September 7th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog



Depending on what you think of as poetry news, we probably have it. We begin this week with oppressed poets placed in jail, our first link to a story about a high school student who is one of them. We also have poems, poems unearthed, poetry reviews, and a poetry manifesto on the Back Page of News at Eleven. Also in this section, we have poetry being used for political purposes, and another asks whether Sylvia Plath is getting the memorial treatment she deserves--in the UK. Any of these articles, in their own right, for the love of poetry and poets, could be our headliner.

But there is something about a country arresting a high school student, separating her from her family who have no idea how she is and who say she knows nothing about politics, that becomes the epitome of a news week--and a sign of a failing regime. What are we doing to our poets, that a country has to fear what its adolescent poets might do to national security? If a regime needs to arrest a high school poet, then they have already lost their case with the people. If a regime needs to dig in for innuendo to see if someone needs re-education, then they have become stupid and self-righteous--if they ever weren't, that is--and there is no God that will side with them. Arresting poets for what they write is one of the best ways of knowing that a country is socially sick. Syria and Jordan are touching bottom. Not always, but too often, as in the case of our second article, the poet has no idea that what he or she has written flies in the face of someone who commands the police force or the army. Too much may be unconscious anyway, and over the head of even the poet, if that's where musings arise from--which means we are arresting people for being who they are.

Many Poetic Obituaries this week, and some excellent articles and poems in Great Regulars as always.

Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

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