Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

'ri)~(i Nor~.st~~~~lzi
appal-ently well-intentioned argument of imperialism. like tlie universality OF Poems? You want poems? We got poems!
culture. liicies in reality. the idea that only Western culture is universal. a racist
idea. which until very recently. was openly proclain~ed (Samora Machel in
Poems to make you dream
M;rttclart & Siegelaub 1983:25)").
while the rulers ofthe country are busy.
Poems to send you to sleep
While they test their tanks and guns.
Poems for you and your aftermeal sleep.
Poems whicli do not disturb you nor
The quiet of a Sunday afternoon.
litera~y establishment: Wlten the sernion in the morning was comforting
in purple shirt and orangc tie
I thc accredited clown
to tliis ailingsocicty
an1 allowcd to tell you a few truths
and similar nonsense
so listen you christened dung-heaps!
I will lie fol- yo11
cve~ythi~ig: 1 can invent: everything ...
looking at you I realise: 1 bottle of beer
is bctter than 1 volunle of poet~y
of any FORM and CONTENT poet
looking at you 1 realise: the only
adcquate criticisni
of tliis society
TO RASf I N YOUR HEADS (Horn 1991 :27t]
purporting to be disinterested' can be treated as 'econo~nic practices directed
the inaximising of material or symbolic profit'. Literature is an arena in which s
but no less serious struggles over resources, access and authority occur:
concealed' (Ryan 1990:4). Sce also Spivak (1990: 1-16) on 'universal intellectuals'.
And the chicken at lunch was tasty.
There will be those who only see tlie ruins: tlie
shortsighted
vision of the disinherited of the revolution will
hc with us
for some time. They, who no longer own the riches
of the previous times
nor yet tlie riches of tlie rising time:
but let us not be confused by them.
Conslrlrctlons of Protest Poetqi
e critics like Watson have focused narrowly and normatively on issues such as the
Watson concludes the 'Under Pressure' essay with a defensive attempt to prop
elitist assertions of value by referring to the supportive remarks of his students,
of whom, he suggests, may have been black. Even if race were not an issue, the
Like Horn, otlier progressive white writers sucli as Jeremy Cronin and Kclwyn Sole have
addressed 'the reality behind the mask: behind the real prosperity of apart of the population.
behind the general complacency. one discovers a world typified by guilt and schizophrenia, a
Id from which one's fellow nien [sic]-thosc "unlike likesx-have been banished' (Alvarez-
207
*-