Poetry isn’t much seen as media, but I contend that is can be both media and news. Such is the case with Poems From Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak, a new book of poems by actual detainees at Guantanamo. Of course, I haven’t read the book of poems just yet, but I will. In fact, I’m ordering Poems of Guantanamo
There will no doubt be an element in America that condemns these poems before reading them under the guise that they were written by enemies of America. Such shallow concupiscence may sway a few of the sheep in the pews but the few American remaining who can think for themselves might actually benefit from seeing what the prisoners at Guantanamo have to say about life through their poetry.
Poetry as media, however, is a subject for more than just Bill Moyers. Everyone should take an interest in poetry of all forms. There are a number of ways poetry can serve as media for our times. Here’s a short list of poetry as media uses:
- Poetry educates
- Poetry as media can entertain
- Poetry draws attention to a particular issue and enlightens people to the finer nuances of each issue, one of the primary missions of all types of media
- Poetry also gives a sense of perspective where none previously existed by allowing a person with a particular point of view an opportunity to express that view through a creative outlet for the benefit of others
- Poetry provides emotional and psychological relief from a trauma or difficult time in a person’s life (read anything by Sylvia Plath)
- Another poetry as media benefit is the timeless value of poetry as it is passed down from generation to generation, allowing future generations to see the media issues of importance to those of the past
It really doesn’t take much imagination to see poetry as media. Anyone can do it. The media of poetry itself can be expressed in myriad forms. You can express poetry on the written page or 
as an oral art form. Thanks to the Internet, poetry has become a new kind of media allowing poets to share their art through hyperlinked media forms, video, Web pages, and other social media venues.
As a poet, I’d like to share a poem that I wrote that illustrates how poetry can be used as media to educate, entertain, and enlighten. This poem is titled “Siege” and is included in my own recently published electronic chapbook, Going Dutch. Feel free to comment on the poem and check out my chapbook as well.
For centuries you held the highest honor,
Avoided penetration. You erected walls
To protect you, walls which towered
Over your youth like umbrage
For lost souls. Then, heaven and hell
Be damned, you lost your life’s work
In a single day. The Hour Song sung
And the trading for the day almost done,
You settled in for the night. Not a grain
Of salt was wasted on your streets.
Your ramparts kept it hidden
And your children fed. Amazing
How so much history can change
In a fleeting moment. Your dire distress
In the day of your defense cast a powder
Of dry doubt upon your great white hope.
Having felt betrayed, you surrendered
And fell into burning despair, hungering
All the while for the end. It eluded you.
But today, having slept past your prime,
You stand like a monument to your defeat,
Your wrinkled old face reflecting years
Of weather and war and the whole world
Knows that were it not for trepidation,
Endurance, gall, you would not be alive
To witness your own grand return
To yourself and that quiet place
Of exquisite repose.
I highly encourage everyone to participate in the great historical discussion taking place through poetry. One of the oldest forms of media, and many would say the purest, poetry is more than just some outdated mode of expression. It is life. It is history. It is story in the raw.
Whether one reads poems of prisoners being held at Guantanamo, the ditties of teenagers in love, or the hack poetry of a war veteran like myself, read poetry. Enjoy it as media and the literary art form that it is. Indulge. You’ll be glad you did.
Allen Taylor
News and Media Blog
World Class Poetry
