Artistic Distance and The Language of Oppression

Writing is an emotional process and it works when it makes us feel, both as writers and readers: it has the power to move—movere. Yet a certain emotional distance is necessary when one writes poetry with the language of oppression, especially when one has been the victim, and offers a historical as well as an artistic testimony. What kind of liberties can one take with the material? What constitutes appropriate artistic utterance when one navigates the territories of poetry about the hard truths? Translating screams of pain and anger into poetic expression, which shows the effect of oppression on the inner landscape of feeling, is what poetry offers as an art. But writing that courts the sympathy of the reader gratuitously, arouses anger, sermonizes, or is imbued with a sense of self-pity, represents a failure of the art. The healing aspects of writing (not only in terms of healing the writer, but also in terms of healing the language itself) form a significant part of this chapter.