Why reading and writing poems shouldn’t be considered a luxury in troubling times

• Poetry by Wordsworth, Yeats and the only woman poet on our school curriculum, Emily Dickinson, became my sustenance.
• In my teens, I was deeply affected by the plight of Ann Lovett.
• My most recent collection, Conditional Perfect (2019), offers a broader emotional range, including anger about many forms of oppression.
• I recognise that poetry can indeed be “the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness”, as the author Alice Walker once stated.

Poetry for social change

• In a world teeming with injustice, it is more urgent than ever to read (and write) poetry that engages with social realities and inequities.
• Poetry, as Audre Lorde memorably stated, “is a vital necessity of our existence.
• In our social media-driven era, where it often feels as if nuance is in jeopardy, it is timely to think about how poetry can embrace the political while not succumbing to the lure of rhetoric.
• During the Arab Spring in 2010, Abu Al-Qasim Al-Shabi’s poem The Will to Life captured the emotions of Tunisian protesters in their struggle for democracy and change.

Writing political poetry

• What are the skills writers need to enable them to speak out, while avoiding the didactic and over-simplistic meaning?
• These are some of the questions my colleague, poet Eoin Devereux, and I are discussing today with special guest poet and renowned activist Sarah Clancy, in a unique online event for this year’s Poetry Day Ireland.
• To quote American poet Joy Harjo:
  Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too.

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Emily Cullen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.