What Does It Mean to Be a Poet in the Face of Violence?

10/7/2016
What Does It Mean to Be a Poet in the Face of Violence? | Literary Hub
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WHAT DO
IT M AN TO A PO T IN TH
FAC OF VIOL NC ?
ON LACK ODI , M TAPHOR, AND MOURNING
Augu t 30, 2016 Adriana . Ramírez (http://lithu .com/author/adriana-e-ramirez/)
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What role doe poetr pla in re pon e to violence?
Can poet write a out racialized violence without rein cri ing it on other ?
– u an . A. omer -Willett
ere i a od di cu ed on the new toda , I’m ure of it. A lack od —one killed over
hi tor and kin. A od that ore the weight of immigration, coloniali m, and fear.
imple fear. A od , who e life ended ecau e another hand felt the trem le of the other
ide of that fear, of the unknown, of it own hi tor and kin. I n’t that what we all are,
hi tor orn out on kin?
I will tart telling ou where m od i from. I wa orn in Mexico Cit to a half-
Mexican, half Colom ian father, and a Colom ian mother. M famil immigrated to the
United tate , u ine owner with legitimac tamped in our pa port onl to pend
our live cro ing order . I am from the liminal.
I will tart telling ou what thi od i . I took an ance tr DNA te t and found
m elf a melting pot of wrong made od . I looked at the re ult and marveled at the
hi tor pla ed out on m e h: here i the ve percent that come from laver , here i the
thirt percent that come from conqui ta, here i the ixt - ve percent that i colonizer
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thirt percent that come from conqui ta, here i the ixt - ve percent that i colonizer
and en laver.
Which i to a , in m od there are metaphor . I will give ou more odie , more
metaphor.
ere i a o I aw in Pitt urgh. An Afro-Latino o . One who looked enough like me
to take m reath. Killed a gang, tra ullet in a turf war. Or o I wa told. Alwa a
u - od , in erting m elf into thing that onl omewhat involve mine. And here wa
thi o . i od . Two week later, I read on Face ook a out a o in Colom ia, a
friend of a friend, the kind of mile I’d een in the ackground at a part , a tra ullet in
a turf war putting an end to the dance.
I am thinking a out the mile etween Pitt urgh and arranquilla. A out the
interconnected corp e that litter the corridor of m countrie . I am thinking a out the
tem we upport, how I keep acking awa onl to ee that thi pro lem i igger than
the civilian who pa the price. I am thinking a out the odie that look like me. A out
the odie we talk a out. A out the odie we don’t.
Here i a igger picture: A war on drug that pan continent , ut till aﬀect the darker
one , the lack and rown children of povert and temic crime. And the admit to it
now, the admini tration , how the war on drug wa engineered to reak our odie . To
incarcerate, control, manage, and oppre . ecau e melanin i melanin, and one drop i
enough to poi on the well.
I am intere ted in di cu ing and di ecting odie toda . e kind of odie we ee on
the new , a tracted odie . odie no longer living. odie that have een reduced to
collateral in a much larger war.
I’ve een tr ing to unravel what it mean to e a poet in the face of violence. If poetr
ha n’t alwa een, to ome degree, a oftening of the low. A wa to undo the narrative
of the impo i le—the violence of war, the death of children, the lo of lim or oul or
po i ilit —and render it palata le, a di tant memor , like a tree een through a train
window, pa ed hour and land cape ago. http://lithub.com/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-poet-in-the-face-of-violence/
e wa the ong of Roland, eowulf, and3/8
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What Does It Mean to Be a Poet in the Face of Violence? | Literary Hub
window, pa ed hour and land cape ago. e wa the ong of Roland, eowulf, and
Homer tell me of war—nece ar , inevita le, romantic. Like that tree we pa ed o long
ago. omewhere in the horizon, a mall dot, a reminder of the ugl part of our elve
turned eautiful. ere’ a rea on our memorie live in epia. at our memorial are
covered in pla tic ower , immune to the truth, removed from what happened. “Dulce et
decorum e t…” A no ilit to eing remem ered in a poem that almo t ju ti e the
hi tor that made it po i le. What i Tro if not a tor for u to repeat and marvel at? A
love tor . A hero’ tor . A calamit to e repeated. A Trojan woman, Ca andra-ing her
wa into hi tor , eating her che t in front of the odie that once elonged to her and
now onl exi t a metaphor.
I am cared we are lo ing odie in our poetr .
What i a od ? At the memorial, the od i a tatue, a tri ute to unful lled promi e.
Michelangelo’ Pieta, a o in the arm of hi mother. e od removed from the
context that killed it, holding the ecret of it own death. e o i now a metaphor— et
I worr when the poet make thi od too lovel , thi war too eautiful. e poet can
nd the eaut in thi dead o , and in doing o we can tr to make our elve ee the
traged of what once wa living, while at the ame time a tracting that which i too
clo e, too real. o here we are, poet looking at corp e and guring how to turn lood
into an accepta le dirge, an image worth the time it take to tare.
I’m cared a out what happen when we don’t make metaphor. When we don’t peak,
when we leave it to pundit in tead of poet . I worr a out what happen when we forget
one another’ torie . When I don’t point out that # rownpeoplearegettingkilledtoo. at
#Mexican o deadthi morningonthenew that # outhtexa queerkidkilled cop that
#mentalillne get ou killed too. at #our odie ear urden. I’m cared I ound like All
Live Matter, like I’m creaming “ een the tundra latel ?” at a “ ave the World” rall
focu ed on the Amazon. How can I explain that we’re all lo ing thi war together? at
the o in Pitt urgh to me i a chapter from the ame ook a the o in Colom ia, a
other o in Mexico, a me, going to jail for moking a little weed at 19. ere I wa ,
cheming m wa out of # rownprivilige with #education. Which i to a , I am a
metaphor too. Which i to a , I don’t know how to look at odie an more without
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metaphor too. Which i to a , I don’t know how to look at odie an more without
eeing the metaphor in tead of the per on. Which i to a , I don’t know how to reconcile
m own od . Which i to a , I’m not ure I can a an more.
o I’ll tart again telling ou that thi i a od . A od that ear the weight of it
maker . A od that’ tr ing to tell a tor , without making it prett , ut thi i perhap
where poetr fail me, ecau e we want the eaut in language.
o I’ll a k ou in tead to look. To look at the face and torie that once made o , that
once made woman, that once made u per on . And in looking, we can hopefull egin to
under tand tor from reath, idea from one, politic from poem, od from metaphor.
i e a i adapted from a panel at AWP 2016 in Lo Angele .
Adriana Ramirez (http://lithu .com/tag/adriana-ramirez/)
lack odie (http://lithu .com/tag/ lack- odie /)
AWP (http://lithu .com/tag/awp/)
lack Live Matter (http://lithu .com/tag/ lack-live -matter/)
odie (http://lithu .com/tag/ odie /)
hi tor (http://lithu .com/tag/hi tor /)
panel (http://lithu .com/tag/panel /)
poetr (http://lithu .com/tag/poetr /)
politic (http://lithu .com/tag/politic /)
race (http://lithu .com/tag/race/)
raci m (http://lithu .com/tag/raci m/)
violence (http://lithu .com/tag/violence/)
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Adriana . Ramírez (http://lithu .com/author/adriana-e-ramirez/)
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Adriana . Ramírez i a Mexican-Colom ian non ction writer, tor teller, digital
maker, and performance poet a ed in Pitt urgh, where he i writing a ook a out her
death fanta ie , the War on Drug , and the wa we tell torie around violence. he’ the
(http://lit
winner of the 2015 P N/Fu ion merging Writer’ Prize and teache in the ngli h
hub.com/
Department at the Univer it of Pitt urgh.
author/a
driana-eramirez/)
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