{"id":439,"date":"2020-09-28T10:24:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T08:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=439"},"modified":"2020-09-28T10:24:13","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T08:24:13","slug":"slaves-who-wrestle-to-be-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/?p=439","title":{"rendered":"Slaves Who Wrestle to Be Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When Rami proposed an issue on poetry and urbanisation, there was a pause. Not an entirely apprehensive pause \u2013 but one that betrayed, perhaps, a certain weariness, as though malls and motorways might be too familiar, the alienation and angst of city life too well trodden for new discoveries.<\/p>\n

Rami has lived in Tokyo and Sao Paulo and she made a documentary about popular poetry in Mozambique, which offered her an opportunity to spend three months in Maputo \u2013 so she is more than familiar with the myriad possibilities and pitfalls of concrete conurbations and their reflection in verse.<\/p>\n

\u2018Industrial decline?\u2019 Patrice asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018And growth,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Exploitation of city-dwellers?\u2019 Dimitri suggested.<\/p>\n

\u2018Opportunities too,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m from a small town,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018picket fences and such. Cities were about freedom, or at least the idea<\/em> of freedom. Our urban myths began at the Greyhound station.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Whitman?\u2019 Patrice suggested tentatively. \u2018Celebrations of cities becoming cities \u2013 New York especially?\u2019<\/p>\n

Patrice travelled East after graduation and landed in Tokyo when a degree from the Sorbonne opened multiple doors (he was pals with Mishima for a while), so, I was surprised at this bee-line to the Atlantic coast rather than somewhere in Asia.<\/p>\n

\u2018Migration,\u2019 Dimitri said, \u2018the city as a place of opportunity.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018It has relevance, certainly,\u2019 Rami said.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed that, when Rami begins a discussion, she stands to one side to see how it will develop.<\/p>\n

\u2018Patrice, you live in Hongkong,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Past its heyday,\u2019 he replied, rather quickly, \u2018All the way down from here.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a whole school of poetry about urban decline,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

We seemed to be floating into unfamiliar waters \u2013 which, of course, is generally not a bad thing.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m from a city in the north,\u2019 Patrice said \u2013 unexpectedly: he rarely speaks about France. \u2018Haven\u2019t been there for forty years. I\u2019m told it\u2019s nicer now. Wasn\u2019t when I grew up.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Which city,\u2019 Dimitri asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018Roubaix, next to Lille.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve been in Roubaix!\u2019 Dimitri said. \u2018With a bunch of literary types from my side of the continent \u2013 we ran a workshop for schoolkids, part of a cultural exchange. Some terrific architecture \u2013 fabulous textile mills. It was like landing in another world!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018When I grew up the factories were still sputtering,\u2019 Patrice said, \u2018and there was no place for poetry.\u2019 A note of melancholy for the briefest moment pointed to an aspect of Patrice\u2019s personality I hadn\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n

\u2018We<\/em> had poetry in our<\/em> factories,\u2019 Dimitri said, with a jovial and more familiar relish for absurdity. \u2018The workers were encouraged to attend lunch-time readings \u2013 celebrating the achievements of the regime for the most part. I will leave you to judge whether the experience was one of mass appreciation!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Our<\/em> urban poets were genuinely popular?\u2019 Kim said. \u2018They still are.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018And we are speaking of . . ?\u2019 I may have allowed a certain scepticism to bubble to the surface.<\/p>\n

\u2018Blues,\u2019 Kim said, \u2018and all the things that came from it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018What about you, Albus?\u2019 Rami asked.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m with Patrice,\u2019 I said, \u2018exiled from another century, but there are lines that conjure up the city I remember. We could allude to them in our urban poetry edition.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018And they are?\u2019 Dimitri asked, ever to the point.<\/p>\n

\u2018Out of this ugliness may come<\/em>,\u2019 I began, without hesitation<\/p>\n

some day so beautiful a flower<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 that men will wonder at that hour<\/em><\/p>\n

remembering smoke and flowerless slum<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and ask<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 glimpsing the agony<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of the slaves who wrestle to be free<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018But why were all the poets dumb?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s it!\u2019 Patrice said with an emphasis just short of vehemence. \u2018That\u2019s my town!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Mine too,\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

\u2018They weren\u2019t dumb,\u2019 Rami said. \u2018And they aren\u2019t dumb. We have a great deal of ground to cover. Our different cities have multiple voices.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Including,\u2019 Kim added gently, \u2018our cities from long ago, Patrice.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Distant worlds,\u2019 Patrice said. His tone had become more thoughtful. \u2018Slaves who wrestle to be free.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Stories of exile, no doubt,\u2019 Dimitri said, \u2018and all that\u2019s left behind.\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking forward to this issue. More than motorways and malls, clearly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albus McInerney edits a literary magazine.   When Rami proposed an issue on poetry and urbanisation, there was a pause. Not an entirely apprehensive pause \u2013 but one that betrayed, perhaps, a certain weariness, as though malls and motorways might be too familiar, the alienation and angst of city life too well trodden for new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[46,104,106,103,107,108,102,101,100,70,105],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/cropped-banner-K1-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sullivan.ba\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}