on reading the white man's poetry

Sitting in a poetry professor's office, this might have been the first time I've talked about race in conference setting in conjunction with poetry. No. That's a lie. The first time I sat in a poetry professor's office and talked about race, we were discussing one white student applying to Cave Canem (writers' retreat for African American poets who would benefit from "having a place of their own in the literary landscape"). Actually, she was saying how she recommended him for the retreat. I asked why. She said, well he wrote about African American subjects in his poetry. I gave her a weird look which in the accumulation of past years, one raised eyebrow has amounted to squarely "WTF but okay WTF?!" Yes and John Berryman also inhabited the "Black voice". I didn't say the latter statement outloud though. She justified that there were white board members. I see Sharon Olds name on the website so I guess it must be true.

In this instant, we were talking about our class discussion about Robert Hass whose style and language use is actually really good (personally speaking anyway). I like it when a male poet goes Oedipal. But what we really zeroed in on was really (as I articulated this more bluntly in conference) was about a white man writing multiculturalism. Like little excerpts on visiting Kwangju, watching baby chicks barbecued on the streetside, Buddhist meditation, its pastoral landscapes. Or including a translated portion of Frida Kahlo's manuscript. I think in class, people get stuck on the superficial topics such as writing sincerity. Why don't we just call it what it is? The prof, always devil's advocate, says perhaps it's endearing? That there are poets out there who appropriate other cultures in their material shamelessly--at least Hass attempts to take a dignified approach? I read the parts over, and decided appropriation isn't the right word. It suggests a matter of distortion; transforming something so that the object's belonging is no longer of them but completely and utterly yours. There is no distortion here. There is just usurpation. I don't think we can quantify which is worst.

By the way, Hass was former Poet Laureate of the U.S.