Is a beautiful poem evocative ethnography? Impregnated with descriptions and aesthetics- but at its core a representation of culture? Does it it stir the affectations- Stilvan Tomkins?
Is a beautiful poem, beautiful due to its politically? It’s ontologies and epistemologies made digestible for public consumption? Is it accessible? Does it speak with for and by the marginalized and oppressed? Post colonial, anti racist, theological….
Does it present a new paradigm, methodology, theory or theology? Is a beautiful poem a map of actors and networks like Bruno Latour might say? Or is the poem an agent in itself?
Alan Merriam, Bruno Latour, Silvan Tomkins, Mary Oliver….. remain companions in my head.
I’ve spent almost four years studying the humanities and culture. Yet, my poems are still not beautiful enough. Is it because they lack agency, aesthetics, politically? Is it because they are too close to my own personality, ideology, and representative of excess reflexivity? Have I not managed the jargon, the frameworks, or the craft appropriately? I still manage to write poems that are heard by so very few. Do my poems lack power because of my unimpressive positionality?
The Silent Singer 