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1. 

   cmargocs on April 8, 2018 at 4:20 pm

   This entry gave me pause, as I’m sure I’ve read some very angry poetry. Thinking about it further, I can see that even in those instances, the hope of the writer is that “the pen is mightier than the sword”–a more peaceful route to understanding and resolution of conflict. Thank you for the image and quote!

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     Alice Nine on April 8, 2018 at 5:28 pm

     Thanks for sharing, Chris. The quote gave me a similar pause when I first read it. I did not know who Pablo Neruda was. So, I read about him. He is considered by many critics as “the greatest poet writing in the Spanish language during his lifetime.” He was also a Chilean politician, an international diplomat, a committed communist, and a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He lived several years in exile. He died in 1973, 6 hours after an injection was given to him at the hospital, believed to have been ordered by his political enemies. He wrote widely–of love, nature, his nation, and politics. He wrote odes to ordinary object, “Ode to Tomatoes” being perhaps his best known one. Once when his home was searched by the Chilean armed forces during which “Neruda was reportedly present, the poet famously remarked: ‘Look around — there’s only one thing of danger for you here — poetry.'” I’m not sure which way that should be taken: that he was politically harmless or that his poetry was a powerful political force. Anyway, that all gave me a different lens for his words, “Poetry is an act of peace.”

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