Does poetry matter in the face of violence or suffering? Can words arranged on a page or spoken alter the facts of war or terror, racism, poverty?<\/p>\n
W. H. Auden, famously, said, \u201cpoetry makes nothing happen.\u201d\u00a0 And yet he wrote those words in a poem, one that honors fellow poet W. B. Yeats. He goes on to say of poetry: \u201cit survives, \/ A way of happening, a mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few would say<\/a>\u00a0that the value of poetry inheres in making something happen in the world.\u00a0 As Auden said elsewhere,\u00a0\u201cIf the criterion of art were its power to incite action, Goebbels would be one of the greatest artists of all time.\u201d\u00a0 And yet, poetry surely does\u00a0something<\/em>. It can make us see and feel in ways we otherwise wouldn\u2019t; it makes vivid what we might otherwise ignore.<\/p>\n This week I want to offer three poems that I believe speak to the power of poetry to startle and reveal. Perhaps they also speak to our renewed need for poetry in a world of\u00a0 too much despair.\u00a0 Each of the three went \u201cviral,\u201d in response, respectively, to the refugee crisis, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Pulse nightclub shooting. Volleyed around the globe, they survive; they are a way of happening.\u00a0 They are a mouth that has opened.<\/p>\n Thank you to Fr. Staudenmaier for inviting me to share them.<\/p>\n _________________________________<\/p>\n The first time I heard \u201cHome\u201d was the same day I saw the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year old Syrian refugee whose body washed up on a Turkish beach.\u00a0 It was almost as if Warsan Shire\u2019s words were the soundtrack to an image at once peaceful and horrifying.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t fully comprehend the poem\u2019s power until I heard it read aloud by Canadian actress Yanna McIntosh; you can do so\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0by clicking on the link to \u201cListen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHome\u201d by\u00a0Warsan\u00a0Shire\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n no one leaves home unless you only run for the border your neighbours running faster no one would leave home unless home it’s not something you ever thought about you have to understand, who would choose to spend days no one would choose to crawl the dirty looks in the street i want to go home, no one leaves home until home ______________________________________<\/p>\n Mary-Catherine Harrison, Ph.D. Does poetry matter in the face of violence or suffering? Can words arranged on a page or spoken alter the facts of war or terror, racism, poverty? W. H. Auden, famously, said, \u201cpoetry makes nothing happen.\u201d\u00a0 And yet he wrote … Continue reading
\nhome is the mouth of a shark.<\/p>\n
\nwhen you see the whole city
\nrunning as well.<\/p>\n
\nthan you, the boy you went to school with
\nwho kissed you dizzy behind
\nthe old tin factory is
\nholding a gun bigger than his body,
\nyou only leave home
\nwhen home won’t let you stay.<\/p>\n
\nchased you, fire under feet,
\nhot blood in your belly.<\/p>\n
\ndoing, and so when you did –
\nyou carried the anthem under your breath,
\nwaiting until the airport toilet
\nto tear up the passport and swallow,
\neach mouthful of paper making it clear that
\nyou would not be going back.<\/p>\n
\nno one puts their children in a boat
\nunless the water is safer than the land.<\/p>\n
\nand nights in the stomach of a truck
\nunless the miles travelled
\nmeant something more than journey.<\/p>\n
\nunder fences,
\nbe beaten until your shadow
\nleaves you,
\nraped, then drowned, forced to
\nthe bottom of
\nthe boat because you are darker, be sold,
\nstarved, shot at the border like a sick animal,
\nbe pitied, lose your name, lose your family,
\nmake a refugee camp a home for a year or two or ten,
\nstripped and searched, find prison everywhere
\nand if you survive
\nand you are greeted on the other side
\nwith
\ngo home blacks, refugees
\ndirty immigrants, asylum seekers
\nsucking our country dry of milk,
\ndark, with their hands out
\nsmell strange, savage –
\nlook what they’ve done to their own countries,
\nwhat will they do to ours?<\/p>\n
\nsofter than a limb torn off,
\nthe indignity of everyday life
\nmore tender than fourteen men who
\nlook like your father, between
\nyour legs, insults easier to swallow
\nthan rubble, than your child’s body
\nin pieces – for now, forget about pride
\nyour survival is more important.<\/p>\n
\nbut home is the mouth of a shark
\nhome is the barrel of the gun
\nand no one would leave home
\nunless home chased you to the shore
\nunless home tells you to
\nleave what you could not behind,
\neven if it was human.<\/p>\n
\nis a damp voice in your ear saying
\nleave, run now, i don’t know what
\ni’ve become.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Associate Professor of English, University of Detroit Mercy
\nCo-Director, University Honors Program
\nExecutive Director,\u00a0Rx for Reading Detroit<\/a>
\nmc.harrison@udmercy.edu<\/a>
\n(313) 993-1081<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"