Poetry as Inaction

In his 1939 poem, “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” W.H. Auden declares the following: “poetry makes nothing happen.” The oft-repeated line is frequently interpreted as a lament of poetry’s inability to provoke change. What’s often forgotten or left out is the following line that ponders how poetry “survives / In the valley of its making where executives / Would never want to tamper.” The latter comment pulls us away from seeing poetry through a lens of production. It pulls us away from an ideology obsessed with assigning value and worth. Poetry is important because it can thrive without the need of being productive. Free from all expectations, it survives. As Oliver Tearle puts it, poetry is “not something that makes history happen but part of history itself, perhaps, and part of life.” 

If this is true, then Michael Isaac Bethel’s collection of poems are a snapshot, a freeze-frame, of one man’s mental day while incarcerated. Bethel’s poems do not allow readers to mine for insight into the material conditions of prison life. They reject the notion that poetry holds answers and suggests activism is found off the page. “The Heart is Never in Question,” “Psychological Pressures,” and “Accountability” are immaterial histories. They focus on the mind and the physical sensations of a man who wonders whether the outside world will reject or accept him. These emanate from a moment in the prison when all one has is time and reflection. They cycle from hope to despair before turning it over to the reader to unpack their own histories and connections, whether they know it or not, with the carceral system. 

In “The Heart is Never in Question,” the narrator wonders what talents and gifts they have had to hide or stow away while incarcerated. They wonder whether they can reclaim them if they find “an opportunistic future” and if others forgive their “ill-gotten Past.” 

Bethel uses “Psychological Pressure” to direct us to the societal challenges that plague our mental health. Whether one is a “Scholar, Pastor, Politician, [or] Activist,” the poem suggests that “in this Current Civilization,” each actor must confront a difficult self-realization. To alert others to their struggles is a struggle in and of itself, and the opportunity to undo systems of power terrifies people. “Why are we so afraid of Advancement?” the poet asks. The answer is uncertain.

“Accountability” marks an unofficial conclusion to this trilogy of poems. Bethel describes how a meeting among strangers with differing opinions leads toward self-righteous argumentation. The titular word never appears in the poem. It is missing just as it is the missing ingredient that might make open and communicative dialogue possible again. Until we become accountable for each other, a discourse capable of guiding us toward a better future remains unlikely. 

It is no coincidence that each of these poems ends on the same cliffhanger. “To be continued.” The open-ended nature of the poems seemingly intend to frustrate the reader. But it is too easy to request answers from Bethel, to ask him for more, and to demand he explain what he desires from these short poems. To be continued? That’s what we hear at the end of a television episode or a Hollywood blockbuster. That’s not what we expect from a poem. This taught frustration becomes the point. These poems do not seek to produce a discourse or an argument from us. They are there to teach us to reflect. Bethel wants and creates an engaged listener. To be continued? There is no sequel. When we finally pull away, we realize we have settled in with Bethel’s thoughts, have given him a chance to speak. We are witnessing a mere part of history. We have learned to listen before speaking. 

Websites: 

https://poets.org/poem/memory-w-b-yeats

https://interestingliterature.com/2021/10/auden-poetry-makes-nothing-happen-meaning-analysis/