Here follows the J2 introduction for readers and word-workers ,
“Jacket2 publishes articles, reviews, interviews, discussions and collaborative responses, archival documents, podcasts, and descriptions of poetry symposia and projects. Not unlike a daily news forum, we will publish content as it is ready. Visit our index for an ongoing and comprehensive list of all J2 content.”
“Because of its Enlightenment associations with notions of genius and taste, poetry often can be read as an aesthetic and private discourse that resides beyond the realm of civil society. But I show how some poets after 1960 use poetry to shape discourse over controversial public topics, such as urban conservation; wars in Vietnam and Iraq; and civil rights. I argue, too, that civil discourse is always complicated by poesies, and that belief and desire are produced, engaged, expanded, or challenged in circulations of public texts, images, and performances.
These performative dimensions of public speech always carry tones, gestures, forms of acting out, contradictions, and self-corrections that contribute to new actions and capacities in others. The quote you have singled out to me suggests that poetry can show engaged citizens how to listen to, or respond to, public issues or actions. “
Imo the practicioners of poetry are already enacting quite interestingly upon the public and shared spaces of the internet, as discussed here at this Harriet Monroe institute doc. from the Centre for social-media.
Poethead is about serious poetry and is mostly dedicated to showing how serious an art-form it is. Mostly I believe that our governments do not understand its importance when it comes to funding and nurturing the literary arts .
Tomorrow, Hannah Weiner will be featured on Poethead in the Saturday Woman Poet section . I will be linking to her The Book of Revelations (J2) , and urging Poetry readers to take the time to explore her work and the work of the J2 site.
The Castle of the Pyrenees
Come to my summer house.
It’s damp floating over the sea,
But you can light a fire in any French Horn.
Eagles bring you there.
by Hannah Weiner
Chris Murray 