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Pls. tell me, what is political poetry?
“Any poem that comments on society is political... one could go as far as to say that even personal relationships are political and thus poems about relationships are political poems... any poem which isn't pastoral or personal is political.”
--RETNAHC
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Willie Perdomo has got to be one of the best young poets at work today.
His seminal collection, Where a Nickel Costs a Dime (Norton, 1996) broke the perfpo world to the academy big time, served notice. (Now Norton publishes Paul McCartney. Go figure.) There’s a CD tipped into Nickel Dime, he reads the whole tome, and while it sounds like a rush job, you still get the idea: this man’s poetry lives, and works. Perdomo carries on the Nuyorican lineage of Jorge Brandon / Piri Thomas / Pinero / Cruz / Algarin / Pietri / Laviera. His poems will be in the next Norton Anthology. They are classico, and he’s class. We caught up with him at a live-taped (!) interview with Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, part of the “Inside the Culture of Resistance: Conversations with Artists” series sponsored by the Artists Network of Refuse and Resist. Perdomo was asked several times about political poetry. Here are some of his responses:
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My mother always told me show me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are. Well, if I read with political poets and am anthologized with political poets then one might call me a politcal poet. But I still never heard anyone say, “Hey, do you know Willie Perdomo?” and answer, “The political poet?”
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Shouting slogans doesn't do it for me; it doesn't move me. I'd rather paint a picture, take you for a walk and show you shit that affects my community through dialogue, scenes, and images.
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I'm teaching poetry to kids, 10-16 years old, at a program in Brooklyn, Make the Road by Walking -- that's political. If you don't give it away you can't keep it. Plus it's an hour or two when these kids are out of trouble and addressing some of the issues that affect them or their community through their writing. We started with a Cheever exercise: write the letter you'd write if you were in a burning building. Who would you write it to? What would you say? Oh, they ran with that one. The big thing here is constancy. These kids have lots of issues, and abandonment is a big one. So I’ve got to show up.
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I have nothing against being explicit. It's a matter of style and character. Don't say one thing with your mouth and act differently, that's all. Two poets whose work I really admire when it comes to kicking political and lyrical are Martin Espada and Suheir Hammad. Perfect examples.
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Basquiat crossed out words just to make sure you read them! I just want you, when you're riding the M101, and you get uptown, not to talk about Those People, not to discount them. “Those people” got the stories, and I try to tell them. It's inside my work. Take a walk with me. Forget the studies, slogans, and stats. Let me show you some political shit.
Willie Perdomo
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