigrant experience. Immigrants that were being held at Angel Island in San Francisco Bay between 1904 and 1940 needed a way to communicate. On the website, the poetry is in Chinese and English text with audio narration as well.
Some of the immigrants carved poetry into the walls of barracks to express thoughts on living conditions, feelings and expectations about their journey to their new home.
In modern times poems such as Jim Keenan’s "Back Then," A Poem About Immigration, Multiculturalism and Deteriorating American Values links social programs, immigration and multiculturalism as the reason for a declining America.
At La Bloga the perspective is from a Latina/Latino focus on history, immigration, connection to the land and declarations of humanity. Right now the focus is on the State of Arizona’s SB1070.
There is a tremendous amount of poetry content at this blog but not easily linkable. Use the search function for "On-Line Floricanto, Poets Respond to Arizona Hatred" or search poetry to dive into the various forms of documentation.
Call and Response
You know a poem is powerful when it resonates with your being. That can be a positive or negative response, but it does not leave you neutral. Kate Tempest is a poet and spoken word artist from the United Kingdom. She has absorbed American and English influences to create this work about the need for responsibility and action.
Environmental Clarion Calls
Juliet Wilson of Crafty Green Poet combines her poems and haiku with her concerns about the environment.
BlogHer Contributing Editor Nordette Adams has a poem on her blog about the event from the perspective of how humans “fix” things:
We like fixing things
like ravaged wetlands,
and chem-soaked rivers,
and polluted groundwater,
like Gulf Coast oil spills,
and polar ice caps melting,
and holes in the ozone layer...
Amy King & Heidi Lynn Staples are the editors of Poets for Living Waters, a response to the contamination of oil into the waters of the Gulf States. You can read poems, view videos of poets and their responses to the disaster or submit your own work.
The Black Flood blog is also displaying poems by poets that are writing about the oil spill from multiple perspectives, such as Charlotte Ash and her poem the The Oilfield Workers Wife.
When the reporter is a poet there is no time or space for poorly crafted sound bites. Each word is labored over and refined, waiting for a willing recipient. I hope you can find the time to check out these and other poetry blogs.
Gena Haskett is a BlogHer CE. Blogs:Out On The Stoop and Create Video Notebook
