|
the system by A.D. Winans
Centennial Press
P.O. Box 170322
$8 30 Pages [Includes signed broadside]
Milwaukee, WI 53217-8026
I can vividly recall sitting at a table in a restaurant in Florida with a noted poet and literary scholar who told me that while attending graduate school in the 60's, his writing professor once said, "History might show us that the greatest tragedy of the Vietnam War will be all the pathetic 'peace' poems created as a result." Considering this comment, I am led in the direction of my own assessment that the impact of the media over the years in terms of "protest" has made, in many cases, the idea of social conscience an almost foreign concept.
"Cynical," you say? Maybe. But, society tends to be a series of circle jerks where the masses, themselves, refuse to think and define, preferring to wander aimlessly until someone with a hint of charisma tells them what to believe and gives them various groups to join, in which they find some semblance of security and reassurance. All in all, the concept of "the blind leading the blind" is more real than any of us would care to believe.
In his book, the system, A.D. Winans has proven once again that basic human compassion and a fierce loyalty to the underdogs of the world separate him both as a poet and a human being from those who take up "the cause" merely because it seems like the thing to do. As the small biography at the back of this book reads, "Winans pulls no punches" and that certainly is the case. However, when I read these poems, I sense that the sorrow felt by the author in terms of the seeming victims he has championed is far greater than the "rage" he might feel against the system that put them there.
So proud that they eat dog food
And find dessert in back alley
Garbage cans
Trapped by false promises
Trapped by a belief in a system
That has abandoned them
What I have always liked about Mr. Winans' work is his dogged refusal to ignore the never-ending pain that exists around us all. Having lived a life in which compromise could have yielded substantial monetary gain, he has remained true to his "everyman" poet self and stayed his course with a fiery commitment. As a writer, editor, publisher, and teacher, he has given freely to help countless others find their own "everyman" muses. Whether in college classrooms or prison workshops, A. D. Winans has worked to pull the beauty from us all.
But I am not a graveyard poet
In search of chilled bones
The words I speak hold no fear
For like you
I have tasted the laughter of life
Walked the sinister circus of reality
Playing out the game like
A chess master
Knowing there is no power
Strong enough to still
The song inside you
Pembroke Magazine editor Shelby Stephenson once wrote, "Prose is wonderful, but poetry is the other conversation, what is not said." I find this statement to be most applicable to both this book and its author. Good poetry tells a reader as much about him/herself as it does about the poet. The very concept of symbolism suggests a certain ambiguity. Sure, the system is responsible in many ways for the condition of the downtrodden, but volumes have been written about that. What makes this book stand above others is the obvious caring concern and absolute sorrow that Mr. Winans feels. It is an almost defining moment for a poet who for 67 years has stubbornly refused to yield to cliché.
--Carter Monroe
[Home]
|
|
