Once upon a Time in Minneapolis

 Well, the pandemic has left me suffering from ennui, and not reading or writing as much as I should have. It's a beautiful day for a walk in Minneapolis, which I did this morning (we get excited by temperatures approaching 40 degrees Fahrenheit here at this time of year.)

I'm reading Jill Lepore's "These Truths," a one volume history of the United States, and Jeanette Wilkerson's Caste, which has enlightened me about the roadblocks Black Americans face in this country. I've also been making my way through an enlightening collection of Black poetry, interspersed with some essays and interviews, "A Garden of Black Joy." It's edited and includes essays by Keno Evol, who founded Black Table Arts for Black writers here in Minnesota. 

And of course social media keeps a slew of mostly contemporary poetry before my eyes on a daily basis. I'm particularly fond of poetryisnotaluxury's feed on instagram, as well as Forgotten Good Poems on Twitter. 

Well, time to get back to reorganizing home library shelves as I continue to procrastinate on my backlog of reading. 

Orwellian, Autocratic Times Call for Poetry of Resistance

 I read an Audre Lorde poem earlier today, part of the Academy of American Poet's daily poetry feed. It's determination, resistance, and outrage seemed to speak to the moment we are experiencing in what I hope are the waning days of Trumpism in the United States. 

The poem, one of her most famous I believe, is "I Must Be a Menace to My Enemies." Here's the poem on the Academy of American Poets website. 

Enemies does not seem, at first glance, in an emotion reflected in tranquility kind of way, like a suitable muse for poetry. But injustice anytime is an injustice to all, and a call to action must start with a naming and confronting of the enemy. With American democracy under attack, the late Audre Lorde's poem resonates today just as it did during her turbulent lifetime. 

As a white person reading a Black poet's work, I'm forced to confront my own fear in this poem. And I'm also invited to feel for a moment that measure of anger that someone Black feels when their very presence is considered cause for fear and unease. 

With white nationalists storming the US Capitol, incited by a deranged and dangerous president, becoming a menace to our enemies is essential work.