Notes to Poetry

Notes to PoetryLike the samizdat self publications that were circulated in the Eastern Bloc between the 1950s and 1980s, this book tries to retain the values of poetry in a world in which poetry no longer has any accepted role, it would appear, other than creating the illusion of individual freedom within the mirrored cell of identity politics in which art and culture has been imprisoned today. All the poems discussed in this book contain some, many or all of these

Like the samizdat Ôself-publicationsÕ that were circulated in the Eastern Bloc between the 1950s and 1980s, this book tries to retain the values of poetry in a world in which poetry no longer has any accepted role, it would appear, other than creating the illusion of individual freedom within the mirrored cell of identity politics in which art and culture has been imprisoned today. All the poems discussed in this book contain some, many or all of these values, and these Notes to Poetry have no greater goal than to illuminate a space in which they can more clearly be read in the darkness of the present time, when the future of all art is in doubt. These values are not universal, and the readings offered here are restricted to those works in which the author is interested. But what is universal is the contempt in which the values of poetry are held today, and not only because of the threat they represent to our uniform adherence to the principles of biosecurity: surveillance, censorship and unquestioning obedience to the state, all of which have been uncritically adopted by our culture industry under the corporate manufactured blanket of diversity, inclusivity and sustainability. Poetry, whose history is the never-ending struggle between freedom and power that today is experiencing one of its most crushing defeats, is a repository of these values. If we are to survive the digital totalitarianism, state authoritarianism and corporate anarchism of the present, these values must be defended from permanent erasure and kept alive for the future.