Puzzling, isn’t it—how prissy pricks seem to predominate the pukey political prognostications lately? Which begs
the question—just how pukey are these
petty proletariat pushy prowling politicians?
As well as perhaps—without sounding too presumptuous—what perchance, one might ponder, is the puke level of the esteemed personages of this lovely little creative coffee-klatch schmooze-pit process called debates and the exciting election trail? We,
the aforementioned participants of
the Titanic—we the precious provincial couch-potato passengers of this little ship of fools—we who work daily, pay the bills, desperately spawning and clogging the polls with high hopes, unfailing flatulence, snarky puke and smarmy quackery? Are we not
*This poem is a nearly line-for-line update of Allen Ginsberg's America; therefore, the webmaster hesitates to claim this derivative poem as her own.
Is this considered a found poem? A response poem? A springboard poem?
Perhaps "America Inc" offers a bit of each aspect.
The webmaster did not just "find" Ginsberg's "America"; she knew of it and purposely sought it out but was not intimate with the text and did not know if it would work as a mirror poem to "America Inc." However, the title was right.
"America Inc" is not a direct response to "America." The webmaster does not pretend to carry on a conversation with Allen Ginsberg the poet, nor does she question Ginsberg's original intent and obvious frustration with 1956 America. One minor aspect of "America Inc" simply offers an indirect conversation between the 1956 and 2008 Americas.
The webmaster has primarily set out to rail against the Corporate America of 2008, which has landed our country in this current financial morass. So in that sense, Ginsberg's "America" has acted as a springboard text for "America Inc."
In "Writing Good Bad Poetry" (Poets & Writers, November/December 2008), poet Mike Chasar makes a good case for writing the kind of "quick" poetry that is unapologetically topical and does not set out to stand the test of time (39). As an example, Chasar notes his own "good bad" poem "Sonnet for the Aftermath," based on a 2006 tornado that tore through Iowa City, destroying several local businesses, homes, and a university sorority house. As a newly hired "deadline poet" for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the author was given two hours to create a poem for the next edition.
The author, apparently somewhat ambivalent about the overall quality of his "good bad" deadline poem, says,
I understand more clearly--given the passing of time and the more critical distance--the nature of deadline poetry's badness and, at the same time, what good it might do for the op-ed page (41).
This kind of journalistic poem seems to have its place in the popular culture, an unabashed non-cerebral poem that appeals to the daily readers of the local newspaper, some who would enjoy and appreciate the kind of poems often published in "coffee table" poetry anthologies that literary types might would refer to as vanity publications.
The webmaster's poem is not great, nor is it original, for without "America," "America Inc" would not exist in this form, which obviously reflects Allen Ginsberg's loose stanzaic style, non-standard grammar, and inconsistent punctuation.
America, Inc is a blog of journalistic poems, short stories, and creative non-fiction having to do with the less savory aspects of current day America: corporate, political, and popular culture.
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Characteristics of journalistic creative work:
Must be current.
Must be a first draft, a quick response to a current event.
Must be accessible on a first reading.
Must be targeted to a general audience.
If you would like to contribute to this blog, please contact the webmaster for more details.