A new poetry book serves as “a collective expression of protest” against Donald Trump and the movement surrounding him just days before his possible victory in the 2024 US presidential election. It guides us through people’s thoughts about Trump via different forms of poetry, and some images. There’s certainly something for everyone inside.
So much awfulness awaits us if Trump gets in
Culture Matters is a co-operative of writers, artists and activists. Having called for people to submit “poetry and artwork related to Donald Trump and Trumpism” earlier in the year, the group has now published the What Rough Beast anthology. This looks at “the havoc that a second term would unleash on the US and the wider world”. As it says in a press release:
With unjust policies, the demonisation of migrants and people of colour, and attacking anyone that tries to hold his feet to the fire, Trump and Trumpism are mistakes that the US cannot afford to make a second time round.
It adds:
We hope that readers will find laughter in what are some dark times, and that they will know that our solidarity extends over borders.
The contributors to the book address issues like “the Mexican wall, white supremacism, replacement theory, racism, COVID, the assault on the Capitol, neo-fascism, and the appalling circus of stupidity, ignorance, narcissism, lies and gibberish that Trump and Trumpism spew out”. According to associate editor Fran Lock, meanwhile, the anthology is “a collective expression of protest”. She insists that:
It is a rejection of Trump and the smug inertia that allowed him to slither into our dimension in the first place.
And she stresses that:
although said beast assumes distorted and outlandish proportions, his is a fallible, human power that can and must be overcome.
As co-editors Merryn Williams and Rip Bulkeley explain in the introduction to the book:
The falling standard of living, aided by the lack of moral fibre in the mainstream media, predisposes working people to listen to bogus claims and promises from demagogues like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
Cultural resistance matters
We probably don’t need to go through the long list of negatives about Donald Trump. He’s terrible, and we reported on that consistently before his first electoral victory and during his presidency. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek new ways to rally the US and the world against what he represents. And What Rough Beast does that excellently.
Paul Laughlin, for example, writes a powerful piece in the book highlighting the willingness of too many voters to believe self-serving politicians when they ask us to trust their words despite their actions showing us otherwise. He says:
Let us again assure you
The murder of your families
Is not who we are
For the avoidance of doubt
The torture of your neighbours
Is not who we are
And it goes without saying
The detention of your children
Is not who we are
So setting the record straight
Collective punishment
Is not who we are
Des Mannay, meanwhile, underlines the culture war that Trumpists are waging:
No more books!
We have
‘Reality TV’.
Entertainment
for the masses …
It’s just like
the last days
of Rome,
with its gladiators.
Neil Fulwood adds in a knock at the corporate media’s role in keeping big business in charge of the political system:
Don’t rely on the mainstream press
To undermine
The elite. Uncrusading journalists
Just toe the line.
Additionally, Alexandra Citron makes a point of asserting “What’s important here is who the hell let him in the room”. That could be the uselessness of the Democratic Party, particularly its failure to offer voters a meaningful alternative solution to their problems. It could be the mainstream media’s complicity in propping up a failing two-party system that only represents liberal and conservative shades of what the rich and powerful want.
Whatever our analysis, however, we need to remember that everything has a cause. So Trump’s mindboggling presence in US politics is a symptom of something much bigger.
Will Holloway, meanwhile, hones in on the way that Trump’s theatrics distract people from what’s really going on:
But his genius at inarticulacy
is nothing but a sequinned leotard
distracting me while the magician
disappears my watch.
And there’s even some musicality in the book. Janine Booth, for instance, sets her poetry beautifully to the tune of Hallelujah:
He promised he would save your jobs
To win the votes of angry mobs
But once the creep’s in office, he will screw you
Keep on pushing back – not only against Trump
The anthology is a great example of vocalising defiance creatively.
However, there didn’t seem to be quite enough concern about the alternative awfulness that is Kamala Harris, who has been complicit in US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and is almost certain to continue such support if she wins the election. And while there were quite a few mentions of Vladimir Putin, there wasn’t one mention of Benjamin Netanyahu, a particularly toxic ideological bedfellow of Trump’s.
Culture Matters recently announced its support, however, for the “largest commitment to cultural boycott ever made by the global literary community against the Israeli cultural sector”. So it certainly is aware of the need to stop US support for Israeli war crimes.
As poet Adrian Mitchell once said, “Most people ignore poetry because most poetry ignores most people”. That’s a big challenge for any writer – to connect, and to connect with as many people as possible.
Some writing styles will definitely resonate more with people than others.
But we shouldn’t ignore What Rough Beast. Because its writers speak from the heart, in a wide variety of styles. So readers really can pick their favourites and leave others to one side. There’s something there for everyone. And whatever happens in the upcoming election, we should continue to unite our diverse voices in opposition to whichever genocide apologist takes power.
Featured image supplied
