Excerpt from “A case for poetry as a collective practice”
Photo Credits: Photograph from Camp Unfold, 2024
Excerpt from “A case for poetry as a collective practice”
Photo Credits: Photograph from Camp Unfold, 2024
"Scaffolding: Once you have written, who does your life’s work live next to?
When we read poems to one another, we are engaging in the act of witnessing. Whether we agree, disagree, neither, both, we are inevitably finding ourselves in the worlds of others - asking is this me, could it be, what if I found myself here, what if someone felt this toward me, what if this could never be me? In every iteration of the question, in the engagement, the realization that there can be witnessing even when there isn’t implicit empathy or complete alignment.
Choman Hardi’s Poetry Manifesto ends with the words, “Ultimately we try to do our best as poets and citizens who have a responsibility towards others. We will not be bystanders. We will not be silent. We will expose the injustice inherent in the status quo and challenge the powerful. We will sing. We will shout. We will write good poetry. We will not die before telling the truth.”
In the midst of me writing this essay, my dear friend & favourite contemporary poet, T. De Los Reyes said “a room full of poets is the safest place for feelings”. And to that I say yes."