Some lovely lines of Parks’s poetry included here. But those from ‘Jarrow March’ - wow: “or what it means to live without a voice / in this bland, slipshod democracy / we need to reinvent.” They reverberate today.
It seems to me he may have agreed with Orwell that all art is political. Curious whether you think that’s right? Though I also like your point about not pigeon-holing him, because the love poems sound powerful too. Very much enjoyed reading this.
Some lovely lines of Parks’s poetry included here. But those from ‘Jarrow March’ - wow: “or what it means to live without a voice / in this bland, slipshod democracy / we need to reinvent.” They reverberate today.
It seems to me he may have agreed with Orwell that all art is political. Curious whether you think that’s right? Though I also like your point about not pigeon-holing him, because the love poems sound powerful too. Very much enjoyed reading this.
Thanks, Michael.
Yes, I agree with Orwell. Any writer or other artist's work is surely coloured - consciously or not - by their viewpoint.