of poets reading their work (on video, CD, DVD, and via the Internet)
make poems more available while also focusing on orality and performative
qualities. Open readings, poetry slams, recitations, and performances, in
venues as diverse as school auditoriums, libraries, clubs, bookstores, parks,
and coffee shops, have encouraged larger groups to participate. In addition,
poetry now appears on the sides of city buses and buildings, over speakers
in elevators, and on signs in public parks. Starting with a particular attempt
to connect poetry to the everyday world, students might evaluate its effec-
tiveness at generating public participation with poetry while also analyzing
how these efforts have influenced the form and theme of poetry. For back-
ground information about such movements and their effect on poetic form,
students can consult Dana Gioia’s Disappearing Ink (2004). Another way to
approach this topic would be to take part in or organize a poetry reading,
slam, recitation, or performance. A report on such activities would include a
discussion of the history of poetry performance and readings and the crite-
ria used to evaluate work or set up a performance/reading. Resources associ-
ated with promoting poetry to the public include the Academy of American
Poets website at <http://poets.org>; NEA and Poetry Foundation’s Poetry
Out Loud website at <http://poetryoutloud.org>; the Poetry Foundation’s
webste at <http://www.poetryfoundation.org>. Students interested particu-
larly in poetry slams might consult Glazner and Poetry Slam, Inc.’s website
<http://www.poetryslam.com>.
- As the United States has become more diverse, so too has its poetry. First
are poets who draw on their international backgrounds. Among these poets
are Aga Shahid Ali, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Meena Alexander. Poems by
these writers frequently treat themes related to exile, migration, and mul-
ticultural or global identity; students might consider examining how these
poets address such themes. Students might also consider how poets call
attention to international events, in particular how events in the Middle
East, India, and the region of Kashmir are played out in the work of Nye,
Alexander, and Ali, respectively. Other global influences emerge through
the efforts of poets to incorporate non-European or non-Western elements
and through translation. The poetry of Robert Bly incorporates Latin sur-
realism while Gary Snyder infuses Zen Buddhism. Both Robert Pinsky and
Jane Hirshfield have translated works from other languages, Pinsky adapt-
ing the terza rima of The Inferno of Dante (1994) for American audiences
and Hirshfield, with Mariko Aratani, translating The Ink Dark Moon: Poems
by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan
(1990). Students could examine these works and poets for traces of “global
influences.”
- Adrienne Rich has noted, “Poetry has the capacity to remind us of some-
thing we are forbidden to see. A forgotten future: a still uncreated site
whose moral architecture is founded not on ownership and dispossession,
the subjection of women, outcast and tribe, but on the continuous redefin-
ing of freedom.” Other contemporary American poets are interested in the
transformative ability of poetry, its potential to shape human perception
Poetry—Debates and Developments 121
