April is National Poetry Month in the United States. We don’t have a national book, or national painting, or national music month, so what does this month tell us about the state of contemporary poetry?
For over a hundred years it’s fair to say that poetry has been struggling for survival among seemingly more popular forms of cultural expression such as music, film, TV, and books. Whilst it is also true to say that nary a poet gets rich writing poems, the medium has survived just as Matthew Arnold predicted it would way back in 1888. In his essay on the effects of ‘corporate bookstores’ on the promulgation of literature, playwright David Kornhaber cites Arnold’s claim in The Study of Poetry “that great literature ‘never will lose supremacy. Currency and supremacy are insured to it, not indeed by the world’s deliberate and conscious choice, but by something far deeper–by the instinct of self-preservation in humanity.’”
Whether or not ‘great literature’ should be considered supreme depends on how you evaluate supremacy, but it does appear to be the case that poetry’s preservation has been largely instinctive, or at any rate certainly not motivated by profit, on the part of teachers who have supported the inclusion of poetry in school curricula; by traditionalists who sustain the view that poetry is a uniquely important medium for communication; and through the actions of predominantly young or middle-aged people who have instigated the burgeoning performance poetry movement. Each of these groups has played a vital part in resuscitating poetry’s dwindling fortunes.
It should come as no surprise that many of the activities proposed for National Poetry Month are aimed at schools. Indeed, according to the Academy of American Poets website April was chosen specifically so that students would be able to participate most fully. In the school setting poetry can be an extremely effective tool to help children evaluate their world. In an article published at Rethinking Schools Online Linda Christensen, a Portland based high school language arts coordinator, uses the example of students writing poetry in response to racially motivated attacks against American Muslims perpetrated since 9/11, to illustrate that “…at this moment in our nation’s history, poetic intimacy seems an especially valuable strategy to invite our students to touch the lives of others – others who may be in urgent need of allies.”
A recent survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on behalf of the Poetry Foundation, found “the vast majority (90 percent) of American readers highly value poetry and believe it enriches the lives of those who read it.” The Poetry Foundation believes these findings show that Americans are ready to “resume their love affair with poetry.” An affair that is urgently in need of a rekindling. UK poet Time Love suggests there are as few as 900 regular buyers of hardback poetry in the United States and 2,500 buyers of paperbacks.
Writing about the state of poetry in Scotland, Robert Davidson reveals a couple of home truths equally applicable to the U.S. He points out that the core group of people who read, and who probably write their own poetry is not enough to sustain the industry. “The scene can be incestuous and jealous,” he says. “There is a circle the writer must break out of if he or she is to engage with a broader … public that has long since lost interest and faith in what is current.”
National Poetry Month could be a move in the right direction with free marketing advice offered to booksellers to help increase sales. Judging by the endorsement of National Poetry Month by major publishers like Scholastic, the long-term strategy for sustainable survival seems to be based on an ability to convert poetry students into customers.
One of the oddest thing about poetry is its prevailing reputation as something that can only be appreciated by an educated elite – the ‘great literature’ for the ‘great and the good.’ Many important poets such as Langston Hughes have seen it as their mission to repatriate poetry with the public in general. And one of the most remarkable achievements in this respect has been the burgeoning performance poetry movement whose stars, both local and international, more often than not hail from positions of social under-privilege.
Poetry is free. It should be the medium of the people. If National Poetry Month can highlight its links with the common people, then the need for a month dedicated to reminding everyone of poetic virtues could become obsolete.
