POETS IN THE BUCKET

 IF POETS DON'T CELEBRATE POETS, WHO WILL?

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In the next Pawtucket Arts Festival I would like the poets to project the image of POETRY as a BIG TENT.\
  I would  love  us to put the emphasis on inclusion.

MY FIRST INCLUSION WOULD BE TO DROP THE  LINE BETWEEN ELITE AND POPULAR CULTURE

  After all the Nobel Prize in Lit went to a  singer-song writer;;

BOB  DYLAN.

"I Want You" (Blonde on Blonde, 1966)

The guilty undertaker sighs
The lonesome organ grinder cries
The silver saxophones say I should refuse you
The cracked bells and washed-out horns 
Blow into my face with scorn
But it's not that way, I wasn't born to lose you

That is just one--anyone reading this  above the age of ten  could add a  half dozen more.

 Leonard Cohen's death has caused many of us to look at his  books of published poetry and his great song lyrics.

 “Anthem”

One of Cohen’s most popular verses urges us to accept our shortcomings with this superb metaphor — “Ring the bells that still can ring/Forget your perfect offering/There is a crack in everything/That's how the light gets in.” In interviews, Cohen says he agonizes over his verses, sometimes taking years with one song to perfect his meaning. “Anthem” gives us permission to express ourselves imperfectly. Human imperfection, after all, is what cracks open the self to reveal the soul’s inner workings.

We are surrounded  by poetry in our lives and young people are listening to poems when they listen to  music and their lyrics.
So my SECOND inclusion would be to include  people of all ages.

MY THIRD INCLUSION WOULD BE TO  INCLUDE  NON ENGLISH POEMS,  And since Pawtucket has a large Hispanic population I would begin by featuring poems written in SPANISH  and the experience of Spanish speaking people here

Translation for Mamá What I’ve written for you,

 I have always written in English, my language of silent vowel endings never translated into your language of silent h’s.
 Lo que he escrito para ti, siempre lo he escrito en inglés, en mi lengua llena de vocales mudas nunca traducidas a tu idioma de haches mudas
. I’ve transcribed all your old letters into poems that reconcile your exile from Cuba, but always in English. I’ve given you back the guajiro roads you left behind, stretched them into sentences punctuated with palms, but only in English.

 He transcrito todas tus cartas viejas en poemas que reconcilian tu exilio de Cuba, pero siempre en inglés. Te he devuelto los caminos guajiros que dejastes atrás, transformados en oraciones puntuadas por palmas, pero solamente en inglés.

 I have recreated the pueblecito you had to forget, forced your green mountains up again, grown valleys of sugarcane, stars for you in English.
 He reconstruido el pueblecito que tuvistes que olvidar, he levantado de nuevo tus montañas verdes, cultivado la caña, las estrellas de tus valles, para ti, en inglés. 

In English I have told you how I love you cutting gladiolas, crushing ajo, setting cups of dulce de leche on the counter to cool, or hanging up the laundry at night under our suburban moon.
 In English, En inglés te he dicho cómo te amo cuando cortas gladiolas, machacas ajo, enfrías tacitas de dulce de leche encima del mostrador, o cuando tiendes la ropa de noche bajo nuestra luna en suburbia. En inglés

 I have imagined you surviving by transforming yards of taffeta into dresses you never wear, keeping Papá’s photo hinged in your mirror, and leaving the porch light on, all night long.
 He imaginado como sobrevives transformando yardas de tafetán en vestidos que nunca estrenas, la foto de papá que guardas en el espejo de tu cómoda, la luz del portal que dejas encendida, toda la noche. Te he captado en inglés en la mesa de la cocina esperando que cuele el café, que hierva la leche y que tu vida acostumbre a tu vida. En inglés has aprendido a adorer tus pérdidas igual que yo
. I have captured you in English at the kitchen table waiting for the café to brew, the milk to froth, 6/3/2018 

What a great poem that  enacts the problem of translating in the very poem itself.
How I would love to hear this poem read by a Spanish speaker and an English speaker.

Celebrate other poets who have lived and  written poetry in Rhode Island.
For example--

 Nancy Sullivan who was a prominent RI poet who taught for many years at RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE just died this past year.

We could  bring her work forward in some way.Also contact all of the people who are teaching poetry in local colleges to be part of the Festival and to  promote it with their students.

I think also  that we  should do a bit of research to see the  history of poets in Rhode Island. We always only seem to know Galway and the lovelorn  time Poe spent in Providence,   Surely there were so many more. Let us celebrate them

I throw these Ideas out because I hate the way poetry is often presented as an elite experience whereas we are hearing, remembering and reciting poetry every time we  sing along to our car radio-- must admit I do that daily.  And do not overlook rap music--the lyrics are everything.

I am putting these suggestions  forward  in the spirit of Patti McAlpine's request to me and other poets  for feedback about how to celebrate Galway Kinnell at the Pawtucket Arts Festival in the upcoming September. . All ideas and responses are welcome.