Dispatch from the Trenches

Dear Friends and Allies of the Poetry Community

I feel compelled to write that I find the recently published article Bó land Heaven and the Bardic Blindspot, a fatuous and shallow text of almost unequalled condescension and pretentiousness.

I think that the linked-to piece of nauseating male privilege is yet another reminder from the Patriarchy of just how culturally fragile a state we the people of the goddess Art are in, and just what barriers and hurdles are out there yet to be overcome.

Because this article reiterates to us just how detrimental, elitist, socially harmful, irrelevant and toxically detesable the Bardic Tradition was and remains in the minds of a majority of culturally tolerant, sensitive and inclusive allies and friends of contemporary 21C Poetry.

Merely reminding the guardians and allies of contemporary poetry how the patriarchal bardic anti-culture has no place whatsoever in a forward looking modern world aspiring to full inclusion into the arts and creatively meaningful equality for all regardless of socio-economic background, educational status, religion, ethnicity, gender, or experience in the realm of poetry.

Poetry is something that belongs to all, not just to cultural elites detached from the ordinary citizen and administering their diktats from on high to the little people.

Everything these pseudo-poets of the Medieval patriarchal bardic tradition were, we the people of Ireland and our allies across the world stand proudly and loudly against. The Bardic Tradition is immaterial, pointless, insignificant, and in most ordinary people's opinion, completely unpoetic and very problematic.

Thankfully this is now a long dead and gone Ireland that we the allies and guardians of contemporary poetry urge all to not revisit the texts of because this Men only vehicle of oppressive literature is a reminder of our shared collective cultural wounds.

A culturally painful, emotionally distressing, obnoxiously offensive reminder of our former exclusion, and wholly irrelevant and uninspiring to all today, particularly the right thinking caring kind tolerant and inclusive artistic person striving to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

We the allies and guardians of contemporary poetry have exactly zero interest in this unbalanced and one-sided male tradition. And rightly so.

Any that do claim we should revisit this problematic history that is best forgotten and ignored, or argue that it has any place in contemporary poetry, then these uncaring ignorant voices have no business claiming to speak on behalf or in any way represent the future of poetry.

And if they do, how, when, and wherever it appears their bardic advocacy and mansplaining will be countered and their arguments proven inherently and offensively unsound, inaccurate, erroneous, wholly mistaken and utterly unworkable by the allies and guardians toiling away at the cutting experimental edge in the brave new art of come all ye 21C Poetry.

These divisive and damaging claims that the bardic tradition should be widely read and taught to future Thought Leaders, should be confronted and dismantled in the public square with more rational and calm logical argument and the more admirable, reliable, exceptional and excellently expert ideas of those guardians and allies of literature tasked with making what we serve an inclusive positive cultural force for all who aspire to perform, write and publish their poetry, regardless of socio-economic background, ethnicity, gender, ability, experience, religion, etc.

We the Guardians and Allies of Poetry exist and operate today in the age of democratic people power brought to us by the global communications revolution, which Ireland is central to as the home of tech giants and global corporations recognizing the inclusivity and tolerance of modern Ireland as a place to do business.

And now, unlike in the thankfully long gone days of an Ireland filled with patriarchal bardic bores most are glad have disappeared; one previously excluded lone minority voice that would have remained silent in those dark dank days of the socially stultifying and injurious bardic hierarchy, can now broadcast itself to the world without having to seek the approval or permission of elitist misogynist enforcers of patriarchal literary privilege, and measure its true cultural value instantly in the number of positive reactions to it in like, love and smile icons.

This revolutionary brand new way of determining what is of lasting literary value, being able to accurately gauge the authentic interest a text accrues in the moment of its first utterance and publication, demonstrates how harmful, insignificant, and unrepresentative of the ordinary people the rightly unread writings of the anti-literary bards and socially oppressive pseudo filidh poets really were and are.

For example, as a scientific exercise in deciding that the bardic history of Ireland is vastly overrated and inconsequential to all right thinking peoples in the modern era; some allies and guardians of poetry tweeted out the text of a strict straight dan direach verse poem addressed to Edward III by one of the most cited examples from this painfully upsetting and oppressive patriarchal bardic culture, Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh.

Side by side we tweeted out a poem by Wanda Woomahm, an Activist Poet from Chicago, and fearless all-communities rights advocate using the power of poetry to highlight injustice and demand equality for a slew of underrepresented and excluded causes and communities the tireless work of Wanda Woomahm is conveying agency and giving voice to.

The results were conclusive. Not one positive reaction for the dead white male of patriarchal privilege, only a question from a talented ally: 'What's this crap?' - whilst for Wanda's heartbreaking piece there were tens off smiles, wows, likes, loves and plenty of "OMG!"s and "amazing"s and "this made me cry"s from the modern audience moved to tears by this heartfelt soulful evocation communicating what it means to be an excluded member of an underrepresented marginalized community today in the United States.

Thus proving the contention that the poetry world is a far better place for its friends and allies if the texts of the Bardic Tradition were just erased altogether and replaced with a more inclusive kinder warmer nicer far more caring and profoundly more meaningful brand of poetry we its tolerant wise inclusive allies and guardians promote, praise and publish.

Goodbye.