Ignat Bednarik, “Young Man Reading”
Here’s a poem by America’s current poet laureate about what poetry contributes to our lives. Among other things, it beats shopping malls.
I’m not entirely sure who the poem is addressed to. Maybe Herrera, who has been described as “a performance artist and activist on behalf of migrant and indigenous communities and at-risk youth,” is thinking of gang members, what with his references to razors and leather jackets. Perhaps his audience has been taught that they must aspire to consumer society’s fashion mall, even as they feel themselves continually judged and found wanting.
If so, then Herrera is here to tell them that this life offers them nothing of substance. It is a world of hostile waters, a storm. You think that you are being entertained but instead “your mouth goes sour, you get thirsty, your legs grow cold standing still.”
With poetry, on the other hand, “you can bathe, you can play, you can even join in on the gossip”–which is to say, you are accepted by the community. If you have dreams of freedom, well, poetry provides you with a genuine vision of “a life without boundaries.” Poems may seem as insubstantial as mist, yet you will discover that this mist is “central to your existence.”
Let Me Tell You What a Poem Brings
By Juan Felipe Herrera
for Charles Fishman
Before you go further,
let me tell you what a poem brings,
first, you must know the secret, there is no poem
to speak of, it is a way to attain a life without boundaries,
yes, it is that easy, a poem, imagine me telling you this,
instead of going day by day against the razors, well,
the judgments, all the tick-tock bronze, a leather jacket
sizing you up, the fashion mall, for example, from
the outside you think you are being entertained,
when you enter, things change, you get caught by surprise,
your mouth goes sour, you get thirsty, your legs grow cold
standing still in the middle of a storm, a poem, of course,
is always open for business too, except, as you can see,
it isn’t exactly business that pulls your spirit into
the alarming waters, there you can bathe, you can play,
you can even join in on the gossip—the mist, that is,
the mist becomes central to your existence.