Political poetry is back. And Matthew Zapruder and Joshua Beckman’s State of the Union: 50 Political Poems (Wave Books) is proof positive. Like Homer and the lyricists of old, the diverse group of poets here retell history with their own rhetorical flare. Although some poems in the collection take a somewhat direct political stance (Matthew Rohrer’s moral scorching of Dick Cheney’s environmental policies, for one), more provide a subtle discourse, focusing on a predominant characteristic or quality of our poltical environment. The collection gets the tone right too, a mix of irony, wry wit and tragedy that will be familiar to anyone who has been conscious through these past eight years.
The collection features an extremely equivocal selection of poems; the Seattle-based Wave clan read thousands of open submissions to assemble this group, coming from old hands (John Ashbery, James Tate, Michael Palmer) to a few, like Mathias Svalina Travis Nichols, who have yet to publish a book. Tao Lin, the internet’s poetry celebrity, provides a uniquely digital voice (poems about blogging, so meta).
At the very least, State of the Union is a reprieve from the media’s bump and grind, surrounding the electoral process. Lest we forget, political writing isn’t limited to flashy, rash opinion and dusty headline. And though Barack’s face may look like poetry to many Americans, we’re not out of the woods yet. Buy this book, and get some distance.
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