american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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EQUIVOCAL AGENCY 89<br />
Simic’s terse, laconic l<strong>in</strong>es, Harjo’s long, prophetic l<strong>in</strong>es style<br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ation as capable of creat<strong>in</strong>g change. One critic calls Harjo’s<br />
“highly <strong>political</strong> imag<strong>in</strong>ation” a “weapon <strong>in</strong> an anticolonial national<br />
struggle” that works to “decolonize our very spirit o<strong>the</strong>rwise hegemonized”<br />
(Hussa<strong>in</strong> 52). Harjo uses imag<strong>in</strong>ation as—<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> words of<br />
Frantz Fanon—“a historical process of becom<strong>in</strong>g” (28) and <strong>the</strong> postcolonial<br />
tale she writes describes <strong>the</strong> process of recreat<strong>in</strong>g community<br />
not through television and guns but through dreams and imag<strong>in</strong>ation.<br />
As such, “A Postcolonial Tale” re-imag<strong>in</strong>es myths—first <strong>the</strong> creation<br />
story and second <strong>the</strong> colonial encounter, presumably between white<br />
settlers and Native Americans.<br />
As <strong>in</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r poems of comprehensive equivocal agency, Harjo opens<br />
her poem with an immense, global horizon, but with a difference; she<br />
makes it commonplace and grandiloquent: “Every day is a reenactment<br />
of <strong>the</strong> creation story” (104–105). 7 Because <strong>the</strong> “creation story”<br />
happens daily, it is a source of knowable community, but it also<br />
rema<strong>in</strong>s a source of mystery. In <strong>the</strong> poem’s second sentence, “We<br />
emerge from / dense unspeakable material, through <strong>the</strong> shimmer<strong>in</strong>g<br />
power of / dream<strong>in</strong>g stuff.” The language here is elusive, fantastic,<br />
and consciously enchanted, but not haunted as <strong>in</strong> Simic. We know<br />
immediately that <strong>the</strong> speaker, who rema<strong>in</strong>s a “we” throughout, is<br />
concerned with community, collective experience, and imag<strong>in</strong>ation.<br />
Yet this story or “tale” is not <strong>the</strong> key to unlock<strong>in</strong>g ano<strong>the</strong>r world as<br />
“This is <strong>the</strong> first world, and <strong>the</strong> last.” In <strong>the</strong> poem’s cosmology, <strong>the</strong><br />
stakes are high because <strong>the</strong>re is no redemption <strong>in</strong> a world beyond.<br />
Whereas imag<strong>in</strong>ation may be highly compartmentalized <strong>in</strong> a white<br />
Euro-American worldview, <strong>in</strong> many Native American traditions it is<br />
closer to boundless. Jenny Goodman, amongst o<strong>the</strong>r critics, claims<br />
that Harjo, a Muskogee Creek Indian, uses traditions “that expand<br />
narrow def<strong>in</strong>itions of <strong>political</strong> poems” (49). As part of her mythopoeic<br />
ethos she uses iconic figures such as <strong>the</strong> trickster crow; <strong>in</strong>deed, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ative construct of “A Postcolonial Tale,” “we” are never “far<br />
from <strong>the</strong> trickster’s bag of tricks.” The trickster, most importantly, is<br />
seem<strong>in</strong>gly able to restore order to <strong>the</strong> postcolonial world by free<strong>in</strong>g it<br />
from Enlightenment reason. Thus freed, <strong>the</strong> community is at liberty<br />
to imag<strong>in</strong>e itself anew. 8<br />
Before <strong>the</strong>re is a possibility of redemption via <strong>the</strong> imag<strong>in</strong>ation,<br />
<strong>the</strong>re has to be a fall, not from orig<strong>in</strong>al s<strong>in</strong>, but from <strong>the</strong> s<strong>in</strong> of colonization.<br />
In “A Postcolonial Tale,” <strong>the</strong> colonial encounter is itself a<br />
creation story. Dur<strong>in</strong>g colonization a new world is created and cultures<br />
are transformed. Indigenous people, Harjo suggests, were<br />
“stolen” and “put / <strong>in</strong>to a bag carried on <strong>the</strong> back of a white man