Should Poets And Politics Mix, Part Two
If you’re interested in part one, click here. While “Professor publishes April 16 poem,” by Liza Roesch for the Collegiate Times, might sound mundane enough, it actually explores the idea…
If you're interested in part one, click here.
While "Professor publishes April 16 poem," by Liza Roesch for the Collegiate Times, might sound mundane enough, it actually explores the idea of whether poetry and politics (and current events, for that matter) should mix.
The article is about Bob Hicok and a poem he published in the September/October issue of American Poetry Review called "So I know." It is a confessional poem from Hicok about his guilt for not doing more to prevent the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech shootings brought about by one of his former students, Seung-Hui Cho.
In it, Hicok addresses why he's written and attempted to publish the poem: "too soon/people will say, so what. This is what I do."
And Hicok definitely has a point.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
