an art of words and sugar
The problem here for Republicans is not policy but delicacy — speaking about culturally sensitive and philosophically complex issues with reflection and prudence.
Charles Krauthammer, “The Way Forward,” Washington Post, November 8, 2012
I had to copy this here. It seems quite blatantly invalid.
Language itself is unreliable, a fluffy icing. The problem is always underneath. The problem is more fundamental, the taste and nutritional value of the cake. Call it policy or integrity or intention or belief.
The quote leads me to reflect on poetry, an art of words and sugar.
Marianne Moore’s essay, “A Burning Desire to be Explicit,” wraps up with a couple of quotes about using language, about writing, even (taking a stretch) about poetry:
- In response to being questioned about choosing a career in law: “I think it was the fascination of using words in a way that would be effective.” (Lord Birkett, a British judge)
- William Faulkner: “And what should it [writing] do? It should help a man endure by lifting up his heart.”
Neither of those aims sounds much better to me than “delicacy.”
As a child I was fascinated by the claimed efficacy of litanies, novenas, acts of contrition.
Now I wonder about poetry’s capability as a corrosive agent, a cleanser of language, a scrubber effective against the sticky cloying plaques.
Even if by doing that it must destroy itself in favor of silence or sensation. Something more true.
*
A poem for poetry:
(from Poems for Last October)
Misinformed
A poetry of collapsible dangers
marked by kindness
artificial scarcity
real limits
how to do it
what to do
outline the edges
of an object
with a sentence
block printing falls
in softness like a
line of dominoes