The poetry of public good
Image from Poetica social media.
This story is part of an ongoing series of conversations with people around the country about the public good. Over the coming months we’ll be sharing snippets of our conversations and the voices and insights of people we’re talking with.
If you’d like to share your thoughts, details for getting in touch are at the end of the blog.
There is such a joy to be had in speaking with poets.
Their words hit me through Zoom and I realise that there really is a pleasure to be had in taking the time to listen to people who take the time to listen to the world.
I hear that through covid, “nature has been a rescue remedy”; that “the world got smaller, we couldn’t go anywhere, so we’re going everywhere”; that there was a freedom in the loneliness of lockdown as grand-parenting responsibilities and the usual agendas of life — work, commuting, exercise classes, all regular gatherings, ceased.
I am told about the excitement of buying a bike for the first time in years; about the time and space that covid has provided for slowing down. There is deep appreciation of the privilege present to enable the enjoyment. And I hear about the silence that enables life to be heard: with the lack of traffic on the main road, “I’ve heard birds I’ve never heard before. I was hearing plates from someone else’s kitchen and the sounds of little children.”
Today I’ve been speaking with the Australia reMADE Poet Laureate Miriam Hechtman and another member of her poetry community, Beth Jessup. Miriam has two young kids, while Beth has grandchildren, and both are in Sydney.
When I ask them about the public good that they want their communities to be able to access, Beth immediately says, “gardens in the streets!” and Miriam laughingly cuts in with, “that’s exactly what I was going to say!”
They both talk exuberantly about the joyful idea (and reality in other countries) of fruit trees growing just down the road, of “things that provide and are public domain and are offered to everyone.” The sense of pleasurable community abundance fills the conversation, which then spills over into talking about art as woven through thriving communities.
For these two women, art is an essential public good.
Art, they say, is what brings soul to a community. It provides atmosphere and feeds us.
Miriam reflects on the way that during covid people have gravitated towards art and music and television to feed their souls, and yet as a society we so often fail to connect this to the importance of funding and making space for art. We seem to be failing to notice that, “people are looking for story, to have their lives reflected back at them and we do that through art.”
So much of our conversation is about the importance of creating places and spaces where we can be in community. Whether that is through public piazza-style urban design or reducing the red tape that limits buskers and protects against litigation but fails to nourish souls. I hear that while rules keep us safe (and in part is what is loved about this country) we also need places to play, experiment and take risks outside of rules.
Miriam creates one of these places in her poetry gatherings – Poetica, where poetry is spoken, and people join together to listen and to be heard. Reflecting on an interview she did with American poet Raina León and Raina’s ideas about poetry as a ‘container,’ Miriam says,
For the poetry community there is a place to come. And surprisingly we’ve managed to make that space on zoom. But I think it’s that same thing of creating places and spaces where we can be in community…
I come back to ritual because it gives us the framework to be together. Because it's not easy just to turn up and be together with nothing. You do need frameworks and if that’s a bench on the street, well that is a framework, that’s the container. And if there’s a poem or the idea of sharing words then that’s the container and that’s what we need.
Time and time again as I chat to people about public good I hear about the importance of places where people are welcomed in. I hear about community centres with people paid to make others feel comfortable, multicultural festivals in the streets where anyone can turn up and be a part of the crowd, and I hear about facilitated activities for young people after school and on the weekends.
Public good then is time, it’s space, it’s opportunity and it’s belonging. It’s about the welcome mat of community, the ritual that holds space for us while we also play with ideas, feelings and new possibilities.
Poetry, thank goodness, helps us see who we are, and what we are for.
For a sample of Miriam’s work check out her Australia reMADE inspired poem I AM FOR, while Beth has shared with us some recent writing “OK Boomer, I don’t think so.” Enjoy!
We’d love to hear about what is important to you and your community. Send us an email, comment below, or fill out the online form.
What should be provided to your community in terms of goods and services, laws and protections, or capacity to enable participation?
Who should provide these things and how?
DR MILLIE ROONEY
Millie is the National Coordinator for Australia reMADE. Millie has a qualitative research background and has spoken in-depth with hundreds of Australian's about their lives, communities and dreams. She has worked in and around universities for over a decade building student capacity and enthusiasm for tackling wicked problems. Millie is also a carer for her family and community and is passionate about acknowledging this work as a valid, valuable and legitimate use of her time.
