Poetry of Witness
What is a poem that bears witness?
A poem that bears witness is a poem that usually stems from a personal experience and has a greater relevance or meaning. More often than not, poems of witness will be some form of social commentary, whether it be about war, history, politics, race, gender, or even popular culture. The most successful poems of witness will not "preach" the author's ideas, but rather implicate a rationale within more identifiable images and narratives.
Example poem and explication:
A Declaration, Not of Independence
BY RALPH SALISBURY for my mother and father Apparently I’m Mom’s immaculately-conceived Irish-American son, because, Social-Security time come, my Cherokee dad could not prove he’d been born. He could pay taxes, though, financing troops, who’d conquered our land, and could go to jail, the time he had to shoot or die, by a Caucasian attacker’s knife. Eluding recreational killers’ calendar’s enforcers, while hunting my family’s food, I thought what the hunted think, so that I ate, not only meat but the days of wild animals fed by the days of seeds, themselves eating earth’s aeons of lives, fed by the sun, rising and falling, as quail, hurtling through sky, fell, from gun-powder, come-- as the First Americans came-- from Asia. Explosions in cannon, I have an English name, a German-Chilean-American wife and could live a white life, but, with this hand, with which I write, I dug, my sixteenth summer, a winter’s supply of yams out of hard, battlefield clay, dug for my father’s mother, who-- abandoned by her husband—raised, alone, a mixed-blood family and raised—her tongue spading air-- ancestors, a winter’s supply or more. |
From the title alone, we can see that Ralph Salisbury is bitter about the subject at hand: multiculturalism in the United States. He criticizes the lack of "independence" in his tongue-in-cheek comments about his father (and therefore himself as well) not being legitimized or recognized in American society. His diction, in context, creates a castigating connotation; he intentionally structures his sentences to create dichotomies that the reader cannot help but agree with. For example, in the line "my Cherokee dad could not prove he'd been born," we cannot deny that the father hadn't been born, and consequently, we adopt a similar feeling of disbelief and disapproval that anyone would deny the legitimacy of a man, solely based on his ethnic background. Salisbury continues by emphasizing that, for all aspects in which racism and stereotypes come into play ("could pay taxes," "could go to jail"), the father is considered a citizen; thus bolstering his claim that America controls people ("Declaration"), but does not allow full freedom of ethnicity, as it often boasts ("Not of Independence"). Salisbury does not explicitly state what he is bearing witness to; instead, he alludes to it in his conceit. He uses metaphors of Native American history throughout to reveal his pride in his culture, although the American people have ripped him and his family of his background. For example, he uses the images of hunting, gun powder (representing the Americans), wild animals, and farming. He juxtaposes these images with images of "white life", revealing his disapproval of the direction in which history turned in his culture. |
CoalMarch 8, 1948
The headline reads, “Royal Belgian Heir Waits for Busarello” A pristine crown, clutched by sooty fingers, longs for black fragments of warmth. He laughed, "There is no better place for coal--or trouble-- than Pittsburg." A man who breathed in the thickest of air coughed in the face of those in power. His voice was that of one thousand pleas, one thousand men, one thousand families, His voice was that of the president of the coal miner's union. He knew his hands held the power to dig below the surface to get what they needed. It was a dirty fight, but someone had to do it. |
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For my first poem of witness, I wanted to bear witness to a part of my family history that has greater significance. My ancestor was the President of the United Mine Workers Union in Pittsburgh, PA for a number of years in the 1940s and 50s. He began working in the coal mines at the age of 12 with his father, and was an active member of the union for 42 years. He was the voice of a huge population of men who worked under terribly unhealthy conditions and then were cheated of pay, benefits, or respect. John Busarello met with many people of privilege and power in order to carry out changes for these men, and was, most of the time, very successful in his efforts.
While reading through newspaper clippings of John Busarello, I thought about how his situation was not necessarily unique to the 40s and 50s. Although the beginning of the poem began with a unique story to my ancestor, the poem expands to have a greater relevance within the second half of the poem, specifically within the last two stanzas. Many of the issues presented in this poem are relevant today: defiance (by some) towards those in power, controversy over salaries and benefits, conflict for natural resources, and the fact that some of the dirtiest jobs are the most necessary for life and happiness.
While reading through newspaper clippings of John Busarello, I thought about how his situation was not necessarily unique to the 40s and 50s. Although the beginning of the poem began with a unique story to my ancestor, the poem expands to have a greater relevance within the second half of the poem, specifically within the last two stanzas. Many of the issues presented in this poem are relevant today: defiance (by some) towards those in power, controversy over salaries and benefits, conflict for natural resources, and the fact that some of the dirtiest jobs are the most necessary for life and happiness.
You Are HereThe iron pointed
toward a destination named "North". This way to destruction, that way to attack. This way to Mecca, that way to home. Centuries of directing destinies of man, now held in pockets, nestled between apps; all of its history-- the lodestone and the magnets, the north stars and the runaways, the lost and the found-- whittled down to binary code. And yet, we are still lost. |
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For this poem of witness, I wanted to bear witness to the significance of compasses in our history. Compasses were invented by the Chinese in the Han Dynasty in approximately the 2nd century AD, and has been used for a variety of reasons since its invention: in military, for feng shui, in sailing, in astronomy, for pilgrimages, and, simply, for directions. Clearly, compasses have accompanied many people throughout history, and arguably have therefore had a significant impact on history itself. It is, therefore, staggering to think how rare that compasses are used today, as a result of technology. Of course, that is the nature of technology, to update and replace old technology, but it is a tragedy nonetheless. I wanted to emphasize this point, which I hope to have done particularly in the fourth stanza.