by Rory Pollaro

Created on: November 03, 2009

Does society need poets? Not in the sense that society needs doctors or nurses or firefighters, but society "needs" poets in the same sense in which it needs ministers, counselors, actors and singers.

To say a society, any society, can thrive without poetry is arguable at best. Every society known to mankind has had chanters, story tellers, singers, bards and wits. Poetry adds to society in the same way music, art, dance and other so-called cultural activities do. Society needs poets for the same reason society needs libraries, theaters and radio. To live a life without passionate thought or shared insight is no life at all.

Imagine an America without Whitman to break society free from it's strict formalities. Imagine America without the voice of Frost or Poe to remind us of our roots. Imagine an America in which there was no Giovanni to show us her anger and our shame. What of a society with no form of shared experiences beyond "just the facts".

Society without poetry would be a rather sterile environment with little to offer the dreamer, the balladeer, the child that still lives within, or the prophet. We would never know, or need to consider, whether fences make good neighbors, or what it's like to have miles to go and promises to keep. I a world without poetry there would likely be no Beethoven to make my hair stand on end in pure enjoyment. There would be no psalms to remind me I'm not alone or that I'm beyond hope.

I'd rather have a world without ice cream or chess than a world without poetry. If society didn't have poetry, someone would invent it out of need, like they did when poetry was first established. Give me Frost, Whitman, Snyder, Hall, Hughes, Kenney and the rest and I'll help shape society through their vision, their voice, my ear, and a Muse's touch.

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