The Trouble with Legislating Poetry

In the early 1800's Percy Bysshe Shelley argued that "Poets and philosphers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." The "unacknowledged" part was driven home at Monday's meeting of the Nassau County Legislators where 6 of 7 county lawmakers voted against the appointment of Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. as Nassau County's first poet laureate, saying some of the poets' writings were offensive to our troops.



In disbelief I read the article in Newsday. Then I watched the video at Newsday.com/LI. Then I checked some email from my poetry friends...we had been tracking this event since the Nassau County Legislature had voted last year to create this position, a ceremonial post, to be held by an artist residing in Nassau County who would commit to promoting poetry in the region. He would be required to give two public readings each year, visit schools and libraries, and foster appreciation for the art of poetry, and receive no stipend. I even found an invitation to the event -- poor, unknowing poets thinking it was a done deal. Little did they realize that there were no laurels for a crowning that day. I think I hear some of them in the background of Wheat's video cackling their disappontment, what to do with the banner.

Hold on to it, girls. In an excellent essay in The Guardian last fall, Adrienne Rich spoke of the importance of poetry as a different way of seeing, as a reinvention of vision, as a freedom to express our existence in this world. Poets are the defenders of this freedom, this democracy. Poets protect our freedoms in ways that legislators never will. And they'll do it without a stipend, if you'll let them.