american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang

EMBODIED AGENCY 69
that speaks of “its own sensitivity,” which may be “an inappropriate
act, if the self derives its authority from its privilege over the ‘other,’
whether this be the privilege of knowledge or experience, and whether
the ‘other’ be the implied reader or the one to whom the poem is
addressed” (Montenegro 35). For Forché, rejecting a hierarchical
relationship between a poem’s speaker and its audience and subject
allows the poet to write of what she has seen and experienced. Also,
she creates a poetic self that exists on an equal basis with those she
writes for and about—the poem does not disclose a “privilege of
knowledge or experience.” The voices in “Return” reveal their fragilities
and obsequiousness when they reject the privilege of speaking to
an audience; they assume that there is no audience. Instead, the two
voices speak to each other, which gives each of these voices the
authority of friendship. After all, it is easier to be frank, condemnatory,
and demanding with a friend than with the public.
Despite Forché’s claims, this conversation between friends is
inequitable. Of the poem’s 125 lines, the speaker-poet has 47 lines
whereas Josephine has 78. On the surface, Josephine’s perspective as
an American greatly outflanks Forché’s perspective influenced by her
years in El Salvador. However, many of Josephine’s lines restate what
the poet has presumably told her about the time she spent there.
Thus, the poet’s experiences in Salvador give the poem its primary
agency, even if that agency is first passed through the prism of a conversation
in which the friend, and not the speaker-poet, takes on an
authoritative agency.
The speaker-poet’s and Josephine’s speaking voices vary greatly even
though they both speak of the poet’s experiences. The speaker-poet
attempts to reconcile her experiences in El Salvador with her life in the
United States, and she struggles to make compatible the fear of driving
“those streets with a gun in [her] lap” with the order, cleanliness, and
comfort of “the Safeway” and the “fine white / hands” of American
men. The stark contrast between the two worlds leaves the speaker
unable to talk about her experiences—“all manner of speaking has /
failed”—and seemingly unable to “keep going.” The rift between order
(“clean toilets” and “iced drinks”) and disorder gives the speaker
vertigo and makes her view her suffering as inextricably linked with the
suffering of Salvadorans rather than North Americans. Unable to rest,
to speak, to feign normality in a supermarket, or to connect with other
Americans, the speaker-poet is overwhelmed by guilt. Guilt and grief
create a hyper-responsibility that extends to mundane realities, such as a
trip to the supermarket and simple conversations with North
Americans: “I cannot, Josephine, talk to them.”