June 2020 – Page 2 – Planet of the Blind

If you don’t admire other people’s love you probably have no love yourself. Cis white men are prone to this but so are black men and Asian men—and now, as we’re seeing all too clearly, so are women—J.K. Rowling and the inflorescent and rededicated Phyllis Schlafly for instance, or Candace Owens. Without love all you have is steroidal rhetoric. People who live without true love for others are very loud. And let’s face it, queer people can be mean as anyone and disabled peeps—don’t even get me started. “What is love,” said Pilate, washing his hands. Love of others is an inconvenience. It’s much easier to step on people. These were my thoughts when Donald Trump gassed innocent protestors so he could hold a bible upside down outside St. John’s Church in Washington, DC. Love is inconvenient.

So is the language of peace. Two days ago I saw an interview with a black woman in Minneapolis who’s hair salon was burned to the ground during the first wave of rioting following the murder of George Floyd. She has nothing now. No insurance. No health care. No money. No prospects.

I’ve been told calling for “peaceful” protests is white privilege. I don’t buy it. I’ll never buy it. Never.

I do not underestimate centuries of oppression and rage.

Calling for peace is not convenient. Its a declaration of work.

If you need a doctor you don’t want to go to a poet unless she or he has a medical degree. And yet it amazes me how many creative writers believe that poetry heals people. My contention has always been that poetry won’t hurt you overmuch and it can turn you from depression toward fascinations. But it won’t cure depression and it won’t make you whole. Moreover, some of the most vicious and dishonest academic creative writers are the loudest purveyors of the poetry will heal you movement. This is MFA as snake oil. AWP as therapeutic massage.

The flip side of this is the Robert Bly school of thought: you must live alone and suffer like St. John of the Cross in order to be an artist. This is also bullshit. Eschewing happiness won’t make you creative. The very idea is like putting on a scourge, stuffing stones in your shoes. Bly dined out on this idea for years. Picture the average poetry audience: half believing poetry would cure their hangnails; the other half believing they needed more hangnails.

The poetry will heal you school thinks that the body is a thing to be overcome. It views the head as a lifeboat from disablement. Poetry is supposed to fix you up, and damn, here comes one of those crippled poets to mess it all up!