Okay. Looks like the original self-imposed limitation of a paragraph a day is deteriorating. So it goes. Here are some overlapping things from the worlds of punk rock and poet Adrienne Rich that inspire me, listed under individual headers. I know there are no absolutes in the world of punk rock or in the prolific career of Adrienne Rich. Enough babble. Here's the post.
The Personal and the Political
In both these worlds, the personal and the political are forever intermeshed. In punk rock a common anti-apathy rallying cry is the sentiment of "would you still accept it if it was happening to you?" In Adrienne Rich, she express the ways whatever the "it" may have been already happened/does happen/ will happen to her and a world of "you's." There is no way out of being effected by and being in some form part of the "its" that shape our world, so in the words of the Mighty Mighty Bosstone's best selling album, there is a call of "Let's Face It."
Involvement in a Movement
"And you can say we never made a single difference but at least you can't say we didn't try."
While this sentiment may have been able to come from either world, that is me quoting as accurately as I can recall lyrics by the band Minor Threat*. The chance of failure prevents so much from happening. As discussed in yesterday's post, to get something big done it just usually takes a bunch of small steps and you never know what will be found. The work of Adrienne Rich and the punk community, both in art and in the rest of their lives, is a testament to that.
The Artistry of Speaking Truth
Both have been critiqued at times for how extremely direct they can be. However, in both I think that is part of the art's aesthetic - the performance of speaking the truth, the power of the urgency, the precision of saying something startling that also feels like there is no way it cannot be the truth. Just as a great metaphor takes layers and careful revision to achieve, so too can the creation of a strong truth.
Being Okay with Risking Being Grounded in an Era
Are the songs of Black Flag and Adrienne Rich's poems from the 80's as relevant today as they were when they came out? How about the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri? I think the answer to all these questions is no. But also yes. All contain references that did not prove to be as canonical as the artists who made them. Does that limit the art? Sort of, but it also gives it credibility. It creates a work that only could have been created at that time while also speaking to times before and after.
Rock On,
Jason
*I want to say it's them but can't find the lyrics online. Maybe different band? I know I listened to this song heavily right around the summer between 7th and 8th grade where I was already into punk culture and I was starting my journey as a vegetarian. Anyone know it?
Tomorrow: "So you like poetry. Who's your favorite poet?"
The Day After Tomorrow: Something I am always trying to work on.
The Day After the Day after Tomorrow: A ramble and some favorite quotes on style
The Day After That One: Rambling on style some more
so that makes a lot of sense to me, the whole "he chance of failure prevents so much from happening." bit. I keep wanting to write but I know I'm not doing a very good job so it makes me not want to write so I just write like a sentence every 2 hours and then somehow I have a paragraph by the end of the day. So rock on, I feelz you bruh.
ReplyDeleteJust tagged you in a post I wrote when Rich and a charity/activism thing I was involved with collided unexpectedly. Both the poems quoted in the post could just as easily come from the punk crowd as from a place of activism, though that hadn't even occurred to me until you pointed it out. Actually, I started reading her when I found out she caused a ruckus when she was denied admittance into the Woodberry Poetry Room on Harvard campus on grounds of gender in the 70's--riot grrrl cred! :)
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