Anyone interested in a revolutionary poetry society ?

[scarletghoul]

Many of us appreciate poetry and write some too. Not just RevLefters, but revolutionary socialists in general. I think it would be great and fun to start an organisation of us. We could publish books or a magazine or something, in addition to establishing contacts, having discussions, and possibly organising events if it takes off. Some of you will know that I'm very interested in organising the revolution's cultural front; this could be a good starting point for that.

So who would be willing to join or participate ? Who writes revolution-related poetry here ? Would anyone be willing to contribute to an anthology or something ?? bla bla. Reply !

[The Vegan Marxist]

Oh you know I'm down with it! :thumbup1:

[Weezer]

Yes. :thumbup1:

[x359594]

Sounds like a good idea. What do you need to get it started?

[scarletghoul]

Just need a few willing comrades at first. When about 10 people say they're interested I'll make a FaceBook page (better than a revleft group as it would be available to many more people). Then we could chat and decide what our first action should be.

Perhaps publish an anthology when we get enough decent poems together. That could be publicised a little bit, and by then we could make a proper website, maybe a forum. This could attract more people and thus bring more discussion, more poetry for future publications, and open up the possibility of starting other projects.

Do you think that could work ? I know nothing about organising things tbh, it just seems like there's so much literary potential on the left, something should be done with it.

[x359594]

As a matter of fact there's a FaceBook group called The Poetry of Revolution. It's restricted and doesn't have many people contributing original poetry.

[praxis1966]

I haven't written anything in ages, but I'd be willing to contribute assuming I'm so moved to write sometime soon. I'm assuming you write poetry as well, in which case I'm sure you're aware of the fickle nature of inspiration. I mean, I've sat down "with intent" before, and it just makes my stuff inferior. I'm at my best when for whatever reason a line or two pops into my head and I just allow whatever crap comes after to flow freely onto the page. You know, letting the lines have their own life and all that...

Anyway, let me know what's what and I'll see if I can't get my act together for you.

[Kuppo Shakur]

Count me in. I could use some motivation to expand on some of these segments in my notebook.:thumbup1:

[The Vegan Marxist]

Well, as someone who has 4 books published so far on poetry, my 4th one being what I'd consider be revolutionary poetry, I'm glad to see more poets in here as well. This'll definitely be interesting. Let's get a facebook page up & start something.

[Weezer]

Would all the poems be written in English? I suggest anyone interested in this familiar with more than one language should contribute poems of different tongues.

[Kuppo Shakur]

Would all the poems be written in English? I suggest anyone interested in this familiar with more than one language should contribute poems of different tongues.
I think this would make a good theme. A multi-lingual poetry collection would put emphasis on the need for international unity.
Also, we could call it Workers of All Languages, Unite!:D

[scarletghoul]

Uhh maybe but I don't know if most people would want a book made up of mostly languages they can't understand.. :lol: Unless we put English translations aswell. Perhaps publish other language things if we get enough non-english poets involved. We could also maybe start translation projects for great foreign songs/poems..

Anyway seems like a few people are interested so I'll make the FB group n PM you all. dont have time to renovate it or nothing tho as im late for college

[bluerev002]

Chale don't be so ethno-centric amigo. Let the peeps publish in their native tounges and to tell with english universality ; D

You can count me in though.

[Amphictyonis]

THE CAPITALISTS

The authorities
The reality police
The guardians of secret information
Men who spindle sacred words if spoken act as the cosmic super glue bonding broken bones like shattered glass
or highway road kill
Magicians
Logicians
Salesmen
Hiding behind shields of empty logic
Barriers of reason denying entrance of the common struggle
The earth is under this protective dome
The secret is safe with them
The secret that they want us to think other worlds aren't possible and sooner or later we will learn to forget the question.




Mr Magoo Goes Shopping

wondering the halls of the market
as one would the Winchester Mystery Mansion.
confused
sickened
like ingesting a 200 year old rotten mayonnaise sandwich
pointless excretions funneling from every orphus
filling millions of toilets
violently flushing shit filled to the brim into a brown sea of ocean
and I climbed ten hills to get there
at the end of a cracking whip
and unsheathed sword pointed at my chest
insanity The market



(i just wrote those for this thread ;) )

Poetry can be silly if you take it too seriously.

[Thirsty Crow]

Many of us appreciate poetry and write some too. Not just RevLefters, but revolutionary socialists in general. I think it would be great and fun to start an organisation of us. We could publish books or a magazine or something, in addition to establishing contacts, having discussions, and possibly organising events if it takes off. Some of you will know that I'm very interested in organising the revolution's cultural front; this could be a good starting point for that.

So who would be willing to join or participate ? Who writes revolution-related poetry here ? Would anyone be willing to contribute to an anthology or something ?? bla bla. Reply !

I think it's a great idea. I would be very willing to participate in something like that. However, there are two factors which are problematic:

1) for me, poetry is a matter of language, and most of the stuff I scribble are in my mother tongue.

2) this stuff is not overtly revolution-related. Overtly, I emphasize.

[black magick hustla]

sorry to to ruin the party but most political poetry is shit and unless you are fuckin mayakovsky dont attempt it. i mean i guess political poetry is alright if you talk about life and rage in your guts but please dont talk about capitalists, socialists, or workers councils

[Os Cangaceiros]

http://29.media.tumblr.com/m4x1KIU7Lq6nfgfveDxYTZyho1_500.jpg

[Kuppo Shakur]

sorry to to ruin the party but most political poetry is shit and unless you are fuckin mayakovsky dont attempt it. i mean i guess political poetry is alright if you talk about life and rage in your guts but please dont talk about capitalists, socialists, or workers councils
While I pretty much agree, I think we should do it anyway.

[9]

sorry to to ruin the party but most political poetry is shit and unless you are fuckin mayakovsky dont attempt it. i mean i guess political poetry is alright if you talk about life and rage in your guts but please dont talk about capitalists, socialists, or workers councilsHad that exact thought when I read through this thread the other day, but I didn't want to be a buzzkill. Even Mayakovsky couldn't have pulled off writing poetry about workers councils in fucking 2010, even if he was surrounded by a million carbon copies of lily brik. It's just sort of embarrassing to read (not anyone's in particular, but just in general).

[bcbm]

people still write poetry?

[scarletghoul]

seriously if theres poems just about workers countcils i will delete them and kick the authror out of the group . by ';political poetry' i of course mean proper poetryr theat shouws a political awareness and relates to the political sitatuion even if only implicitly.


1) for me, poetry is a matter of language, and most of the stuff I scribble are in my mother tongue.
thats cool we can work iwith nonenglish and it would be great to have you involved


2) this stuff is not overtly revolution-related. Overtly, I emphasize. most reovlutionary poetry is not overtly revolution-related :lol:

of course w e need some studff thats explicityl communost but implicit and more sublte things are just as good
i thinkj billy bragg arived at a good syntehiciss of personal self-pity and polkitcal awearemness for example

[bricolage]

i thinkj billy bragg arived at a good syntehiciss of personal self-pity and polkitcal awearemness for example
See thats the thing Billy Bragg was pretty good when he was just singing about everyday life but when he overly politicised it it just became embarrasing. So...

"At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class"

This kind of shit is good, but when I see him on stage singing 'one love, one heart, lets get together and drop the debt' I just feel sorry.

[scarletghoul]

agreed

However that's not to say some poem about explicitly political things can not be good. I just read this poem by Melvin Newton after the death of George Jackson -

We Called Him the General

The sky is blue,
Today is clear and sunny.
The house that George once
lived in headed for the
grave,
While the Panther spoke
of the spirit.
I saw a man move catllike
across the rooftops,
Glide along the horizons,
Casting no shadow,
only chains into the sea,
using his calloused hands
and broken feet to
smash and kick down
barriers.
The angels say his name
is George Lester Jackson-
El General.

Ok now tell me that's not an amazing and beautiful piece of poetry for a fallen comrade. Poetry can be even explicitly political as long as it deals wth the human dimension

[Thirsty Crow]

agreed

However that's not to say some poem about explicitly political things can not be good.
Did someone say O Captain! My Captain!?
The thing is that "revolutionary poetry" should not, by any means, be propagandistic in character. That's the end of anything poetic, at least in my opinion.

[bluerev002]

Well in reality we have to check our language a bit here. Why should anyone say what revolutionary poetry should/should not be? It can be propaganda inclined if it works. In the end what are to say what revolutionary is and is not? A mother that manages to feed her children in a world where the odds are against her is revolutionary.

[Thirsty Crow]

Well in reality we have to check our language a bit here. Why should anyone say what revolutionary poetry should/should not be? It can be propaganda inclined if it works. In the end what are to say what revolutionary is and is not? A mother that manages to feed her children in a world where the odds are against her is revolutionary.
In my opinion, poetry as a specific form of language use should not be propagandistic since that would deprive it from its qualities that make it a separate, specific sphere in the first place.