Adrian Mitchell

[map_of_the_world]

when Adrian Mitchell died, I was far, far sadder than I would have expected myself to have been

I've only read one of his collections, The Shadow Knows and it left me pretty much unmoved, I walked away from it with a kind of "oh okay then" feeling as if nothing had been lost or gained in the reading of it. To me his words are flat and motionless on the page.

And though I didn't like his poetry much or often I did like him because as Michael Kustow says:

He was a natural pacifist, a playful, deeply serious peacemonger and an instinctive democrat.

I bought The Shadow Knows on a whim bceuse the dedication reads

To all those who work for peace...
And all those who took part
on February 15 2003,
in the greatest demonstration against war
that the world has ever known
so far

And I was there that day, I was a part of that history

But he also said

of course poetry's important to the revolution
why else would they spend so much time in schools
teaching you to hate it?

The teaching of poetry in schools is something that I am frequently passionate and angry about because it is usually done so badly as to be worse than useless (literally worse than useless, it more often than not puts people of poetry rather than tunes them in to it.)

So I loved his sentiment and his politics and how important poetry was to him, and how he thought about poetry in very much the same way I do, that it could be, when utilised properly, a revolutionary, thought changing, life changing, important endeavour.

but also I loved that he was deeply aware that he was part of a history that matters, to me at least, that he knew he was an inheritor of Blake an Shelley (if there are any poets today arguing for unacknowledged legislator status Mitchell was definitely one of the loudest)

Also his work has the push/pull anxiety of influences of Keats and Harrison, who all wanted to be published poets but who didn't want to be part of the establishment and underlying that seems the fear that the establishment wouldn't want them. And that's a whole bundle of issues that I am just beginning to unpack with my own writing.

And having written this post I think now that If I hadn't read his poetry I would have known these things about him so clearly there are things I took from his poetry, they just weren't things that I was expecting.

Comments

[curiouslittleme.livejournal.com]

I don't believe I am familiar with him, but I sympathize with his sentiment about teaching students to hate poetry in school, and likewise I feel that history is something that is so poorly taught and there could be so many ways of making it better, more interesting, multi-faceted.

An entire section of history (say, the Vietnam War) completely taught through poetry. Or a political campaign taught through photography ( I am thinking the Civil Rights Movement in the '60's, would be an excellent source for true thought). True art is often taken out teaching...it is so sad.

[lost-letters.livejournal.com]

An entire section of history (say, the Vietnam War) completely taught through poetry. Or a political campaign taught through photography ( I am thinking the Civil Rights Movement in the '60's, would be an excellent source for true thought). True art is often taken out teaching...it is so sad.

I think this is an awesome idea. I think it would work really well. one of the tings that really frustrated me when I was doing my degree was that a lot of students read in a kind of vacuum and didn't understand the importance of understanding the historical and political context of literature.

there is an amazing poetry anthology called Scanning the Century:Penguin History of the 20th Century in Poetry (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scanning-Century-Penguin-History-Poetry/dp/0670880116/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231285857&sr=8-1) which is just that a history of the 20th century using poetry,

[chibibluebird.livejournal.com]

You've interested me in his work.

I wonder what your experience of being taught poetry in high school was like?
I found most of the poems simplistic, even condescending, especially the more contemporary ones (such as Mark Strand). Of course, I was a teenager and teenagers hate anything that even hints at condescension. (I did like some of the older stuff they chose, such as Eliot, and Stephen Crane).
Also, when we were to write poems for class, I had a teacher mark based on presentation more than writing, so that someone scored higher than me because they had used clipart instead of illustrating their poems by hand as I had! How frustrating.

Now, apparently, there are high school English classes where poetry is not taught at all...

[lost-letters.livejournal.com]

I didn't get taught much poetry in school, maybe about five poems because when I was at school they thought I was stupid so they put me in a low class, I did however read a lot of poetry independently when I was a teenager.

I have to say I really like some of Mark Strands stuff especially the stuff he wrote about his father Number 4 of Elegy for My father (http://www.booklounge.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307262974&view=excerpt) is my favorite.

I do love Eliot, he had a profound and lasting efect on me, though I much prefer Ash wednesday to The Waste land

In the UK (where I am) Poetry has to be taught

[susannahclark.livejournal.com]

"And I was there that day, I was a part of that history"

Yes I was there too... it was some day... a truly moving day... but they refused to listen...

I was left thinking that that huge crowd should have come back the next weekend and occupied the city and closed it down...

because they were never going to listen to just words...

but perhaps sometimes the protest itself leaves a longer legacy...

in human hearts...

but not in the people who died (not in our name) on the basis of false intelligence, and against the democratic will of the people...

but yes, it was a day when you felt you were walking in a sea of humanity, on a current of decency and moral authority...