Review Notation: A Definitive Pan...

Can Poetry Matter?
Essays on Poetry and American Culture

by Dana Gioia
Published by Graywolf Press

	It is difficult to begin reviewing what seems awry in this book, but the short version is: everything. Where to begin trying to express to our readers exactly how things go wrong in Gioia's efforts is only a slightly more challenging process. Gioia seems to snake his way through so many tilted and labyrinthine clichés, reviewing this work lends that treasured sensibility of finding oneself at a short seminar table, amidst a group of frenetic graduate students and their pedantic professor, passionately feigning interest in a text that will never have any resonance or relevance beyond the classroom. Firstly, there is the title of the book: while the author seemingly implores the reader to find value in "American poetry," this oft-repeated phrase speaks only to poets of United States origin, most of whom are male, and all of whom are White. A better title, we think, would be: Can the Over-Anthologized Poetry of U.S. Dead White Men and Their Occasional Female Sidekicks Continue to Matter? "America" is still a continent, dear readers, but don't look for analyses of Mexican, Canadian, indigenous, or even the amazing new forms of contemporary poetry, in Gioia's book. Instead, like the quote above indicates, be prepared for a bravely rehearsed diatribe on the author's love of following the threads of biography to knit new information on "formalism," irrespect of the larger context in which contemporary, even modern or post-modern, poetry is currently read and published. Other assumptions Gioia brings to the page are encoded in remarks about "serious music" and such, as in the quote above. Clearly, what we have here is yet another critic who has found a way to readily distinguish between the "serious" and ... dare we say... "naive" arts. Those of us who have backgrounds in art history will feel of twinge of repulsion at this distinction, just as we do when we are faced with terms like "high art." And this dichotomy, we assume, is what the author intends by his use of the phrase "culture." Gioia's bias is clear. And we all have our biases. Having said that, we simply wouldn't recommend this book for any classroom working to teach multiculturalism, as there are so many better volumes for that purpose available. Aside from the general context in which Gioia initiates his exploration, then, there is the matter of his prosaic ministrations — a writing style that is wooden and set down in uncommonly rectangular planks, unsmoothed and unworthy of the poetry he clumsily describes, rather than truly analyzes. This appears to be due to the fact that the author's thinking, in general, is so intently limited as to even confine what he calls "nonspecialist readers" to a category all their own. By contrast, we invite our "nonspecialist readers," teachers, and students to pick up a copy of Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe (NY: Henry Holt, 1994), edited and with introductions by Miguel Algarín and Bob Holman. For his part, Algarín places poetry in a broad shaft of light we at STANDARDS also understand to be a central locus: Even as the eye scans the lines of a poem, poetry is in flux in the United States. From Baja California to Seattle to Detroit, from the dance clubs with the rap lyrics booming to the schools where Gil Scott-Heron plays, to the churches where poetry series thrive to community centers with poets-in-residence and coffeehouses throughout the whole of the nation, the spoken word is on fire. Presidents invite poets to their inaugural platform, and we are now finally paying attention to the need most nations in the world have for a poet laureate: a person who puts into verse the national feelings. Poetry is not finding its way, it has found its way, back into everyday life. It is not only meaningful, it is also fun. In New York Newsday, Patricia Volk has said of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, "If you've wondered what effect MTV, the quickness of the city, and life being a vital particle away from death have to do with poetry, you'll find out here. The Nuyorican is New York's arena for the spoken word, the poetic counterpart to the second floor of the Whitney Biennial. It's not a floating head lectern. It's about getting people excited, about what you say and how you say it. The word is so good, it reminds you that no matter how bizarre life gets, you need poetry." Would that someone like Patricia Volk had written the book we're reviewing here. In the end, if all we had to go on was Gioia's "floating head lectern," the answer to the explicit question in his book's title would be: No, poetry does not matter. Fortunately for all of us, there are other venues. Keep investigating, dear readers. Look at Fanny Howe, in this issue of STANDARDS. Look in our earlier issues for works by Audre Lorde and Essex Hemphill. Yes, we need poetry, no matter what.