SARGASSO


 POETRY THAT MATTERS



 Formal poetry is not just a minority taste, it is a
mini-minority indulgence in Caribbean society. There is
no conception of what Pushkin was talking about when he
wrote: "That hour is blessed when we meet a poet. . .
he stands on a basis of equality with the powerful of
the earth and the people bow down before him."

 We inherited a society in which poetry was viewed
with non-comprehension if not with scorn. It was the
most discredited of the arts. As Arnold Bennett said,
in English-speaking countries the word "poetry" disperses
a crowd quicker than a fire-hose. The breach between
formal poetry and ordinary people widened until the
divorce came to be accepted as a sort of law of nature.

 And yet there could never be any doubt about the
deep and abiding importance of poetry. Language is the
most potent force in any society and poetry is the
purest form of language. When language in this purest
form is neglected, soon language itself will be corrupted
and perverted. When societies descend into such a
condition true poets find it hard to exist and, in
despair, go into exile. Soon a vicious circle of corrupted
society and poetry in exile begins to spin. Such a
phenomenon is well known. What is less measurable is
the incidence of internal exile arising from a cultural
indifference to native creativity and contempt
specifically for the art of writing poetry. Who can forget
the devastating judgement of Derek Walcott that the
contempt in which some people hold their own culture
has done proportionally as much destruction to the
individual artist as political imprisonment or purges.

 In this context of poetry endangered a way to get
through to the ordinary person had to be discovered or
rediscovered. Verse in "nation language," folk ballad,
calypso, dub poetry, performance poems have accordingly
emerged and thank God for them all and their growing
influence.