The Question of Political Poetry

Part of the problem confronting poets aspiring to write something politically relevant is that the scale of obvious corruption and criminality defy attempts to write something powerful in a way that does not devolve into sarcasm, ranting or the sort of one-dimensional advocacy or propaganda that would be better off as an op-ed column. What angle would one take to write about the Bush administration? Every day brings a new parody of the day before, and I need not look further than the headlines in the New York Times. A perpetual astonishment accompanies the brazenness with which the public trust -- the very idea of a public trust -- is publicly disdained. On television. At nearly any hour of the day. If writers and intellectuals have been accused of being back on their heels (and of course they have for the last eight years and longer) part of the reason is that the degree of incredible outrage rises faster than any individual can process it, and I am left spinning in place with a dizzy fury while the powers that be continue to commit crimes with impunity. What is the appropriate literary response to that? It's hard to even know where to start.