Poets are known for their mastery of the short form, the lyrical and the rhythmic. But besides their usual poetry, poets are often drawn towards a different form of written expression: manifestos.
Poetry manifestos set aside the conventional use of stanzas and rhyme, to instead describe (in many more words) exactly what poetry should stand for, look like, and even feel like. These manifestos can also be as poetic as… well… poetry. And the political nature of manifestos – think Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto – is not lost in poetry manifestos either.
Here we’ve compiled a list of poetically and politically inclined manifestos, written by an eclectic range of poets and available to read online. Get ready to be inspired, uplifted, and engaged by these declarations on poetry.
We will not be bystanders
“There is a difference between emotional poetry and poetry informed by emotions.”
[ “We will not be bystanders” by Choman Hardi ]
Hardi’s manifesto, first published in 2018, elaborates on the power of poetry as a tool for resistance and truth-telling. “Poetry is not science”, Hardi claims – it’s the art of feeling over understanding. Poetry must be mulled over and given space and time to develop. Above all, this manifesto declares that poetry must be loud.
Hardi is a Kurdish poet whose two published collections, Life for Us (2004) and Considering the Women (2015), turn a critical eye towards repressive systems of patriarchal power.
Manifesto of the Flying Mallet
“Poetry is — as the poet said, though his subject was butterflies — an army of stragglers.”
[ “Manifesto of the Flying Mallet” by Michael Hofmann ]
In this manifesto from 2009, poetry is viewed as a tangled mess, which Hofmann attempts to unpick in an equally tangled fashion. “Poetry is delayed, instant; unending, brief; electric, tiny”, Hofmann insists. This manifesto continually outlines poetry as a paradox, at once nothing and something, good and bad, maximal and minuscule.
A German-born writer – with many awards to his name – Hofmann has been producing poetic and critical writing for over 30 years. His translations of Franz Kafka are his most acclaimed work.
Poetry & Smoke: A Manifesto
“A poetry that sends signals, words that are signs with their smells still attached, a little ash, a little resin, still sticky, still holding onto their scorched antecedents.”
[ “Poetry & Smoke: A Manifesto” by Elaine Sexton ]
Written in 2011, Sexton blurs the line between poem and manifesto in this piece, using meandering imagery to outline the kind of poetry she advocates. “I’m for a poetry that sets out to make something clear, something visually, sonically, spatially pleasing”, Sexton writes – she plays upon the senses to bring her own advocacy to life.
From her base in New York, Sexton has produced three collections of carefully sculpted poetry: Sleuth (2003), Causeway (2008), and Prospect/Refuge (2015).
Somebody who loves me
“From that loving pact, can a poem be choreographed or improvised the way a dance can? Maybe, if it can be inhabited the way a body is…”
[ “Somebody who loves me” by Harmony Holiday ]
Like a stream-of-consciousness, this manifesto from 2018 lets Holiday’s psyche run free. Using rich language, Holiday describes the connection between the body and poetry, specifically speaking upon colonised, diasporic, and black bodies. “If the poem is inside of a syntax that loves it, it cannot help but propel with the grace and rigor of a spinning body”.
Holiday is a poet and author born in Iowa. As the daughter of R&B singer-songwriter Jimmy Holiday, her poetic work seeks to explore black culture, spaces and icons.
Personism: A Manifesto
“But how then can you really care if anybody gets it, or gets what it means, or if it improves them. Improves them for what?”
[ “Personism: A Manifesto” by Frank O’Hara ]
The oldest of the manifestos seen here, O’Hara’s piece introduces the philosophy of Personism. First published in 1961, this comedic “mock” manifesto advocates a new poetic movement, which holds a mirror to the human behind a piece of art: “It puts the poem squarely between the poet and the person […] and the poem is correspondingly gratified”. After all, poetry can’t be taken too seriously.
O’Hara was an American poet writing in the 1950s and 60s, known as the leader of the New York School of Poets. His poetry is celebrated for its immediacy and love of life’s small details.
Jessica Saunders is a graduate from the University of Birmingham, with a First Class (Hons) BA in English Literature and Drama. Find out more at jessicarosesaunders.journoportfolio.com, or on Twitter: @JessicaRoseS_.