American poetry is dead.  Our nation’s most recent phase of social evolution has unseated print culture in favor of electronic media. The coup has turned into a Reign of Terror, culling out print media that cannot compete with or adapt to the electronic media’s business model.  This has contributed to the decline of newspapers and other forms of print media like books (novels, collections of poetry, magazines, and other media)..  With the introduction of the rejuvenated dotcoms a la Google, the trend extended to television, which is, itself,  struggling to make ends meet amid dwindling ad revenue.
Then the plot thickens as the dotcom business model, thought to have been made solvent by Google’s small print advertising, is once again failing its investors.  The phantom revenue of the dotcoms, always planned on after a company overcomes its competitors, has failed once again.  This is what is responsible for the acquisitions of Myspace by Newscorp, Flickr by Yahoo and Youtube by Google.  The heads of three companies being bought embraced the purchases, knowing that the trouble of making them profitable would be passed onto the parent corporations.
Of course, had demand for poetry or newspapers remained stable, they would not have been so roundly trounced by their electronic competitors.  This is our failing.  Too long has American culture been typified by spoon-fed news doled out by actors masquerading as newsmen.  Too long have we turned our backs on the hard reality of facts, numbers and ambiguity in favor of comfortably predictable plots and pointless action.
While Americans prefer to rely on the five stories recited by news anchors, the daily papers covering a panoply of issues are discarded.  Advertisers are pulled by the ebb and flow of the Nielson rating system and the public education system of the richest nation in the world descends to the second from last among industrialized nations.
The case for poetry is even bleaker.  Poetry requires far more subtlety in its writing and reading.  The focus, attention and mental effort required to appreciate it seems more than our nation can muster.  What few active poets remain are powerless to shake the aura of futility dogging their steps.
But we need the news and poetry.  The investigative reporting done by newspaper reporters provides the flow of information (biased only be the drive to sell papers) upon which our democracy feeds.  The fourth estate, as the press is often referred to in political spheres, is an indispensable check on the interested members of our society, including but limited to economic, political, and religious powers.
It is important, also, to remember that television, radio and internet news providers overwhelmingly rely on print journalists for their information.  Even the Associated Press, the dominant news consortium in the world, often relies on reporters from local papers for many of their stories.
Poetry is an even more basic component of man’s intellectual life.  Its unorthodox use of language and syntax is able to express the irrational side of man, providing a direct current for emotions and sensations that prose cannot capture.
In its raw distillation of human character, poetry is also able to cross boundaries and invigorate the political discourse framed by print journalism.  It expresses the human experience, unburdened by the rationalism suffusing the Western tradition.  In the works of writers like Pablo Neruda, Carolyn Forche, Adrienne Rich, Anna Akhmatova and Wilfred Owen, the human toll of politically expedient decisions is better understood.
Without the fusion of journalism and poetry, something essential to western democracy is banished from human character.  To reclaim all parts of our identity, we must embrace the constituent elements of our society.  With poetry already barred from the public discourse and newspapers making what most insiders feel is an unavoidable decline, how will the people make the decisions vital to democracy?
For those interested in reigniting the democratic and creative processes, the Pauw Wow is always looking for motivated and able writers.  If your looking for a mode of artistic political expression, I suggest attending Mind2Mike, the Political Poetry and Music event that will be held in Roy Irving Theater from 8-10 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1st.
