When I was visiting Grenada my wife and I came across a bookstore. It was there in the Caribbean that I purchased the complete works of Derek Walcott. Upon reading the poetry after returning home I was not impressed.
Perhaps there are poems of his that will prove this statement wrong but I don’t think Derek Walcott was a man for the people. In his poems, I see no works of passion for the civil rights movement that was shaking the core of American society. It is like Emily Dickinson’s work being void of the Civil War. The events were too large to not be passionately swept away like a raging river in flood stage, as a man of ‘color’ Derek Walcott should have been using his talents for the betterment of all people. Instead, he saw the ocean.
You Saw the Ocean (Dedicated to Derek Walcott)
By John Kaniecki
You saw the ocean
Blue, green, white-capped waves in motion
You learned stories of the educated
Sons of the slave masters you hated
I have walked barefoot upon Caribbean hot white sands
I have talked to the people of your islands
I know their names and have heard their story
We shared our Love with all our glory
Also I am intimate with your time
Where you choose free verse over rhyme
An endless war raged in futility
Your own kinsmen struggled to rise from humility
Crucifying every human emotion
You saw the ocean
Where was your cry for justice?
Passionate pleas persuading righteousness
Instead in an alabaster tower
You gazed out the window hour after hour
Life roared crashing on the beach loud as thunder
For you not to hear the oppressed, how I wonder?
A pretty, nice, sentimental notion
You saw the ocean
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I submit, with respect, that a writer or artist can make something good even if it lacks social comment. Hemingway "served" in one world war and wrote about two and as far as I know never said he objected to them. Picasso's "Guernica" was an eloquent response to the bombing of a civilian population, but I believe it was the sole such statement in a career of seven decades and thousands of pieces.
ReplyDeleteMost of the "greats" were/are psychopaths. Even when they take a stand I'm more inclined to think it's a career move as opposed to a principled act. Look at the gun confiscation advocates and the global warming zealots. They're just the cool kids with millions and sometimes billions.