The Truth of Poetry
Poetry occupies a space that is inaccessible to the mundane world. It can be felt, and thus known within the perceptual processes of those who cannot write it, but it cannot be entered, altered or subverted. Such activities can be pretended, as they now are at the periphery of what remains of the cultural sphere - in the bought and sold universities, for instance, and in various forms of media and performance venue - but these essays and attempts do not compromise poetry, and nor can they. Poetry proves the truth it proclaims, for it is itself that truth.
Aesthetic forms, and the languages they are made of, can be defaced and broken, but they, connecting the present to the absolute, regenerate. And they do this regardless of what degenerates around them. Poetry enters, and it alters those who write it and who read it, but that is a one way process.
How we respond to poetry is not a conscious choice. That which is essential - the eternity we carry within ourselves - this responds, as it must, regardless of what we wish, intend or profess. Poetry offers everyone, even the most propagandised and thus lost, a way out of the hell that a failing culture creates. Working within the collective, poetry initiates renewal.
Andrew Jordan's poetry is published by Shearsman Books.
Details of these, and of other publications, can be found here.
Featured poem
The
Kill
Published in Wild Court, March 2021
Nonism is not an ism. No claim can be made for nonism because it is what other things are not. In terms of geography, nonism is not a place.
To better understand the inverse dynamics of nonism, interested parties are advised to engage with the Substack publication Loot & Lyre. Here one finds not only poetry and poetics, but also an examination of our current context.
Loot & Lyre explores how excessive credit creation affects the human organism.
Those interested in the new poetics and the future of poetry are advised to read Poetry in a Time of Collapse.
Those defrauded by the 'Higher Education' sector - and if you are a survivor of a university writing course I am addressing you directly now - may find comfort in my witty and not overly long article Lychgate.
Let the long march out of unreality begin now.
