Intersections #52: In Pursuit of Peace / What’s at Stake

In Pursuit of Peace / What’s at Stake

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.”

-MLK Jr.

A poem without anything at stake is hardly a poem at all. Some, especially those who have been in workshops or programs, may well be familiar with talk of high vs. low stakes in poems. We are told not to write so-called “low stakes” poems. What gets confused easily enough is the false comparison of simple (as in minimalist) with attention to minutiae. You can write a fine poem about the veins in a maple leaf. And maybe that poem is not low stakes after all. It depends what else is going on in the poem. If the poem is simply a description of a leaf or a narrative poem about a walk in which the speaker encounters a leaf and then goes on their way—well, that may indeed be low stakes. But suppose the leaf in instead a symbol for something much more serious. Suppose the veins of the leaf make the speaker think about their loved one in the hospital attached to an IV drip. Now the leaf poem isn’t so small after all.

Think of Kay Ryan and Rae Armantrout poems. Think of “Poet’s Work” by Lorine Niedecker.