same time, deals with some difficult topics, such as the way disabled
people are named (and denigrated) as ‘spastic’ or ‘cripple’, and the way
they are vulnerable to sexual exploitation. In this sense the poem also has
a subtle feminist aspect:
Example 8.8
little cripple spastic bent
over so I could slap her soft
butt that would not be appropriate
treatment of such children has
always been to keep them away from society
is changing, just a little
bit different from other girls
are told that a nice boy will come
but she’s not a girl anymore
not a girl
not a cripple
a woman who knows the nice boy
will not come except for
in one kinky moment where she bent
over his knee and he forgave her
spasms and held the little body
before closing the door
between her and society and leaves her
for a woman who is straight.‘Bent’ (Clarke 2002, p. 82)Writing a politically dissident lyric is a complex matter, since dissidence is
as much a matter of form as content, a point raised by Charles Bernstein.
Bernstein has said that what he cares most for is ‘poetry as dissent, includ-
ing formal dissent’ (1992b, p. 2). You may want to combine your politically
dissenting lyric with some of the linguistic experimentation which is the
focus of the second half of this chapter.
The contemporary image, the taboo subject
A very important aspect of creating a postmodern lyric is ensuring that the
imagery is highly contemporary (Exercise 1d). Inexperienced writers often
arrive at imagery which is anachronistic. Instead of having relevance to the
world around them, it mimics imagery to be found in romantic poetry:
a world of fountains and clouds and mirages! In this exercise I am inviting
166 The Writing Experiment