introduction to my prose-poems

7/30/2019 Introduction to My Prose-Poems

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PROSE-POEMS IN PROSE FORM

Most of my prose poems when first written on the page possess a form resembling a

poem, but I couldand I sometimes dowrite the poem out into a form that

resembles prose more than poetry. John Keats and Emily Dickinson among others

used letters to transmit poetry or, to put this idea another way, they formulated lettersas poetry in order to exploit the poetic and the epistolary so that they inflect, enrich,

even become one another. The blending of genres in various ways and for a wide

range of purposes results in an even wider range of effects and this has become a

popular sport in recent decades. I have come to see some of my own letters in a

collection now spanning 50 years as a blend of literary genres. Indeed poetry and

prose have become somewhat indecipherable in my mind's eye. I have come to see

poetry itself as natural, as the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda puts it: Poetry arrived in

search of me. I don't know, I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river. 1

My poetry is a blending of autobiographical elements, echoes of the literature of the

social sciences and humanities and a steady stream of references to and influencesfrom the Bahai writings, history and teachings. This evening I was reading about the

English poet George Byron(1788-1824). I was particularly struck by the fact that all

of Byron's poetry is a blending of autobiographical elements and echoes of the

literature he had absorbed over the years. And so I felt a certain affinity to Byron as I

read for this reason.

His poem Don Juan is considered the most autobiographical of Byrons works.

Almost all ofDon Juan is real life either Byrons or the lives of those whom he knew.

Byron started writing Don Juan on July 3rd 1818, eight months after the birth of

Bahaullah. He continued working on the poem in Italy and on his death in 1824 the

poem remained unfinished. Don Juan was a, perhaps the, poem that the working

class took to heart in the mid-19th century, so Friedrich Engles informed us in 1844.

This poem reached the urban and rural poor and, for many, it was all they read besides

the Bible. It is very likely that most of these readers did not read any of Byron's other

works. As early as 1819 the work was regarded by the bourgeoisie as filthy and

impious, although it was not fully published until 1901. Byron was regarded by Eliot

as having contributed nothing and by Goethe as the greatest genius of his century.2

I came across an online seminar organized by the National Library of Australia

entitled Private Lives Revealed: Letters, Diaries, History3 and was particularly

struck with an article by a Peter Read: Private Papers and a Sense of Place. Thearticle was an analysis of the verse of the nineteenth century English poet John Clare.

Peter Read saw Clares verse as an interesting example of what he called private

papers. Clare's poetry was so eclectic, his language so personal and his personal

involvement so touching, that Read thought Clares poetry was much more akin to a

collection of private papers that we might find in a library than to the poetry of a poet.

1Pablo Neruda in Don McKays Baler Twine: thoughts on ravens, home and naturepoetry, in Studies in Canadian Literature, Volume 18.1, 1993.2 Galit Avitan, Publication Histories: Byrons Don Juan, Ashes, Sparks and

Hypertext, 2000.

3 Internet Site, National Library of Australia, 2006.


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However akin to private papers Clares poetry was, Read still thought Clare could

have become one of the best-known poets of the nineteenth century. In discussing

why Clare did not become such a poet, Read quotes the cultural historian John

Barrells views on Clare: insofar as Clare was successful in expressing his own sense

of place, he was writing himself out of the main stream of European literature."

Accomplished poets and novelists are fully aware of the need for their readers to be

able to generalise from the emotions which they as writers present about a particular

place, event or person. The world view and life experiences of writers needs to find

resonance with readers, if their writing is to be successful. Private papers often reveal

such private emotions. Private emotions often reveal intense, ungeneralised concerns

for particularities which hardly ever surface amongst the published, fictionalized

and/or poetic works of professional writers.

I trust my own private papers, the private papers of a man who was a teacher of

poetry, of literature and the humanities and social sciences for 35 years, reveal a

person who was a reasonably competent generalist, a man who had to teach in manyfields, many subjects. Private papers can tell only so much about a man, though. As I

see it such teachers of the arts, and I was one, are advised to approach their disciplines

scientifically, that is, in systematically and rational ways. Whatever help they are to

civilization and to the acquisition of virtue, theirs or others, will be due to what

religious ethic or ethos they acquire or uphold. Their field of study is not the

engagement in a ministry. It is not the business of the humanities or social sciences to

save society or individual souls, no more than it is their business to bring revenue to a

state or a university. What then do they do? They dont do anything, if by do is

meant bring about effects in the world. And if they dont bring about effects in the

world they cannot be justified except in relation to the pleasure they give to those who

enjoy them.4

Stanley Fish comes close here to being right about the value of thehumanities. They do nothing and certainly cannot save us.Despite the proliferation of applied ethics courses in westernuniversities, they are unable to make either their students or theirteachers more moral human beings. In other words, after twenty-five years in this profession, David Roochnik has come to the sameconclusion that Fish has in his forty-five: members of literature andphilosophy departments are hardly among the most generous,

patient, good-hearted and honest people on earth. And I wouldagree after 35. Nonetheless, the humanities are not useless.Precisely in being and celebrating their own lack of instrumentality,in defiantly proclaiming their own auto-telic nature, they serve apurpose: exhibiting a paradigm to a community that is preoccupiedwith more practical concerns. Doing so hardly leads to immediateor specific benefits. Reading Shakespeare wont solve globalwarming. But without the humanities, without the pursuit of what

4 Stanley Fish, Will the Humanities Save Us? Opinionator: Exclusive OnlineCommentary from The Times, 6 January 2008.


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Aristotle called theoretical knowledge, the city would be composedonly of citizens who are constantly in pursuit of goods whoseattainment leads only to further pursuit of more of the same.Aristotles justification of theoretical knowledge, or philosophy, or byextension the humanities, is at best thin. Still, he identifies the

peculiar civic value of a philosopher. Even if she wields no appliedscience and has an audience too small to become politicallypowerful, she nonethelessdisplays to her fellow citizens afundamental human possibility: namely, that one can engage in anactivity that is valuable in and of itself. This is a possibility worthtaking seriouslyand even funding.5

If those who are teachers are Bahais, as I was for 35 years, then they can sift their

disciplines through the lens of their religious, their Bahai, values and beliefs.

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5 David Roochnik, The Useful Uselessness of the Humanities, Expositions, Vol. 2No.1, 2008.

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