HALF ART
CHRIS THURMAN: Poetry connects us to how it feels to live in this nation
A few weeks ago, I wrote in this column about poet Tony "Longfella" Walsh speaking lines of comfort and encouragement to the people of Manchester in the wake of a terrorist attack. I claimed poetry is all around us but we are generally in denial about its ubiquitousness — as much as we are about its value. This is open to dispute. You could say it is all very well for poetry to help people who are mourning but it does nothing to intervene in the world; it bemoans injustice but it does nothing to create conditions under which justice might prevail. Not in SA, anyway. Perhaps it once did, when it roused mourners at political funerals or protesters at a march. But today? You could say that poetry remains, for most people, something they battle with at school and happily leave behind. You could say that even performance or slam poetry, the more popular form, has a niche audience but almost no one will pay money for published poetry. If that is so, then riddle me this: Nick Mulgrew of uH...
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