"The White House Has Disinvited the Poets" by Julia Alvarez

The always fascinating Melissa Purdue showed me this poem tonight (I had seen it about a year ago). It was written after the Bush's canceled a poetry reading at the white house because the poets were 'too' political... with Laura mumbling something about poetry and art not being political. Immediately when I heard Laura Bush's dismissal of these poets two artistic statements popped into my head:

"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it."
---Bertolt Brecht

"I'm just looking for one divine hammer … I'll bang it all day long."
---Breeders "Divine Hammer" (1993).

Then still reflecting on about Laura Bush's own willfull ignorance I returned to two major statements by women authors, the first reminding us about the the politics of writing and the second of reading:

"Writing is [or can be] a transgression of boundaries, an exploration of new territory. It involves making public the events of our lives, wriggling free of the constraints of purely private and individual experiences. From a state of modest insignificance we enter a space in which we can take ourselves seriously. As an alternative to accepting everyday events mindlessly, we recall them in writing."
--Frigga Haug "Memory Work as Social Science Writing" 1987

"The disobedient reader as writer is no longer a shadow on the text, but rather makes the text a shadow of her own"
--Nancy Walker "The Disobedient Writer" 1995

Then I came across this poem ... I can't remember where, but I saw it in multiple places and it became a resounding questioning of the Bush's politics in ignoring these poets and their poetry dismissing them and their work as simply political, forgetting that all poetry is political:

"The White House Has Disinvited the Poets" by Julia Alvarez

The White House has disinvited the poets
to a cultural tea in honor of poetry
after the Secret Service got wind of a plot
to fill Mrs. Bush’s ears with anti-war verse.
Were they afraid the poets might persuade
a sensitive girl who always loved to read,
a librarian who stocked the shelves with Poe
and Dickinson? Or was she herself afraid
to be swayed by the cooing doves, and live at odds
with the screaming hawks in her family?

The Latina maids are putting away the cups
and the silver spoons, sad to be missing out
on música they seldom get to hear
in the hallowed halls. . . The valet sighs
as he rolls the carpets up and dusts the blinds.
Damn but a little Langston would be good
in this dreary mausoleum of a place!
Why does the White House have to be so white?
The chef from Baton Rouge is starved for verse
uncensored by Homeland Security.

NO POETRY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE!
Instead the rooms are vacuumed and set up
for closed-door meetings planning an attack
against the ones who always bear the brunt
of silencing: the poor, the powerless,
the ones who serve, those bearing poems, not arms.
So why be afraid of us, Mrs. Bush?
you’re married to a scarier fellow.
We bring you tidings of great joy—
--------------------------------------------------------------

For more poetry by Julia Alvarez

Thanks to Culture Cat for making the poem available...