To Our Readers: We Have Been Listening
“To our readers: we have been listening.”
Constitutes the entirety of POETRY
Magazine’s editorial statement in response to concerns
That a poet they published in their November 2018 issue
Toby Martinez de las Rivas
May be a fascist
Using his work and status
To push and glamorize fascist politics
.
The concision of their response
Against the backdrop
Of Toby Martinez de las Rivas’s 1,894-word statement
Published by POETRY Magazine themselves
Shortly after
Continues
To this day
To flood me with such a ferocity of shame
It is as if I
Myself
Were responsible
If you were unaware
There were concerns
POETRY Magazine published a poet
Who might actively be promulgating a fascist politics
We would have no choice
But to forgive you
The discussion
Clipped and careful
To be kept to Twitter
Was soon buried
And moved beyond
The serious question of whether
Toby Martinez de las Rivas espouses fascist politics
Is beyond the scope(1) of this grievance
It cannot be addressed until we unpack
How the situation was allowed to be framed
The undeniable danger caused by POETRY’s
Editorial response
To concerns within the community
It is possible that the Editors felt they were
Unequipped to speak to such claims
(Though it would be unclear why they would not
Seek those who might then be more equipped
Or else offer to moderate a discussion)
It is possible that the Editors felt there was no basis
To the claims
(Though it is unclear why they would not then
Simply state so)
It is possible that the Editors were not concerned
By the content of the claims
But by their clamor
(A fear that their Institutional power
Would be weakened ––
If we make a statement on this
We will have to answer for every call
To accountability in perpetuity)
It is possible that the Editors feel that
Poetry is not transformative enough
To warrant any sort of response
(A fascist poem is merely a poem
After all––
More decorative throw pillow
Than political possibility)
The reason the editorial board chose to refrain from comment
Is something we can only speculate on
(The eroding factor among
The community of such speculation
Being only one of the deleterious effects
Of silence)
Let us circle back then to something
We can speak to
The charge of propagating
Fascist politics is a serious one
Especially in a time where far-right extremism and violence is on the rise
(Though it should be noted that Martinez de las Rivas’s career appears
To have suffered little
From the accusation
The Paris Review published him in their Winter issue the following month
To little outrage I have discovered
Even among those who shared the issue with Martinez de las Rivas)
The seriousness of the charge is completely undermined by the unseriousness of POETRY Magazine’s response
The seriousness of what a poem can do
What poetry is
Is completely undermined by the unseriousness of POETRY Magazine’s response
As a planet
Not by choice but sheer enormity
Curves the fabric of space around it
By refusing to address the concerns in good faith
They recontextualized the situation as a matter
Of mere disagreement²
Between two parties
The possibility of poetry
As mere craft(3)
And when they chose to publish Martinez de las Rivas’s statement
They legitimized
Without daring to declare it plainly
The assertion that concerns about fascist politics
Is explained by textual misinterpretation(4)
For the journal of the most prestigious poetry institution
In the United States to
Validate that dismissal by refusing to contextualize it
Was a real danger⁵
And a torrential shame
Not because I believe that prestige lends institutions
Moral authority or political sense
But because the ripple effect is greater
And subtler
And because the repercussions are few
The precarity of poets in the United States
Means that it is easier to let things go
Than to potentially alienate yourself
From an institution that could offer you the opportunity
To devote yourself to poetry
Without having to work long and enervating hours at another job
The fear that builds
In the wake
Is paralyzing
The shame of wondering still
If it is worth forgoing a possibility toward
The few vestiges of stability available
Stifling
Still
Of all the speculation we might hold regarding the Editors’ decision
To refrain from response
One seems likeliest
They knew we would after time drop the matter entirely
Poets do not have the resources to spare
Of all the ways the business of poetry warps
Our priorities
That we would allow it to so recklessly
And uncritically engage with the actual real
Threat of fascist politics
Feels among the lowest
Feels
Even after so much time
Present
It is the duty of our community
To reset the conversation
And untether it from the binds left
In the wake of the Editors’ silence
In fact POETRY
Magazine could choose to facilitate that unbinding
They could choose to issue an official explanation
For why they chose not to respond
To the original concerns
By refraining from comment
By stonewalling community
They
Regardless of their intentions
Normalize fascist rhetorical strategies
And embolden white supremacists and fascists
Who are also
Listening
Watching
For what our community will bear
Notes
(1) The original call for concern-––occasioned by Toby Martinez de las Rivas’s nomination for the 2018 Forward Prize––can still be found on Dave Coates’s blog.
(2) The consequences of such a thing can be illustrated by the morbid dialectic of this Twitter exchange.The moderating view––it is a matter of mere misinterpretation––actually softens the view that there is a homosexual conspiracy to undermine heterosexuals: it is mere reaching.
(3) A position easily echoed and used to uncritically place Martinez de las Rivas as de facto victim before a discussion can even take place.
(4) If this argument seems familiar it’s because it is: https://www.vox.com/2016/11/23/13659634/alt-right-trolling
(5) One example of a white supremacist seizing the vacuum of context to propagandize.
