The Myth Of The Wussy Poet
While introducing Hillary Clinton at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio last week, Tom Buffenbarger, President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, launched the following vitriolic attack on Barack Obama's toughness:
"Give me a break! I've got news for all the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies crowding in to hear him speak! This guy won't last a round against the Republican attack machine. He's a poet, not a fighter."
"A poet, not a fighter?" I, for one, would be happy to step outside with the pasty, out-of-shape union exec and show him that the terms aren't mutually exclusive.
I'm going to put a few of things aside--1) Buffenbarger's smearing of Obama supporters; 2) the hilarious inference that Clinton is somehow "blue-collar"; and 3) the incongruity of a man who looks like James Lipton after a two-week drinking binge talking about toughness. Instead I'm going to focus on defending poetry.
It's not a hard defense to make. While the misconception of the "wussy" poet is common in America, I know from internationals I've talked to that it's a decidedly American misconception, a manifestation of the tired idea that men should only express their feelings while drunk or during football games lest they appear, you know, weak. Sure. Were Wilfred Owen and history's long litany of soldier poets weak? Is Iraq war vet Bryan Turner, who just published Here, Bullet, a book of poems about the war, not tough enough? Tell him he's not a fighter.
Mr. Buffenbarger would do well to read Ohio's own James Wright, an Army veteran from a steel town outside of Pittsburgh called Martins Ferry. His father was a factory worker, and his poetry encapsulates the lives of working class Ohioans Buffenbarger is supposed to represent. Here's one of Wright's best from his book The Branch Will Not Break:
Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio
In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Benwood,
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel,
Dreaming of heroes.
All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home.
Their women cluck like starved pullets,
Dying for love.
Therefore,
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful
At the beginning of October,
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies.
That's the voice of a fighter: someone seeking the sublime in people who never receive such treatment. I posted the poem on my blog a few months back and got the following anonymous response:
"For anyone growing up in the Ohio Valley - the Valley that threatens to die so often - this is a remarkable poem that simply portrays life... It's incredible that this exists and isn't better recognized or awarded for capturing life as it was, or might still be...."
Here's an excerpt from another of Wright's poems called The Sumac in Ohio--it's about real toughness:
"Before June begins, the sap and coal smoke and soot from Wheeling steel, wafted down the Ohio by some curious gentleness in the Appalachians, will gather all over the trunk. The skin will turn aside hatchets and knife blades. You cannot even carve a girl's name on the sumac. It is viciously determined to live and die alone, and you can go straight to hell."
In the LA Times' endorsement of Obama, they wrote, "In the language of metaphor, Clinton is an essay, solid and reasoned; Obama is a poem, lyric and filled with possibility." You can certainly argue against those points. But I have no doubt that a poet, no matter what he/she chooses to drink, drive or wear, could speak for Buffenbarger's union members a lot better than he has. The next time he speaks, he'd be smart to just quote one.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
I'll put some of the poets I've known up against a some of the machinists and aerospace workers any day of the week, literally. Some of those wordsmiths were some tough motherf*ckers, the machinists and aerospace guys I knew weren't exactly big and strong.
Poetry doesn't have to be about war to be tough...
Shakespeare, Milton, Whitman & Ginsberg were powerful & wielders of people-moving words - life & love & politics. (Those latter two are both especially tough, & also gay Americans.
I'll take a real poet/artist anyday over a hack....
I think smearing of Obama's supporters is a pretty big issue, actually, that isn't being covered in nearly enough detail. The "wussy poet" line was probably taking the media interpretation of what Edwards said about Obama and twisting it into his own narrow-minded insult.
Right now, there is no other answer for the record turnouts at the polls than Barack Obama. There is no way, no way at all, that there are that many "latte drinking trust fund babies" in this country. IF that was all the man was pulling, Barfinburger wouldn't have even been needed for a speech because the election would have been decided already. If he's the head of anything that pretends to be a union, he ought to know that there aren't that many rich people around anymore.
If he wants to keep on insulting all those people who support Obama, then even if Hillary DID win the nomination, there'd be no way she'd win the general. If all those people decided Hillary supporters can do it themselves, because obviously they don't need Obama supporters after all those insults, then we're going to be looking at a continuation of the Iraq occupation, maybe a war against Iran, and probably the continuing downslide of our economy. Does Barfinburger speak for Hillary? Because if he does, and if Hillary Clinton had any brains at all, she'd denounce what he had to say and stop letting her surrogates attack Obama supporters.
Also, what's wrong with driving a Prius? I wish I could afford one. I feel pretty crappy about myself every time I have to pull my current rustbucket out of the garage and drive to work. Thankfully, we've got good mass transit here.
"I think smearing of Obama's supporters is a pretty big issue, actually, that isn't being covered in nearly enough detail. The "wussy poet" line was probably taking the media interpretation of what Edwards said about Obama and twisting it into his own narrow-minded insult."
Oh well. These columns are filled to overflowing with woman-hating spew about Hillary Clinton and her supporters ... How much of a "big issue" is that to you? My guess is, not at all. You're happy to shite on her and see her shat upon.
For being such a crowd of namecalling misogynists, Obama-bots are surprisingly thin-skinned. "Turn about is fair play" may be a bad policy as a rule. But, I see no reason why any of us that don't worship The Anointed One should put up with YOUR abuse.
"Take the log out of your own eye, before looking for the mote of dust in your brother's.
Thanks.
mp
As a poet and a woman, who also happens to have a law degree, I can tell you that most of the people who know me would rather have me on their side in a fight than have to face me in one. Wuss, my ass. The real myth is of the one-dimensional macho man.
Thanks for this post, Lundberg, and all your posts which have served poetry. I've got your back!
I agree, voted for obama here in washington state, let the words rise to become the clouds bright with hope.
Perhaps most poets aren't wusses, but the ones I know sure are. And here's another unjust generalization:
most poetry
blows hugely
and not
in maelstrom fashion
but as the sucking
of purplish mediocrity
the pud-pulling of language
Excellent post. I enjoyed it very much. I am from this same basic region as the poet James Wright. He is a national treasure. The Ohio Valley and the mill towns are lyrical. They are stark metaphor for a deep current that once ran deep in American life.
Study Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography in the 1978 film "The Deer Hunter". My God, did they have the "Lenko Hall" state of consciousness down in that screenplay. Study the profound knowledge hidden in the bingo call in the V.A. hospital scene. Marvelous, marvelous artistic craft completely over people's heads.
Every morning drive I take along the Monongahela River into the Strip District of Pittsburgh where I work is a breathtakingly stunning visual essay.
There was a somewhat infamous underground steelworker newspaper in these parts in the early 80's called "The Mill Hunk Herald". I wrote for it. There were many local steelworker poets who wrote for it with voices from several generations. I think there is an out of print book anthology of some of the writing out there somewhere if anyone can find it. Both Studs Terkel and Kurt Vonnegut were subscribers and wrote nice notes of how much they enjoyed the grit in each hand crafted issue.
Try to get a copy some time of steelworker film maker Tony Bubba's "Lightening Over Braddock" or "Pennies From Heaven" about the infamous J. Roy of Wilkinsburg, PA if you want to see some poetry in film. He used to write for the publication too. An unsung hero here, his films about this region are famous in France. They love him there.
On the other side of the state read the writings of the soldier poet W. D. Ehrhart.
"Barfnberger" is an idiot.
Whoops. Two typos if anyone wants to Google this wonderful body of work. It's "Lightning Over Braddock" and the correct spelling is Tony Buba. It's been years since I typed his name!
I was in the Machinists union for 20 yrs. It is a fairly honest union but an entrenched protecter of status quo.
B.H. Fairchild would be a good poet to read who actually was a machinist.
Buffenbarger is an embarrassment to labor.
but honestly
i never wanted to be a poet at all
i really think it was because my parents didn't scar me early with shame
good grief, i had no idea that i'd turn out to be that wild-hair, no one will ever tame
i never sat up one night and tried to rhyme dome with rome
no.. it was always, well like now !!
i'd just be blabbing away, when suddenly id' say
hey, this is a poem
so i wasn't afraid to feel passion
and yes, it's appeal
or to touch that moment when first i saw her, and how she made me feel, can you feel it, can you dig it, the pulse the word, the gift that has been given to you and to me, both here and hereafter, oh !! most definitly !
so look
for Gods sake look
for there is nothing up my sleves
and yet this can be alchemy's greatest trick
and a virtual magical affair
for when we care
really care
we put love in the air !!!!!!!
not bad for a wuz !!!!
huh !!!
6'2 209lbs
trained with Kenny Norton's sparring partners !!
who wants to go a round
Bill O'liely !
fuck no ~~~~~
i didn't think so !!!!!!
Anyone who knows anything about poets knows they are the toughest of the tough. They make no money, are brutally honest about themselves, and toil largely in anonymity. I'd trust a poet with our future way more than a dipshit union boss or a lifelong political hack. Go Obama.
You made my morning!!
James Wright is one of our national treasures.
I am just finishing Harold Nicolson's
book on Byron's final days The Last Journey,
another non-wimpy poet!
Where are they when we need them?
"latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstoc
As opposed to all those beer-swilling, F350 driving Hillary supporters? It's bad enough I have to put up with straw-man caricatures of liberals from the Republicans. I really don't need it from my own side.
Who knew there were 15,000 latte-drinking, Prius-driving trust fund babies in Idaho?!
Who knew that the Prius/latt
Buffenbarger is like the chicken hawks we have now. I'd love to go a few rounds with the Connecticut Cowboy, or Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, etc. Lots of lying talk, and nothing to back it up.
This is all talk for the Democratic nomination only. If you think the PLB crowd will carry the day in the general election--if you think that BOTH Hillary and Obama aren't vulnerable to these attacks (and I'm starting to think Obama more than Hillary)--well, go to sleep now on that confidence, wake up the day after the election and we'll see how things went.
Dems lost their best chance when the candidates of true change and/or true experience left the race early, because we needed to nominate somebody on identity politics. Not that we can't or won't still win, but we've certainly turned it into a race.
Um,
After the last seven years
"a poet, not a fighter"
actually sounds quite relieving.
So I guess you're voting for the new JIMMY CARTER, not me, I tried that before with a very bad result, Carter and Ziggy Brzezinski let Iran kick sand in our face and didn't do anything, Obama would be more of the same.
You obviously bought the Republican crap hook line and sinker. If Ronnie Ray-gun hadn't shut down the dozen or so alternative energy plants Carter started we would be laughing at the Saudi's and leading the world away from oil today. If the same media drumbeat was saying Iraq day 1,803 and 4,000 dead every day of the week, how popular would Petraeus be? More than 300 marines were truck bombed in Lebanon and Reagan picked up his skirts and ran. Carter at least tried to do something, unsuccessfully, true, but something besides turning tail. And, don't forget, it wasn't Jimmy carter who helped arm the Taliban and give Stingers to a young Mujahedin named Osamma bin Laden, it was Bill Casey who just happened to get a brain anuerism and die with all that history in his head. History is written by the victors, true, but only sheep believe everything they are told. Go bleat among the elephants!
Jimmy Carter was smart and competent. He was totally castrated at every opportunity by his enemies who wanted to make him appear ineffective more than they cared about their country.
He proved what kind of person he is after his presidency.
Obama is not as naive. He is obviously better at playing politics, but has kept the idealism.
We kicked sand in our own face. Or perhaps the hands of the prophet whipped up a sandstorm to force an end to the hostage rescue fiasco. At terrible cost to those who obeyed the orders and at little cost to those who gave the orders.
Good post. Clearly Buffenbarger is an ignoramus.
And the IAMAW is not really any soldier's friend, they profit from the war.
Clearly you couldn't be more wrong, no offense. Buffenbarger is exactly right. You put a guy like Obama up against McCain, and suddenly McCain's negatives (age, old-guard identity, war experience) turn positive. What's more, you can explain all you want to about why the lapel pin and the hand over the heart and the wife who says she's just now become "proud of this country" aren't signs that the guy isn't an elitist who feels himself to be oh-so-wonderful next to the union guys with scars on their forearms, but the fact that you have to explain it at all already means you're way behind in that race--and against a guy who spent time as a POW.
I am telling you, fellow Dems, this race is shaping up badly, and I mean BADLY.
Lundberg is just so off with this piece. Go ahead, try to convince the majority of the American public of the argument you see above. You'll convince exactly as many people as are already inclined to believe it. Period. Not one vote more.
Democrats have just about sabotaged their chances for winning the general election. When the most experienced and accomplished people (Biden, Dodd, et al.) exited the race in favor of the two identity-politics candidates, that was exactly what Republicans needed. Like I've said before, they must be laughing themselves to sleep at night.
I'm not saying it's a guaranteed loss, exactly. But what should have been a landslide victory after the worst president in American history is about to turn into at best an even race, and more likely a lean toward McCain. Anybody wanna make book right now? (The only inexplicable thing is why Republicans couldn't find anybody better to run this time around.)
But hey, we'll all be able to sit around the day after the election and talk about how important it was to nominate a black man (or a woman) for president, how historic it was, how Philistine the rest of the nation is, how much they need to evolve to get our candidates, etc. That'll be a fun little espresso sip, won't it?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
