Poetry of conscience

Issue 

Poetry of conscience

From the Republic of Conscience: An international anthology of poetry
Edited by Kerry Flattley and Chris Wallace-Crabbe
Aird Books in association with Amnesty International
192 pp. $16.95
Reviewed by Mario Giorgetti

This collection of poetry demonstrates the necessity for the continuing struggle to bring light to the dark corners of this world where people are denied their basic human rights.

Oppression and suffering can bring out the best and the worst in human nature, but hope and even humour can transcend the worst horrors. Such paradoxes are reflected by this anthology, which the editors have drawn from all over the world. All the poems, arranged generally around such themes as censorship, disappearances, aspects of horror and the experience of women, were donated by the authors, and proceeds will go to promote the work of Amnesty International.

The anthology aims in part to celebrate the work of Amnesty in uncovering human rights abuses all over the world. It brings together 100 voices from 40 different cultures — from well-known poets of our century to poets rarely heard of and unknown but nonetheless important in this context because of their particular experience and their intensity of feeling for oppressed people.

The task of these 100 poets seems to be to shore up our lives against forgetfulness — to remind us of the important things, so that the inglorious events of history may not be repeated.

Nowadays there is a general perception that poetry is written for poets and for readers with special sensibilities and literary tastes. There is a perception also, even among poets, that poems should be grand conceptions full of bright images and subtle intellectualisations.

It may be so in some cases. This is not the case, however, with most of the poems in this collection, which appeal to the heart and are inspired in the main by the moral necessity to tell the truth and to indict institutionalised cruelty and injustice. These poems transmit to us some sense of their authors' anger, their strength and their optimism even in defeat.

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